City Ballet Names Chief to Oversee Business 
by Julie Bloom
November 16, 2009
The New York Times

In a reflection of the challenges many arts companies are facing, including a need to develop new audiences and balance the books, New York City Ballet on Monday announced that it was creating an executive director position to oversee all nonartistic matters and named Katherine E. Brown, chief operating officer of the public radio station WNYC, to the job.

Ms. Brown, who will start her new job on Dec. 14, will oversee fund-raising, finances, marketing, media and education, responsibilities previously held by Peter Martins, the company’s ballet master in chief. Ms. Brown will report directly to the board.

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Atlanta Ballet Names New Executive Director 
by Pierre Ruhe
November 23, 2009
artscriticATL.com

Atlanta Ballet is set to announce its new executive director: Arthur Jacobus, former boss of Seattle's Pacific Northwest Ballet and the San Francisco Ballet. His most recent job was as CEO and executive director of Pilchuck Glass School in Seattle, founded by celebrated glassmaker Dale Chihuly.

Jacobus has served as chief executive of six major arts organizations across the country, and has been a board member of DanceUSA, a national service organization. He will take charge of the 80-year-old Atlanta Ballet in January.

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USArtists International Announces First Round Grants
November 16, 2009

Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation is pleased to announce the first round grantees for the 2009-2010 USArtists International ("USAI") program, the only national initiative solely dedicated to ensuring that the impressive range of expression of the performing arts in the United States is represented abroad. The program works to strengthen the creative and professional development of American dance, music and theatre artists by providing grants to support their performances around the world at significant international festivals and engagements that represent extraordinary career opportunities.

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Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Launches New Registry of Fellowship Artists
November 23, 2009

Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation is pleased to announce the launch of a new, on-line registry of artist fellowship winners from Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, U.S. Virgin Islands, Virginia, and West Virginia. The service, which is free to both artists and public users, features artist profiles, work samples across all disciplines, online exhibitions, and a technical assistance section. The Mid Atlantic Artist Registry is fully searchable allowing the public user to find vetted artists quickly and easily by state, discipline, or name.

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Living in the Past, Present, and Future
Fall 2009
NEA Arts

As choreographers/dancers in the traditional arts, Pandit Chitresh Das and Sophiline Cheam Shapiro have feet in the past as well as the future. Both lead dance companies in their respective cultures, and both work in their native countries as well as in the U.S., where they are now based. Shapiro revives the 1,000- year-old tradition that was nearly destroyed when the despotic Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia in the 1970s, yet adapts Cambodian dance to Shakespeare's Othello and Mozart's The Magic Flute. Das performs the Kathak dance that originated in northern India and achieved its greatest heights in the 15th-16th centuries, but also has collaborated and toured with Jason Samuels Smith, an African-American tap dancer.

In July 2009, Folk and Traditional Arts Director Barry Bergey and Audio Producer Josephine Reed interviewed Shapiro and Das -- both 2009 NEA National Heritage Fellows -- while they were performing and teaching in their respective homelands of Cambodia and India. An excerpt of the nearly two-hour discussion is below.

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Breaking pointe: 'The Nutracker' takes more than it gives to the world of ballet 
by Sarah Kaufman
November 22, 2009
The Washington Post

Come the twilight of the year, the deathless "Nutcracker" begins its march across American stages, bearing tidings of comfort and joy.

Oh, goody.

Yet to those of us who despair of its pervading tweeness and wish ballet had something better to do at this time of year than endlessly reminisce like a sweet, whiskery auntie, it bears some bad news, too. "The Nutcracker's" stranglehold is all but squeezing ballet dry.

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Dance Dialogues: Conversations Across Cultures, Artforms and Practices 

Jointly published by the Australian Dance Council – Ausdance Inc and Queensland University of Technology, these Refereed Proceedings include 53 papers from 14 countries in the Americas, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, reflecting both the spirit and diversity of the Global Summit. From seasoned scholars to emerging artists publishing for the first time, these authors span the perspectives of academics, educators, performance and community artists, health professionals and cognitive scientists; predominantly from dance but also from film, visual arts, science, performance and philosophy. The papers cover the five broad Summit themes: Re-thinking the way we make Dance; Re-thinking the way we teach Dance; Mind/body connections; Transcultural conversations and Sustainability.

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Trisha Brown and John R. Killacky in Conversation 
November 17, 2009
Voice of Dance

Trisha Brown and John Killacky engage in a conversation at Dartmouth's Hopkins Center for the Arts about Ms. Brown's residency and collaboration with a collection of Robert Rauschenberg prints.

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Lord of the Dance: Sergey Diaghilev
by Simon Callow
November 14, 2009
The Guardian

In the theatre, there is a distinction to be made between an impresario and a producer. Sergey Diaghilev was both. He produced the work – that is to say, he raised the money, hired the artists and the craftsmen and ensured that the show opened on time – and he did all this superbly. But what has made him legendary is that he also created the conditions in which the work was initiated, he prepared the public for it, and he made sure that when it was done, it was the cynosure of the artistic world.

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