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April 29, 2009

1. The ballet vote is in... 2. She kissed a girl...

by Tom Strini
March 31, 2009
Journal Sentinel

In a live and online vote, Milwaukee Ballet fans voted the $500 audience choice award to Tim O'Donnell, for his "The Games We Play." O'Donnell, Maurice Causey and Cameron McMillan were the finalists in the Milwaukee Ballet's Genesis International Choreography Competition, held March 26-29 at the Pabst Theater.

The company released the results of the audience poll today (Tuesday March 31). That made it a sweep for O'Donnell, a 23-year-old dancer in the West Australia Ballet. Saturday, the three professional judges awarded him the $3,000 prize for first place. That means we'll see O'Donnell next year, as the winner is always invited back to create a second piece for the company.

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Frankie Manning, the Ambassador and Master of Lindy Hop, Dies at 94

by Terry Monaghan
April 28, 2009
The New York Times

Frankie Manning, a master of swing-era dance who went from the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem to Broadway and Hollywood, and then after a long break enjoyed a globe-trotting second career as an inspirational teacher and choreographer of the Lindy hop, died on Monday in Manhattan. He was 94 and lived in Corona, Queens.

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Famed Bolshoi Ballerina Maximova dies at age 70

by Lynn Berry
April 28, 2009
Associated Press

Legendary Russian ballerina Ekaterina Maximova, who graced the stage of the Bolshoi Theater for 30 years, died Tuesday. She was 70.

The theater said Maximova died at home and no cause of death was immediately determined. She had been working as a ballet coach and was not known to be suffering from ill health.

Ballet directors and President Dmitry Medvedev praised Maximova's work as an artist and a teacher of young ballerinas, and mourned her death as a great loss to Russia.

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Excerpt from "On Our Minds", a publication featuring WolfBrown consultants

Wanna Dance?
by Alan Brown

Dance has been on my mind a lot lately as important findings about dance seem to pop out of our research efforts on a regular basis. A study of Dallas public school children commissioned by Big Thought found broad interest in many forms of dance among young people. Is dance a way to address parents’ worry about lack of physical activity? Despite what could be called a perfect storm of interest in dance, it is often the last form of arts instruction offered in schools. It is not just kids who want to dance, adults want to dance too. A recent study we conducted for The James Irvine Foundation found that a third of adults in several inland regions of California would like to take dance lessons, and just last month we released a study of Philadelphia adults for the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance which found that the most frequent form of dance participation is ‘watching television programs about dance.’ Like it or not, dance has jumped to the forefront of public consciousness. Will leaders in the cultural sector allow this moment to pass us by, or can we manage a strategic response? How can this energy be harnessed? Last month, Dance/USA, with support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, announced a new grant program to support the development of innovative approaches to Engaging Dance Audiences, which WolfBrown will help to assess. Until we can bridge the gap between personal practice (dancing) and attendance (watching dance), the professional dance field will not benefit from the groundswell of interest in dance, and the public will not benefit from the great artistry of the dance field.

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Louisville Ballet

by Andrew Adler
April 19, 2009
Courier-Journal

"We are looking at everything," Louisville Ballet Executive Director Dwight Hutton says of his company's economic strategies. "Our focus is to keep as intact as we can — we've made a huge investment in repertoire, and we're trying to protect that as much as we can."

Nowhere is that more apparent than in the entirely new production of "The Brown-Forman 'Nutcracker,'" which the company will unveil in December. Because of the additional rehearsal time needed, the ballet is dropping the second of its customary fall presentations.

Although there's an administrative hiring freeze, the number of company dancers will remain the same as during the just-concluded season, Hutton says. Indeed, "We had a record number of auditions this year."

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Ballet Sheds a Dozen More Dancers
New artistic director is dissolving Nevada Ballet Theatre’s star-centered structure

by Joe Brown
April 15, 2009
Las Vegas Sun

Many of Nevada Ballet Theatre’s dancers — including last remaining principal dancers Zeb Nole and Racheal Hummel-Nole — danced passionately during their Friday and Saturday season-ending performances, knowing that these would be their last steps with the company.

Before the two “American Masters” programs at UNLV’s Artemus Ham Hall, more than a dozen dancers were informed by newly appointed Artistic Director James Canfield and Executive Director Beth Barbre that they would not be reengaged for the 2009-2010 season.

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