Challenges Of Small Dance Companies Meeting Artistic And Administrative Demands

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Byrd-McPhee
Keyword(s):  
Dance Companies

Serge Lifar and the Question of Collaboration with the German Authorities under the Occupation of Paris (1940–1949)

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 218-257
Author(s):  
Mark Franko
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Paris Opera ◽  
Dance Companies

This article examines the political and artistic activities of dancer and choreographer Serge Lifar at the Paris Opéra during and immediately after the occupation of Paris. Although Lifar was cleared of charges of collaborationism with the German authorities after the war, the question of collaborationism has arisen again in light of the rehabilitation of his aesthetic by the Paris Opéra and other dance companies. Using archival materials usually ignored by dance scholars, this article examines Lifar's political activities, his political convictions, and his political ambitions. His theory of ballet as set forth in La Danse: les grands courants de la danse académique (1938) and two of his successful ballets of this period – Joan de Zarissa (1942) and Suite en blanc (1943) – are discussed in light of his politics.

Staging the Folk: Choreographic Issues of National Representation

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-246
Author(s):  
Anthony Shay
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Folk Dance ◽  
Ethnic Representation ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The World ◽  
Classical Ballet ◽  
Dance Companies

This article looks at the multiple ways that folk dance has been staged in both the nineteenth century when character or national (the two terms were used interchangeably) dance was widely used in classical ballet, and the twentieth in which Igor Moiseyev created a new genre of dance related to it. The ballet masters that created character dance for ballet often created ballroom dances based on folk origin, but that would be suitable for the urban population. This popularity of national dance was the result of the burgeoning of romantic nationalism that swept Europe after the French Revolution. Beginning in the 1930s with Igor Moiseyev founding the first professional ‘folk dance’ company for the Soviet Union, nation states across the world established large, state-supported folk dance companies for purposes of national and ethnic representation that dominated the stages of the world for the second half of the twentieth century. These staged versions of folk dance, were, I argue an extension of nineteenth century national/character dance because their founding directors, like Igor Moiseyev, came from the era when ballet dancers were trained in that genre.

“Ballet” is a Dirty Word

2021 ◽  
pp. 373-388
Author(s):  
Henrique Rochelle
Keyword(s):  
Public Interest ◽  
Strong Influence ◽  
Modern Dance ◽  
Sao Paulo ◽  
São Paulo ◽  
The Past ◽  
Dance Training ◽  
Professional Dance ◽  
Dance Companies ◽  
The City

Professional dancing in São Paulo, Brazil, developed from the 1950s on, with a constant and strong influence from modern dance. As modernism looked disapprovingly at ballet, seeing it as something from the past, prejudice grew in the city toward the form. Directors and choreographers of dance companies currently speak about ballet and contemporary ballet as something that is done, but always by others, never themselves. Even the word “ballet” is avoided, since it seems to diminish the works being discussed, as it became something strictly associated with dance training, and not professional dance. This chapter investigates the roots of ballet in São Paulo, discussing both its origins and the origins of its rejection, while pointing to the recent indications of its newfound public interest.

National Endowment for the Arts

1978 ◽  
Vol 8 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 110-110
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
National Endowment ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Dance Companies

The National Endowment for the Arts awards grants for projects related to the arts, and makes grants to museums, theatres, dance companies, and educational institutions in the United States to help support and improve their programs. Because of the Endowment's organization it was not possible to compile a list of Africa-related grants.

Kankouran West African Dance Company, Washington, D.C.

2019 ◽  
pp. 104-113
Author(s):  
William Serrano-Franklin
Keyword(s):  
Community Development ◽  
West African ◽  
African Dance ◽  
Educational Vision ◽  
Dance Company ◽  
West African Dance ◽  
Dance Companies ◽  
The One ◽  
Artistic Director ◽  
The U.S

Amaniyea Payne, dancer/choreographer and Artistic Director of Muntu Dance Theatre, offers her reflections on Muntu’s more than four decades in Chicago, Illinois. There, in mid-west U.S.A., Muntu shines a bright and powerful light on African dance, due in major part to its artistic and educational vision, which has been influenced by Payne’s artistic research and global dance connections. Her research and artistic experiences display the seminal connections among Diaspora dance artists, highlighting their similar concerns regarding education of African, diasporic, and non-African peoples. Payne and Muntu exemplify the characteristic duality of professional African-based dance companies in the U.S.: on the one hand, she and the company develop and present fascinating, contemporary choreographies using traditional African vocabularies and on the other hand, they are enmeshed in educational projects and neighborhood and community development through dance.

Complementary Training for Dancers

2021 ◽  
pp. 279-295
Author(s):  
Bárbara Pessali-Marques ◽  
Mariana Inocêncio Matos ◽  
Nefeli Tsiouti
Keyword(s):  
Training Programs ◽  
Injury Rate ◽  
Specific Training ◽  
Essential Aspect ◽  
Vast Literature ◽  
Dance Companies ◽  
Physical Capacities

The influence of complementary training on dancers' performance is well stated in the literature. Just the dance practice is insufficient to develop the required physical capacities and prepare dancers to dance. Although the training's specificity is an essential aspect of performance, the prescription of such training is challenged by how dance is conducted nowadays. Dance companies are increasingly appealing to dancers to perform different styles and varied movement repertoire. Each dance modality has its specificities that require specific training, and thus complementary training is essential for maintaining a healthy dance career. Despite the vast literature reinforcing the need for complementary training to increase performance and decrease dancers' injury rate, only a few specific training programs for dancers were found to the best of the authors' knowledge. This chapter aims to describe the development of three methods: best performance and movement (BPM), the breakalign methodology, and power ballet original.

Dupuy, Françoise née Michaud (1925--) and Dupuy, Dominique (1930--)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanja Andus L’Hotellier
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Training ◽  
Publishing House ◽  
Modern Dance ◽  
Training Institution ◽  
Contemporary Dance ◽  
Teacher Training Institution ◽  
Dance Companies ◽  
Study Center

Françoise and Dominique Dupuy are French dancers, teachers, choreographers, and writers who met in Paris in 1946 and were married in 1951. Along with Jacqueline Robinson, Karin Waehner, and Jerome Andrews, they are key figures in the development of modern dance in France. In 1955 they founded Les Ballets Modernes de Paris (BMP), one of France’s first modern dance companies and initiated a collaboration of more than six decades as members of Jean Weidt’s company, Ballets des Arts. Prolific writers as well as choreographers, in 1969 they founded Rencontres Internationales de Danse Contemporaine (International Encounters of Contemporary Dance, RIDC), a pioneering teacher training institution, and in 1996 Le Mas de la Danse (Provençal House of Dance), a research and study center for contemporary dance as well as a publishing house. Une Danse à l’œuvre, a co-authored collection of essays on their dance practice, was published in 2001. They continue to explore the themes of heritage, memory, and the aging dancer.

Uthoff, Ernst (1904–1993)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sydney Jane Norton
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
Contemporary Dance ◽  
Dance Theater ◽  
Dance Training ◽  
Big City ◽  
Professional Dance ◽  
Dance Companies ◽  
The University ◽  
A Company

Ernst Uthoff was a German-born dancer, choreographer, and company director who received his dance training from two pioneers of Tanztheater (dance-theater): Kurt Jooss and Sigurd Leeder. He was one of the original members of the Folkwang-Tanzbühne (Folkwang Dance Stage), a company that Jooss and Leeder co-founded in 1927, and Uthoff created and performed several important roles for Jooss. As a performer he is best known for his roles of the Standard Bearer in The Green Table (1932) and the Libertine in Big City (1932). In 1934 Uthoff fled Nazi Germany together with his wife, the Hungarian dancer Lola Botka, Jooss, and other company members. The troupe settled at Dartington Hall in England, where its dancers opened a Jooss–Leeder school and performed under the name Ballets Jooss. Ballets Jooss toured South America in 1941, during which time the Chilean government invited Uthoff, Botka, and solo dancer Rudolf Pescht to remain in Chile to establish a school of contemporary dance. The three settled in Santiago that same year, co-founding the Escuela de Danzas (School of Dance). Soon after, Uthoff, Botka, and Pescht established the Ballet Nacional Chileno (National Ballet of Chile), a state-financed company based at the University of Chile in Santiago. Ballet Nacional Chileno was one of Chile’s first nationally sponsored professional dance companies, and it is still flourishing today.

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