Author: Jessica Wilson

Audiences will soon be able to experience the Tony® Award-winning musical NEWSIES in cinemas for the first time this month, when it makes its cinema debut in the UK, Germany, Australia and New Zealand, following a cinema launch in the US. Produced by Disney Theatrical Productions, the show is based on the 1992 film: it went on to become Disney’s single most requested title to be adapted for the stage.

NEWSIES, the Broadway Musical, features a Tony® Award-winning score with music by eight-time Academy Award® winner Alan Menken (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin) and lyrics by Jack Feldman, and Tony Award-winning choreography by Christopher Gattelli. The production was inspired by the ‘Newsboy Strike of 1899’. It is set in New York City at the turn of the century and tells the tale of newsboy Jack Kelly, a charismatic and rebellious leader of a group of “newsies” who dreams of a life far from the hardship of the streets. When publishing titans raise distribution prices at the newsboys’ expense, Jack rallies his newsies to strike.

NEWSIES played on Broadway from March 2012–August 2014 and went on to tour the US from October 2014–October 2016. It is set to delight audiences in cinemas across the globe, especially with Jeremy Jordan (Supergirl, The Last 5 Years) reprising his Tony Award-nominated performance as Jack Kelly.

Disney Theatrical Productions, a division of The Walt Disney Studios, was formed in 1994. Worldwide, its nine Broadway titles have been seen by over 160 million theatergoers and have been nominated for 59 Tony Awards®, winning Broadway’s highest honour 20 times. With more than 20 productions currently produced or licensed, a Disney musical is being performed professionally somewhere on the planet essentially every hour of the day.

Recently the Royal Ballet School launched a unique and exciting online project that traces the story of the founding of a national ballet in Britain, through specially curated collections. Named The Ballet History Timeline, it is a new, interactive online tool that relates to the wider history of classical ballet as a theatre art form.

The Timeline was created by the School to mark the 90th year since it was founded by Dame Ninette de Valois in 1926, building on historical content originally developed for the Julia Farron Ballet Resource Centre, an information database formerly located in White Lodge Museum (2009-15). The Timeline is an ongoing project, beginning in the 1860s and continuing through to 1956, the year in which Dame Ninette de Valois’ school and companies were awarded a Royal Charter.

The timeline will eventually extend both further back and forwards so that more of the material held in The Royal Ballet School Special Collections can be explored online. Set out as linear chronology, the Timeline is illustrated by archival material from The Royal Ballet School Special Collections, now within its proper historical context. The Timeline works on both desktop and mobile devices but, due to the extent of the materials, is best viewed on a desktop.

The Timeline currently features nearly 750 images of items held in The Royal Ballet School Special Collections: nearly 67,000 words and detailed image captions. This Ballet History Timeline will be a hugely useful interactive reference, as well as an inspiring, free educational resource for students of dance studies.

The Royal Ballet School, as a centre of classical ballet training, has for generations produced dancers and choreographers of international renown – from Margot Fonteyn, Antoinette Sibley, Anthony Dowell, Anya Linden, Darcey Bussell and Kenneth MacMillan, to a new generation currently making its mark on the world stage – Lauren Cuthbertson, Steven McRae, Edward Watson and Christopher Wheeldon to name but a few.

Russell Maliphant Company is set to restage classic and early dance pieces as part of maliphantworks, at the Print Room at the Coronet. It is one of few venues in West London to produce and present dance work; this co-production with Russell Maliphant Company sees the venue’s regular spring dance slot being filled for 2017 by one of the world’s most acclaimed choreographers.

Opening on 28 February, maliphantworks will include modern dance classic Two; Afterlight (Part One); The Wall Duet from The Rodin Project and Unspoken. It will be restaged and performed by a host of Maliphant’s past and present collaborators, reunited from across the world. The works span his hugely celebrated 25 year career, and the staging of these will see Maliphant’s Print Room at the Coronet debut with the site-responsive return to some of his early work, inspired by the intimate Victorian theatre in Notting Hill. maliphantworks will feature the return of some of his original dancers, and a community outreach programme will run in conjunction, supported by DanceWest.

Maliphant will perform in Unspoken with James de Maria, 20 years after the pair first danced the duet, and marking de Maria’s return to the stage after 16 years. Daniel Proietto will dance Afterlight (Part One), for which he was Olivier Award-nominated in 2010. The international award-winning Dana Fouras will dance Two, which Maliphant choreographed for her in 1997, Olivier Award-nominated Tommy Franzen will bring his eclectic dance style to the duet The Wall, with Dickson Mbi renowned for his strength and incredible popping style.

Print Room at the Coronet and Russell Maliphant Company have partnered with DanceWest to increase audience access and diversity for this and future dance productions, the community dance organisation for West London. It will support new audiences in connecting to dance, by providing access to classes, projects and performances in addition to this world-class and unique evening of performance.

The Dance Section of the Critics’ Circle recently announced the winners of the 17th National Dance Awards, with many successes. Legendary ballet dancer Dame Beryl Grey won the De Valois award for outstanding achievement, and English National Ballet won the outstanding company prize. With so many up and coming dancers included in the nominations list the decisions must have been difficult ones. Other successes included the following:

DANCING TIMES AWARD FOR BEST MALE DANCER – Chase Johnsey

Nominated:
Tobias Batley (Northern Ballet)
Alexander Campbell (The Royal Ballet)
Chase Johnsey (Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo)
Vadim Muntagirov (The Royal Ballet)
Liam Riddick (Richard Alston Dance Company)

GRISHKO AWARD FOR BEST FEMALE DANCER – Francesca Hayward

Nominated:
Francesca Hayward (The Royal Ballet)
Ekaterina Krysanova (Bolshoi Ballet)
Laura Morera (The Royal Ballet)
Tamara Rojo (English National Ballet)
Zenaida Yanowsky (The Royal Ballet)

OUTSTANDING FEMALE PERFORMANCE (MODERN) – Ching-Ying Chien

Nominated:
Ching-Ying Chien (for Akram Khan Company)
Marivi Da Silva (for Denada Dance Theatre)
Christine Joy Ritter (for Akram Khan Company)
Hannah Kidd (for Mark Bruce Company)
Vidya Patel (for Richard Alston Dance Company)

OUTSTANDING MALE PERFORMANCE (MODERN) – Jonathon Young

Nominated:
Miguel Altunaga (for Rambert)
Daniel Collins (for The Old Vic/The Mconie Company)
Akram Khan (for Akram Khan Company)
Liam Riddick (for Richard Alston Dance Company)
Jonathon Young (for Kidd Pivot/Electric Company Theatre

OUTSTANDING FEMALE PERFORMANCE (CLASSICAL) – Zenaida Yanowsky

Nominated:
Francesca Hayward (for The Royal Ballet)
Ekaterina Krysanova (for Bolshoi Ballet)
Martha Leebolt (for Northern Ballet)
Tamara Rojo (for English National Ballet)
Zenaida Yanowsky (for The Royal Ballet)

OUTSTANDING MALE PERFORMANCE (CLASSICAL) – Cesar Corrales

Nominated:
Tobias Batley (for Northern Ballet)
Cesar Corrales (for English National Ballet)
Chase Johnsey (for Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo)
Vladislav Lantratov (for Bolshoi Ballet)
Irek Mukhamedov (for English National Ballet)

 

So You Think You Can Dance will soon be back for a 14th season this summer, returning to its original format of featuring adult dancers between the ages of 18-30. The programme, now an Emmy Award winner, dabbled in the featuring of younger dancers, however it is now back to its original focus on older dancers.

Back in September, a 14 year old dancer was named the winner during the live two-hour season finale, the show’s youngest winner. Here SYTYCD reportedly had more than 180 million video views on social media last season and the series celebrated its 250th episode.

The format will remain the same as previously aired for older performers; the dancers will showcase their talents in various dance styles, including contemporary, tap, hip-hop, ballroom, animation, breaking and more. The Top 10 dancers will be paired up with All-Stars who will guide them throughout the competition as they bid for votes and the title of America’s Favourite Dancer. It has been clear from the programme’s audience that the preference for dancers is older, returning to this hugely successful past format.

This season, all potential contestants must register online, and upload a video or provide a link to a performance of theirs. If selected, producers will then schedule the contestant for an in-person audition in one of the two audition cities: New York or Los Angeles, in March. Applicants must register for a chance to audition by 19 February, and full eligibility rules and additional details can be found online.

Over its 13 seasons, SYTYCD has received 55 Emmy Award nominations and garnered 14 Emmy Award wins. The hit series also received a Teen Choice Award in 2006 and a Television Critics Association Award in 2012 for Outstanding Achievement in Reality Programming.

The annual Dance on Camera Festival recently took place, co-presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Centre and Dance Films Association. Kicking off at the beginning of the month, the line up of films was full of favourites from the dance world, bringing together an eclectic mix of pop legend Justin Timberlake, swing dance, a ballet school for the blind and a modern dance infusion from Martha Graham for its audiences.

Opening night saw the premiere of Anatomy of a Male Ballet Dancer, a much-anticipated portrait of revered American Ballet Theatre principal Marcelo Gomes, in addition to a Q&A with Gomes and the filmmakers. A short film also shown , Our Five Senses, featured dancer/choreographer Selene Muñoz with New York City Ballet’s Ask la Cour and Amar Ramasar, and that was without a further photo exhibition and Virtual Reality installation.

The closing night programme was also set to impress. In the Steps of Trisha Brown is a documentary following the staging of Brown’s Glacial Decoy at the Paris Opéra Ballet, and Between Stephen and Yvonne was also shown. As a short film in the form of a conversation about Brown – between postmodernists Stephen Petronio and Yvonne Rainer – it is necessary viewing for any fan of Brown’s postmodernist work.

In the Steps of Trisha Brown takes a look at the dancers of Paris Opéra Ballet and their learning to perform Brown’s grounded work. Modern and contemporary dance can be hard for classical dancers to adjust to at first but benefits their repertoire hugely. The film features much archival footage of Trisha in action, creating the movement all the way to a performance. The film is paramount in understanding her work and the importance of passing it from dancer to dancer.

Airbnb has started to let travellers get to know the places they visit, not only by staying in a home away from home in the traditional sense of using the service, but also by experiencing the destination with local people who share their interests. With the launch of its new Experiences section, Airbnb’s intriguing new offering is consequently the chance to get a behind the scenes look at favourite dance companies, for example, but is ultimately the chance to experience any interest further.

Airbnb’s hometown of San Francisco has seen San Francisco Ballet become one of the first dance companies to sign up to be involved. The Ballet experience is hosted by former San Francisco Ballet soloist Pauli Magierek, who will meet travellers at the War Memorial Opera House and take them straight to the barre for a beginner/intermediate ballet class taught by a San Francisco Ballet faculty member. Travellers can then attend a performance, drink champagne and eat chocolates at intermission, and afterwards go backstage to meet a dancer or two for an insider perspective after the show. A pair of autographed pointe shoes will also be thrown in!

Over in the States, the two-day experience costs $250 per person, but because this is one of Airbnb’s Social Impact Experiences, 100 percent of what is paid will go directly to San Francisco Ballet. This will help disadvantaged children and their families attend a performance of the company’s Nutcracker at no cost.

For something a little more contemporary, for a $125 fee there is also a three hour Move on Market Street experience at Alonzo King LINES Ballet, hosted by the company’s community and teen programme coordinator. Travellers will be able to glimpse a rehearsal or composition exercise with either the company or student dancers at LINES Dance Centre, before a private Pilates class. In the art of giving back, the fee will support the continuation of the contemporary ballet company’s work.

Stage fright can creep up on any dancer, from amateur to professional! It may not seem like a common ailment when dancers look so composed and confident on stage, however the feeling can develop over time or simply be managed well. It can affect dancers of any genre in any dance company, and can also affect singers and actors. Everyone and anyone can experience stage fright at some point while they are performing.

For dancers specifically stage fright could mean you can’t remember the steps or are frightened to go onto the stage, and it can cause stress and extreme emotions. The fear experienced is a rational emotion, due to the high levels of stress and anxiety that performance can incite. The body’s pre-programmed stress response means it can enter a different physical state and sometimes even a different psychological state, distracting the dancer from what they intend to do and cause doubt and fear.

Stage fright can be strange and confusing: dancers love to dance, which is why they do it. Dancing normally includes performing on a stage, so it is unclear as to why stage fright is a condition experienced by many. Many dancers treat themselves badly because of stage fright as to them it appear irrational – they have rehearsed for hours, warmed up, practised hard, and are then frightened to step onto the stage.

To combat stage fright it can help to visualise yourself outside your body at the side of the stage, taking everything in and imagining the worst case scenario, and what can be done to overcome this. Remember how much you love to dance and perform once you are on stage and once the performance is over: the feelings of stage fright are only in the wings. Once you step onto the stage you can dance and enjoy yourself.