Tuesday 21 June 2011

Dance magic dance

Every so often I like to dip my toe in a different world - well, my reading toe, anyway ...

Dancers and their hair - I never realised it was such a big deal

Miranda Weese, a former principal at both City Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet, experimented with different lengths and layers to lighten the bulk of her hair. “I had to learn ways to put it up so that I didn’t pull it so tight, because I was literally balding in the front,” she said.

Ms. Weese eventually added bangs; her reasoning was that she could pull them back more gently after the rest of her hair was up. Once, she recalled, a concerned Rosemary Dunleavy, the company’s balletmistress, approached her backstage and said: “You’re not going to wear the bangs are you? Because I think it would make you look like a little dog.”

Taking Romeo and Juliet to the stadium, big screens, popcorn, early exits and all

“I’m so pleased that it’s so popular,” said Jo Moon, 42, an advertising executive who was standing in the refreshment line during intermission. “I like how people from all walks of life can come here and be themselves, with no airs and graces.”

But her companion Anja Tita, 40, said that while that was well and good, the lack of airs and graces meant that many people seemed to have no compunction about rudely taking their seats even after the dancing had begun. (Even more rudely, there was a rush for the exits even as the last scene was taking place.)

All aflutter over Twitter at the New York City Ballet, who are introducing a social media policy

the policy would require dancers to include a disclaimer specifying that their comments are not employer-sanctioned, according to a copy of a draft reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

It would also ban them from disclosing another dancer's injury or illness, and from posting photographs of company events, or of "persons engaged in New York City Ballet business without their consent."



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