A Canadian judge has ordered the National Ballet of Canada to reinstate principal dancer Kimberly Glasco, who was dismissed by the company earlier this season. James Kudelka, the ballet's artistic director, said that Glasco wasn't dancing as well as she once did and that she didn't fit with his artistic vision. They did a beautiful performance at Zellerbach on Sunday afternoon. The Royal Ballet has lost its special appeal and cutting-edge choreography, according to former dancer Lynn Seymour who called the company a cult of mediocrity. Simply wallpapering over the cracks with fashionable outside choreographers will not solve the malaise at the heart of the company.
Urgent reform is needed.
A new book about Diaghilev's Ballet Russes by a widely published dance critic and historian, and supposedly one of the foremost authorities on the period is cause for celebration. Surprising then, that she has left herself wide-open to criticism by sweeping generalizations and inaccurate reporting in her personal contributions, a collection of essays which confuse rather than clarify the impact of Diaghilev, the Russian genius who changed the whole concept of ballet in the last century. Dancer takes on the guys in juvenile detention and they go for it. In here, we don't get to jump around. Because we've got to get along with other people when we are dancing, it also helps us do that when we aren't dancing.