Отиде си от този свят Игор Мойсеев…

Отиде си един хореограф, който винаги е бил пример за нас, хората, работещи в областта на традиционния танцов фолклор.

Поклон пред светлата му памет.

Ето и съобщението на AFP:

Russian folk choreographer Moiseyev buried in Moscow

MOSCOW (AFP) — Igor Moiseyev, a legendary Russian choreographer who fused ballet with folk dance, was buried Wednesday in Moscow’s most celebrated cemetery.

A funeral for Moiseyev, who died November 2 at the age of 101, was held at the Christ the Saviour cathedral in the centre of the Russian capital. The culture minister, Alexander Sokolov, and others from Russia’s arts scene, attended, RIA Novosti news agency reported.

Moiseyev was then buried at the Novodevichye cemetery, which is the last resting place for dozens of famous Russian and Soviet figures, including former Russian president Boris Yeltsin who died in April.

Described as a „genius and an innovator“ by the New York Times on his 100th birthday, Moiseyev died of heart failure.

He was born in Kiev on January 21, 1906, and formed the „Moiseyev Ballet“ in Moscow at the height of Stalin’s purges after several years dancing for the Bolshoi Ballet.

His idea of forming a school to focus on the dances of different ethnic groups in the Soviet Union received the personal approval of Soviet prime minister Vyacheslav Molotov.

Moiseyev travelled across the Soviet Union, from the Caucasus to the Ural Mountains, collecting material for his repertoire.

A disciple of the avant-garde choreographer Kasyan Goleizovsky, Moiseyev transformed the dances, infusing them with classical ballet techniques.

‘Dancing makes me happy’

KELLY APTER

IT’S A hot, humid afternoon in West London, and

is reminiscing. Every available shelf and wall space in her living room is covered with theatrical memorabilia, each one with a story attached. Suddenly, the clouds unleash a torrent of rain and Payne-Myers jumps to her feet. „My washing,“ she cries, climbing on to a table and leaping out of the window, on to a small roof terrace. Moments later she reappears, clutching an armful of laundry, and hops nimbly back into the room. None of which would be remotely exceptional, but for the fact that Payne-Myers will be 80 next March.

There aren’t many octogenarians who can boast the agility of a cat – but then Payne-Myers is unique in many ways. As a dancer and actress, she has had a career spanning 60 years, and it’s not over yet. About to make her Edinburgh Fringe debut in Muscular Memory Lane, a duet with choreographer, Matthew Hawkins, Payne-Myers has scant regard for the word „retirement“. „People assume I’ve retired,“ she says. „But once a dancer, always a dancer. Just like a painter or singer, you’ll always paint or sing and keep creating.“

As she runs through her mental book of memories, peppering each chapter with vivid images, it’s clear that Payne-Myers has led an extraordinary life. Born in Darlington in 1928 to Scottish parents (a surgeon father from Stornoway and teacher mother from Ayrshire) Payne-Myers started dancing aged six. „My ballet teacher would give lessons to the young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret during the week, then teach us at the weekend,“ she recalls. „I remember being quite proud of that.“

Growing up during the Second World War, a career in dancing seemed impossible, so Payne-Myers headed for secretarial college. But a move to London turned her head sufficiently. „We went dancing in nightclubs every night, and it was such fun that I thought there must be more to life than being a secretary,“ she says. „Then I met a girl who danced with Rambert and she told me that, at 20, I wasn’t too old to become a dancer.“ Accepted into both the Rambert school and company, Payne-Myers embarked on a diverse career that would encompass ballet, contemporary dance, performance art and West End musicals.

In the 1950s she was a jazz dancer on the ITV programme, Cool for Cats – a predecessor to Top of the Pops. She also spent three weeks at the Pavilion in Glasgow, performing alongside Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. More recently, she has performed with English National Opera and DV8. Nothing, it would seem, fazes this exceptional lady – as DV8’s 2003 show, Living Costs, at Tate Modern ably proved.

Asked by DV8 director, Lloyd Newson, to sit naked in the gallery next to a sign saying „please touch“, Payne-Myers didn’t bat an eyelid – literally. „I had to sit completely still,“ she says. „People touched me if they wanted to, and each touch and caress was so respectful. But then one night, a young man stuck his finger up my nose, which I thought was horrible – but I remained still.“

Given her propensity to move almost constantly, it’s hard to imagine Payne-Myers in a state of stillness. Throughout our time together, she never stops – jumping up to perform a graceful ballet move or dig out an old theatre programme – often with a cigarette in her hand. Like many dancers, Payne-Myers has smoked all her life, with seemingly no repercussions. Sadly, her husband’s constitution was less strong. Her marriage to writer Peter Myers (the man behind Cliff Richard’s 1960s films, The Young Ones and Summer Holiday) ended in 1978, when he died of diabetes, aged 55.

Payne-Myers has never remarried, ploughing her efforts into her career and two children – one of whom was responsible for her return to the stage after a long absence.

„My son became a dancer and was right in the middle of the dance world,“ she says. „So I was back meeting friends I hadn’t seen for years, and being asked to do things. I became accepted by a different generation, and because I was healthy and loved dancing I’ve continued doing it. Dancing is good for me, it makes me happy.“

Her Fringe show with Hawkins was devised for exactly that purpose – to keep her in good mental health. Muscular Memory Lane uses Hawkins’s special choreographic style, which helps keep the mind focused. „Diana was interested in what this project would do for her mind, in terms of stitching it together a bit,“ explains Hawkins. „She feels as if she’s going a bit batty – but aren’t we all? The choreographic methods I use trigger memory and help with areas of cognition which dancers are in touch with, because they need to remember combinations.“

For Payne-Myers, attending ballet class each morning, and involving herself in one interesting project after another, has clearly kept her young. As for those who choose to work with her, the appeal is obvious. „She’s just a very enthused and super-charged person with a great deal of effervescence,“ says Hawkins. „And that’s why any choreographer at any time would be delighted to have her in their ensemble, because it’s great to have somebody who is a bundle of energy.“

• Muscular Memory Lane in Dance Base presents… TIMELESS is at Dance Base, 8-18 August.

This article:

http://www.scotsman.com/?id=1225922007

Edinburgh Festival Fringe:

http://www.edinburgh-festivals.com/topics.cfm?tid=933

Web links:

Edinburgh Festival Fringe
http://www.edinburgh-festivals.com/fringe/

Martha Clarke’s Garden of Earthly Delights

In the years since creating her seminal and critically acclaimed Garden of Earthly Delights (1984), Martha Clarke realizes Hieronymus Bosch’s inspired painting at ADF for a new generation of viewers. Awe-inspiring in its time, Clarke’s re-examination of Bosch’s fevered vision of earth, heaven, and hell through dance, music, and exquisite aerial work promises to have a similar effect now. A stellar cast of dancers and musicians, working with Richard Peaslee’s newly arranged score, will create a fresh, 21st century version of Garden (work in progress) to open the Festival. Clarke will be mounting the re-envisioning while in residence for four weeks at ADF, and the completed work will appear Off Broadway later this year.

Looooooooooooook

Commissioned and produced by the American Dance Festival and co-commissioned by Duke University.

Definition: Choreography

cho·re·og·ra·phy (kôr‘ē-ŏg‘rə-fē, kōr‘–)
n., pl. -phies.

1. 1. The art of creating and arranging dances or ballets.
   2. A work created by this art.
2. Something, such as a series of planned situations, likened to dance arrangements.

[French chorégraphie : Greek khoreia, choral dance; see chorea + -graphie, writing (from Latin -graphia, -graphy).]

choreographic cho‘re·o·graph‘ic (-ə-grăf‘ĭk) adj.
choreographically cho‘re·o·graph‘i·cal·ly adv.

Learning steps for the dance of life

By Kimberly S. Wetzel, MEDIANEWS STAFF

Their backs arched and the gentle glow of stage lights emphasizing their sleek, black leotards, the middle-schoolers stand graceful and still as they wait for the pianist to begin.

The group — dressed the part of postured, classic ballet dancers — is easily mistaken for seasoned young professionals.

But when AileyCamp ballet instructor Willie Anderson asks them to assume the pointe position, the jig is up: The students’ bodies jerk in and out of balance, their arms totter up and down, and their ankles twitch with tension.

Anderson watches and offers advice, forcing the students to hold the position long after comfort expires.

„Higher, higher!“ he commands as he moves through the wobbling crowd, tilting heads upward. „Hands up, thumbs in!“

Soon, Anderson relents and lets the youngsters drop to their heels. Onlookers exhale with smiles of relief, though the dancers do not, instead hustling into the next position.

It’s difficult to believe that most of the 11- to 14-year-old dancers never have taken a dance class before. Many also come from low-income families, have only one parent at home and live in neighborhoods that can be rough.

Regardless of such circumstances, organizers of the AileyCamp — a six-week program sponsored by the University of California, Berkeley’s Cal Performances that teaches at-risk youths dancing and other life skills — aim to mold disciplined, focused, well-behaved young adults who develop a passion for the arts through holistic learning. Founded in 1989 in Kansas City by legendary dancer and choreographer Alvin Ailey, AileyCamp is a national program that helps youths learn self-expression and self-respect through dance and personal development classes. The AileyCamp overseen by Cal Performances is the only one of its kind on the West Coast.

This year, local organizers picked 80 students out of hundreds of applicants from West Contra Costa County, Oakland, Berkeley and Albany to take part in the African, ballet, modern and the program’s touchstone jazz dance classes.

Those selected must exhibit some or all of the camp’s at-risk criteria. Students receive transportation, uniforms, meals, dance lessons and personal development classes in which they learn about such topics as health, responsibility, self-esteem, conflict resolution and drug awareness.

„What we teach them is there are more important ways to behave,“ said Shawn Nealy, personal development instructor for the local program. „If they don’t remove any blockage that they have, they can’t perform well on stage.“

The students take classes Mondays through Thursdays, leaving Fridays open for field trips where they test out their swim strokes, bowl for a strike or learn sailing instruction through the OCSC Sailing School in Berkeley.

AileyCamp is free for its students, funded through corporate and private donations. It climaxes each year with a student dance production under the lights at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall. This year’s performance, which is free and open to the public, is scheduled for

Aug. 2.

„For a lot of them, they come in with a lot of challenges for kids their age,“ said program director David McCauley. „At the end of the camp, there’s often a huge change in many of them.“

Those changes include more confidence, improved behavior at school and a more worldly view, camp organizers say.

The curriculum is challenging: The students take four dance classes a day, and their instructors don’t tolerate a lack of focus.

„They just haven’t been exposed to other ways of walking in the world, other ways of thinking,“ Nealy said. „We really want to transform their lives.“

„You’re not listening!“ modern dance instructor M’bewe Escobar yells during a recent practice. „Go back! You start with a twist! You can do it, you just have to focus!“

Despite the hard work, the students say they enjoy it.

„I’m having a lot of fun,“ said Oakland resident Beautiful Spears, 12. „I really like the dance classes and am learning so much.“

Though AileyCamp appealed mainly to girls in past years, recent efforts to get boys involved have paid off, with 22 participating this year. Boys are not required to wear leotards but must wear black shorts and a white T-shirt.

„They get into it,“ McCauley said of the boys. „Dancing calls for a different set of motor control, but the instructors try to liken it to sports.“

The boys enjoy other portions of the program, too. On a recent sailing excursion, their „male“ side was apparent.

„That’s where pirates fight each other with swords,“ 11-year-old Oakland resident Sidney George Jr. said as he glanced up at the sails on their 82-foot schooner for the day, Seaward.

For many of the students, the sailing excursion is one of the highlights of the camp. Deckhands teach them sailing lingo, let them raise the sails and show them sea critters.

„Ooh, what the heck is it?“ 12-year-old San Pablo resident Mia Stewart shrieked as she wiggled some sea sponge in her palm. „It feels all gooey!“

Although many have never been on a boat and several are usually nervous beforehand, once they conquer their fear of the water, camp organizers say, they can see the immediate transformation.

The same is true of dance class — the children really start to get it.

„Some of them are out of their element and don’t know what to expect,“ Nealy said.

Reach Kimberly S. Wetzel at 510-262-2798 or kwetzel@cctimes.com.

The Kyoto Prize Laureates of this year

The 2007 Laureates / Arts and Philosophy Category / Theater, Cinema

Pina Bausch Germany / July 27, 1940 Choreographer and Artistic Director

„A choreographer who has broken down the boundaries between dance and theater and pioneered a new direction for theatrical art“

Applying an original choreographical approach that delves into the fundamental motives of human action, Ms. Pina Bausch has established a creative idiom that taps deeply into the sensitivity of both performers and their audiences. At the same time, she has broken down the boundaries between dance and theater, and opened up a new direction in theatrical art.

The Architecture of Dance

The Architecture of Dance

By Valerie Gladstone
15 Jul 2007

With Metapolis II, Frédéric Flamand’s Ballet National de Marseille and architect Zaha Hadid find a new way to bring structure to the Lincoln Center Festival.
If you wonder what the future holds for big cities and their denizens, Frédéric Flamand, the adventurous choreographer and artistic director of the Ballet National de Marseille, provides a compelling answer in his riveting 70-minute work Metapolis II, which will be presented July 25-27 at the New York State Theater, during the Lincoln Center Festival.

Long fascinated by the intersection between architecture and dance, Flamand has collaborated with some of the world’s top architects, among them Diller+Scofidio, Jean Nouvel, and Thomas Mayne. For this piece, he chose the daring, Pritzker Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid as his artistic partner to create a futuristic landscape where human beings struggle to keep their humanity.

„I was drawn to Zaha’s fluid buildings and drawings, which are inspired by both the Russian Constructivists and Arabic calligraphy,“ Flamand says. „I saw in her work ways to structure dancers’ movements. In a sense the body is architecture. It continually creates new architecture every time it moves. I like to connect and contrast what is alive and human and what is still by making architecture integral to my dances.“

Metapolis II by Frédéric Flamand, with design by Zaha Hadid.
photo by Pino PiPitone

Moved by the example of Los Angeles and other American cities, Flamand and Hadid explore what urban sprawl might look like in 25 years. They decided on a set with three monumental translucent silver bridges spanning 33 feet, which slide into different configurations. To this, they added a complex mix of audio-visual technologies that contribute to the wild, high-energy choreography. „The point was the space itself could dance,“ says Hadid, who was drawn to the possibility of realizing her designs in a setting unrelated to traditional architecture.

To a discordant, jazzy, techno score by Jacques Yves le Docte and George van Dam, the handsome dancers crawl, leap, and tumble across the blue-green lit stage, as disturbing, grainy, black and white images of traffic jams and subway cars are projected behind them. At times, they wear clothing with blue screens, so that they carry visual material that complements the projections behind them. And adding yet another visual layer, a cameraman onstage shoots footage as they dance, his material joining the mix.

„I tried to envision how human beings will survive in these new urban environments,“ Flamand says. „I accentuate their sensuality and fragility in contrast to the chaos around them. In this world dominated by machines and technology, I feel I have been forced to question the value of the human body.“

Valerie Gladstone writes frequently for Playbill.

Metapolis II by Frédéric Flamand, with design by Zaha Hadid.
photo by Pino PiPitone