William Trevitt and Michael Nunn, The Ballet Boyz, just announced a new tour that will give a group of young dancers a chance to dance their butts off. William and Michael were both with The Royal Ballet and decided to break out on their own in 2001. They have created dance documentaries and performed together all over the world, with works commissioned from the likes of William Forsythe and Christopher Wheldon. Now they have a new Project, Ballet Boyz: The Next Generation.

Here is an article in London’s Guardian about their new Project.

Ballet Boyz Announce Tour Featuring Young Dancer

Sunday 11 October 2009 14.18 BST

After two hours the mirrors had misted over, and the studio walls were literally dripping with the sweat of pizza servers, barmen and call centre workers.

The Ballet Boyz, William Trevitt and Michael Nunn, two of the most renowned male dancers in the world – one critic called them “unspeakably good” – are going on tour again, but this time neither will dance a step.

“That’s it,” Trevitt said, “that’s why we wanted young dancers – certainly young compared to us. A dancer hits 30, you know what your body can do, you know what hurts, you know how to cheat and fake it. But these guys will still push themselves as far as they can – and they really don’t know their physical limits yet.” Read more…

A post from Benjamin Wardell:

I love how difficult it is to capture dance.  I heard a choreographer compare dance to fireworks in that aspect.  It happens in one unique moment and then is left to our memory.  Even when doing the same choreography repeatedly, we can’t help but change the dance each time through our choices, mood, or even our mistakes.

So when it comes time to photograph dance we often come up short.  How do you take something that’s always moving and shifting and lock it into one frame?  So much dance photography ends up somehow flat and stifled.  Instead of preserving the life of a dance, it boils it down to a single moment disconnected from the whole.

So, as a dancer and photographer I’m trying to figure out how to deal with this problem.  There is a central similarity between photography and dance in that they are both very concerned with the relationship of positions to movement.  But in that similarity there can be a disconnect, because photography is often about finding movement in one position and dance is basically about taking many positions and creating movement through them.  Lately, my favorite dance photography finds moments that are only possible when dance and photography come together.  Photos where the camera isn’t just capturing a moment but is opening up possibilities for the dance that cannot exist anywhere except on the film and in the frame.  The photo below is a beautiful example.  It creates a world that is unlike the reality of what it’s capturing, but somewhere in that unreality it finds the essence and maintains the life of the dance work.  That inexplicable place where the two mediums meet is the place I’m always striving to find when I get behind my camera.

A Tribute to Four Dance Icons

Today is the last day of September, and as the weather starts to change in many places in the northern hemisphere I thought it would be a good time to look back at a few great dance icons who are no longer with us; Pina Bausch, Merce Cunningham, Patrick Swayze, and Michael Jackson.
Here are Four Short Experiences I’ve had with each of these Icons:

Patrick Swayze

Most people fell in love with Patrick Swayze in the movies Dirty Dancing or Ghost, but I think the first time I ever fell in love with him was in this SNL skit. It was the hair! Here is a great article telling 10 of Patrick Swayze’s Life stories.

Merce Cunningham

I was 14 years old when I first saw The Merce Cunningham Company. I was visit­ing New York City with my Aunt Georgene, who took me to all my dance classes from the time I was 8, when she heard that Baryshnikov was performing at the State Theater that night. She knew that it was a once in a lifetime performance, so we saw it.

That evening after running around NYC, I sat next to my aunt in the center of the State Theater watching the show and anticipating seeing Baryshnikov, but what I didn’t know was that the dancer I would remember most was not Baryshinikov but Merce Cunningham.

Bi-Ped was the first piece. If you haven’t seen it, it is a masterpiece of mathematical genius and technological innovation. At the time, however, I thought I had just stepped into a dance science-fiction film. I was overwhelmed by the dancers, the music and the shapes of bodies that were moving on the screen at the front of the stage.

As the performance went on though I dozed off, as I usually do while watching Cunningham’s work (not because I don’t love the genius of it, but because it sends my mind into such a rythmic trance that I begin to dream). I was awoken by a sharp elbow from my aunt and the sound of clapping, but luckily I hadn’t missed Baryshinkov.

So, The next piece began and I saw a very old man holding onto a bar and Baryshnikov on stage. At first, being young and stupid, I thought what the hell is going on?  How are these two going to be able to do anything close to dancing?  But then the old man began to move like lightning. I don’t actually remember anything that Baryshnikov did, I only remember this old man barely holding himself up, moving his arms, back, and head with such maddening ease and speed that I couldn’t take my eyes off him. I can’t remember the music or the set or anything else at all about the piece. I just remember him, Merce Cunningham, 80 years old, moving like an animal, taking my breath away.

Here is an article in the Brooklyn Rail with a few of his dancers talking about their experience with Merce.

Pina Bausch

While I was studying at the Juilliard School, Pina Bausch came to talk to my class one day.
Mrs. Bausch came into the dance studio wrapped in layers of clothing with a cunning but warm smile. She walked with floating steps to the front of the room and began speaking in a slow, even tone about dance and choreography.

I was completely in love with this women even though I was unaware of how she had revolutionized dance. Every eye in the room was on her, every ear was listening and every mind was fo­cused. I was so struck by her and so focused at the time that I actually remember very little of what was said.I did manage, however, to hold on to one simple idea.

When speaking about her choreographic process, Mrs.Bausch emphasized that she only kept the movement she truly loved. She said that she had to examine the dance over and over again before deciding if she loved it or not, but if she realized she didn’t love it she would take it out. She said that getting rid of it was the hardest thing to do and the only way to keep the movement pure and true.

Looking back, I think Mrs.Bausch was talking just as much about life as she was about dance.  If we keep the things we truly love we might enjoy life a little more.

Michael Jackson

The first time I ever heard Michael Jackson was when my dad pulled out The Jackson Five album from his bookshelves of records and played it on the turn table. The re­cord had been played over and over before, so there was a thin layer of static under the powerful and sweet voice. My mom started to do the mash potato in the living and we all just began dancing around the house. I think I was four, and I haven’t stopped dancing since that moment.

If you have an experience you would like to share about any of these dance icons, email it to me at greendancers@greendancers.com or write a comment.