Special Photo: A Year of Dance

It has become a time-honoured custom: the New Year issue of Ballet2000 is a
photo-packed one, a special issue much appreciated by our readers. We hope we
shall be successful yet again in telling you a story: describing in pictures what has
been happening on the dance and ballet scene in the course of the year which draws
to a close – events that we have closely followed and already described to you in
words. 2009 may not have been a memorable year, but strong signals were sent out by
choreographers and dancers all over the world. William Forsythe has been pursuing
his career, and in many directions; the two “golden boys” of choreography,
Christopher Wheeldon and Alexei Ratmansky, have continued to establish
their reputations on both sides of the Atlantic. The Orient has suddenly become closer;
and we are not just referring here to celebrities like Shen Wei and Saburo
Teshigavara who can at this stage be considered “westernized” artists. Globalization
and multi-ethnicity have resulted in “fusion dance”, Akram Khan and Sidi
Larbi Cherkaoui being the most prominent of these cross-over choreographers.
Other young choreographers, such Wayne McGregor, are following this trend.
As is inevitably the case, it is the classical dancers who have been propelled to
stardom: in 2009 it was Svetlana Zakharova and Carlos Acosta, not to mention “Roberto
Bolle Superstar” and, for the truly refined balletomanes, Uliana Lopatkina. But the
greatest “divo” of them all, beyond doubt and comparison, was once again Mikhail
Baryshnikov, superlative in his show on tour, alongside Ana Laguna.
On a sad note, 2009 took from us two giants who cannot be substituted: Merce
Cunningham e Pina Bausch. The centenary of Diaghilev’s Ballets
Russes was an event of core significance in 2009, celebrated by major companies
all over the world. The Ballets Russes were religiously considered the forerunners
of modernity in dance. True or untrue? No one asked the question on this
occasion, so we’ll just have to wait until the next centenary for the answer.

4 Affiche/Cartellone/Calendar

11 Echos – nouvelles du monde de la danse
Brevi – notizie dal mondo della danza
News – from the dance world

26-65
special photo issue A Year of Dance : let the pictures from 2009 speak
for themselves

66 Dance TV