Ballets

This story has been corrected. See the note at the bottom for details. Colleen Neary will never forget the day when George Balanchine articulated the blueprint for her life's work. She was in her early 20s, then a respected New York City Ballet dancer. "He put me in to teach company class," she says. "He said to me, 'This is what you will do in the future.' I said I wanted to dance, but he said, 'You won't dance forever. You will teach dancers my ballets. " Fast forward to 2013, to a rehearsal of Balanchine's 1941 "Concerto Barocco" at the Westside headquarters of Los Angeles Ballet.

Frederic Franklin Dancer helped popularize modern ballet in U.S. Frederic Franklin, 98, a British-born dancer who helped popularize modern ballet in the United States, died Saturday at a Manhattan, N.Y., hospital of complications from pneumonia, according to his partner, William Ausman. Franklin last appeared with the American Ballet Theatre at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts three years ago - as a friar in "Romeo and Juliet. " "He was a seminal figure in the ballet world," said the company's artistic director, Kevin McKenzie.

Mikhail Baryshnikov's American Ballet Theatre will offer nine works by six choreographers during a Dec. 1-13 engagement at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa. Works scheduled will include a first performance of Clark Tippet's "Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1," set to the Bruch's familiar concerto in G minor, and a revival of Antony Tudor's "Gala Performance," created in 1938 to music by Prokofiev. Dates and repertory will be: - Dec. 1, 8 p.m.

Taking a cue from musicians, filmmakers and other independent artists, Los Angeles choreographer Raiford Rogers has launched a $7,500 fundraising campaign on the crowd-sourcing website Kickstarter for his latest ballet, “Schubert's Silence.” “As you know, arts funding is getting more and more difficult to find,” Rogers said in a phone interview. “You have to be creative and try different things. We wanted to demonstrate to our board members and our potential sponsors that we're determined.

Antony Tudor, British choreographer emeritus of the American Ballet Theater who was known for his ballets about real people rather than storybook characters, has died at age 79. Tudor died after a heart attack Sunday night at his residence at the First Zen Institute of America, said institute secretary Mary Farkas. Tudor asked dancers to portray ordinary people in a stylized art form and to show human feelings that were once deemed unsuitable to ballet.

Ballets generally live or die according to their place in the repertory. Let too many years slip by and suddenly, in spite of the best intentions, a ballet has become "lost," the province of history books and photo archives. That might have been the fate of George Balanchine's "Cotillon," one of the most conspicuously lamented "lost" ballets of the 20th Century. But thanks to a couple of amateur films, the remembrances of a few performers and two dedicated and experienced historians, the work has been reconstructed.

Some choreographers lapse, from time to unhappy time, into vulgarity. Others just flirt with it. Maurice Bejart--whose Ballet of the 20th Century returned to Royce Hall, UCLA, Tuesday night after a nine-year absence--doesn't just lapse or flirt. He celebrates vulgarity. That's just the beginning. He also exults in it, luxuriates in it, wallows in it. Vulgarity for Bejart, of course, is no vice. It is a way of life.

The historical Billy the Kid was shot to death more than a century ago, but lives on as a potent American archetype: the outcast turned vengeful sociopath. Even Eugene Loring's once-controversial ballet about Billy is now a 50-year-old classic and, in a time of growing conservatism, paradoxically more popular than ever. Indeed, Southern California dance audiences can see four different interpretations of "Billy the Kid" over the next seven weeks: -- The new Joffrey Ballet production at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

Amedeo de Filippi, who created orchestral, choral and chamber music for ballets, radio and philharmonic groups, has died in Burbank. He was 90. As a composer, arranger and orchestrator, Mr. de Filippi was on the staff of the Columbia Broadcasting System and also worked for Pathe Films, Judson Radio Program Co., Victor Phonograph Co. and several theaters and publishers. He died June 15 of complications from a recent stroke, said his wife, Della Posner de Filippi. Born Feb.

Expect the unexpected from Maurice Bejart. Two years ago his brilliant Ballet of the 20th Century offered American audiences an evening-length choreographic retrospective and a mixed program that each emphasized fluid, relatively classical dance values. No longer.

Toms, the company famous for its sell-one, donate-one business/philanthropy model, has brought an improved ballet flat into its shoe mix. The flats went on sale on Toms website Friday, at $79 per pair and in seven designs, including a plain black leather version. (That's three of my favorites pictured here: the Oahu, Burlap Alessandra and Brown Gisele styles.) According to a company news release, the ballet flats have been improved with an elastic ankle for a snug fit, hidden wedge for support and a padded heel cushion.

Maria Tallchief, one of the first great stars of American ballet, who grew up on an Oklahoma Indian reservation and became an artistic inspiration for renowned choreographer George Balanchine, has died. She was 88. Tallchief, who was married to Balanchine for several years, died Thursday in Chicago, said her daughter, poet Elise Paschen. The cause of death was not disclosed. A ballerina of electrifying intensity and great speed, Tallchief was one of five Oklahoma-born dancers of Native American heritage to rise to prominence about the same time.

Seven dancers with the Ballet Nacional de Cuba reportedly have defected while traveling last month in Mexico, with some of them resurfacing in the past week seeking asylum in the United States. The website Cafe Fuerte , dedicated to Cuban American affairs, has run an interview with some of the dancers, who said they defected because they are seeking a better life. "It's the hardest decision I've made in my life," dancer Annie Ruiz Diaz, 24, told the site. "We were determined to find a better life, artistic and economic well-being for our families.

Former Dodgers All-Star catcher Mike Piazza will make his ballet debut next month in Miami. Yes, you just read Mike Piazza, ballet and debut in the same sentence. Let it sink in. Here's the deal. Piazza, arguably the greatest hitting catcher to play in the majors, will play the role of a gangster on May 3 in a Miami City Ballet production of George Balanchine's "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue. " Piazza, who retired in 2008 and most recently was the hitting coach for Italy in the World Baseball Classic, won't have to wear tights and dance around the stage.

Mike Piazza, the former major league baseball player, is taking on an unconventional post-retirement job. The athlete is teaming up with Miami City Ballet and will perform a role in the company's production of George Balanchine's "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue. " But don't expect the baseball star to wear leotards or a codpiece. And don't expect him to dance, leap or lift female dancers, the company said. Piazza will appear in one performance of the ballet -- on May 3 at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami.

MOSCOW - If spring is a season of rebirth, it seems appropriate, if coincidental, that the Bolshoi Ballet is hoping to move past its recent and ugly scandal with performances of Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring," a dance about the healing power of nature and art. The Bolshoi Theatre festival "The Age of the Rite of Spring - the Age of Modernism" opens this week without its artistic director, Sergei Filin, who had designed the three-week celebration, one...

Re Ellen Brandt's Counterpunch (" 'Swan Lake' Anything but Ill-Fated," June 9), in which she criticized Stephen Farber's commentary in the June 1 Calendar on Matthew Bourne's "Swan Lake": I, too, have seen "Swan Lake" twice and, although I did not come away from the second viewing any less admiring of Bourne's choreography and concept, Farber's commentary is astute on several points. First, the choreography is indeed exciting, sensual and original but not always because Bourne has devised particularly original dance steps.

With his appointment as the new director of the Paris Opera Ballet, Benjamin Millepied has landed one of the most prestigious jobs in dance, overseeing a corps of 150 performers at the legendary institution. But his new post, which was announced Thursday and begins in October 2014, creates uncertainty for L.A. Dance Project, the downtown collective that the French choreographer launched to much fanfare with the Music Center in 2011. Speaking on the phone from Paris, Millepied said he remains committed to the future of L.A. Dance Project even if it means he will have to step back from the daily operations of the company.

Los Angeles Ballet returns to its roots for this, its seventh season, by devoting its two spring repertory programs to masterworks -- and slightly lesser ballets -- of George Balanchine. At UCLA on Saturday, the first program featured two company premieres and two revivals, making for a mini-tour through the diverse hues of the choreographer's rainbow oeuvre. “La Sonnambula” represents his Romantic side -- that's a capital R -- the moody Russian of the Old World. He would shortly give up overt storytelling, but in this one-act, created for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1946 to operatic excerpts, Balanchine indulged in 19 th century artistic archetypes.

The Bolshoi Ballet will be the subject of a government audit after January's acid attack on the company's artistic director, according to an Associated Press report. The legendary dance company has been in the international spotlight after assailants threw acid in the face of artistic director Sergei Filin near his Moscow home. PHOTOS: Bolshoi acid attack Russia's audit agency said Thursday that the investigation had been planned in advance, according to the AP. It said the audit isn't linked to the accusations of financial abuse raised by Bolshoi soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko, who was arrested this month on charges of staging the attack on Filin.