The News Review:
- The return of the dancing diva
- Kylie and Madonna strut a similar stage but are they poles apart?
- A dance to remember
- The world of Dame Beryl Grey ballerina
The return of the dancing diva
Hindu – Nov 24, 2007
’ MUMBAI: American homemaker and mother of two sons Madhuri Dixit is back in Bollywood after a five-year break with a film centred on her forte — dancing. “It makes me a little nervous whether people will accept me again” she said ahead of the worldwide release of her movie Aaja Nachle or ‘Come Let’s Dance’ on November 30. “It makes me nervous but I’m excited. ” Dixit plays a choreographer who after a decade in New York returns to India to save her dance teacher’s school from being razed for a lucrative development. She was last seen on the big screen in 2002 when she played a courtesan in a saga of doomed love in Devdas.
Kylie and Madonna strut a similar stage but are they poles apart?
NEWS.com.au – Nov 24, 2007
For every instance of her following in Madonna’s footsteps Minogue’s legion of fans point at increasing examples of the 49-year-old American all-rounder’s referencing of the Australian singer’s creativity. The first and most graphic was the cover of Madonna’s American Life album which appeared to copy a Minogue concert poster – both of which borrowed from a classic image of post-war revolutionary Che Guevera. Many reviews of Madonna’s 10th album Confessions On A Dance Floor suggest La Ciccone was mining electropop dance territory. This Minogue had carved for herself with a succession of post-millennial albums – Light Years Fever and Body Language. Yet there is no dispute that Madonna burst in to the spotlight by bringing the underground world of dance music to the pop charts with her self-titled debut in 1983. Minogue gets the pop zeitgeist points for publicly declaring her love of ABBA on the 1998 Intimate And Live tour. Who could forget her version of their mammoth hit Dancing Queen which she reprised during the closing ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games?Madonna made history when she was granted permission to sample the Swedish pop stars’ 1979 single Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! for 2005’s Hung Up… Online forums and fansites went into hype overdrive when Madonna sported a customised Kylie Minogue T-shirt for her performance at the 2000 European MTV awards. Minogue finally returned the compliment during her Showgirl Homecoming tour including the Vogue rap and Burning Up in a segment of the lavish production. But for all the similarities between two female artists who continue to break chart and sales records around the world when it comes to their music their modus operandi is poles apart. Since her debut as a Stock Aitken and Waterman vehicle Minogue has served as a muse for the hitmakers of the day. After leaving that pop factory Team Kylie sought to work with well-respected but low-profile songwriters some of whom had proven chart cachet. Others offered her reinvention rather than a guarantee. Among those who will enjoy a career boost courtesy of X is British artist Calvin Harris along with electronic duo Kish Mauve who wrote and produced 2 Hearts.
A dance to remember
Aspen Times – Nov 24, 2007
We talked books and writers well into the night and forged the beginning of a subtle friendship that would bring us much pleasure but confound us terribly as well. Early on I invited her to an off-beat ballet class I was taking. She was a tall lady about 5-feet-9-inches and 135 pounds to my 5-feet-10 inches and 165 pounds so you can appreciate the fact that on some level pairing us together in an off-hours non-credit dance class might not have been the best coupling possible but there were only four people in the group and that’s the way it worked out. The class ironically was taught by a former Russian ballerina Ms. Mina Zenor who had given up the glory of grueling stage performances for a college teaching position. So just as literature had introduced us Russian ballet brought us solidly together as I attempted to catch my friend Julie on her way down from a “tour en l’air” of impressive height. I kept her from hitting the floor barely but my body absorbed the full impact sans finesse… It was as though we were doing what we thought our peers expected us to do ostensibly giving ourselves up to decadence while on some deeper level we were saving the essence of our very private selves for the true love we hoped would eventually come our way. Maybe we were trying to be kind to each other if nothing else. After a week of spring break in Aspen I returned to school with a lightness in my heart and thoughts of making wild passionate love to my friend Julie. Early the next afternoon before I’d even had a chance to call her she pulled up out front in a silver Corvette driven by a tall disheveled older man in a rumpled suit. It was over between us I knew without hearing a word but there was a longing and a hesitation in our good-bye that defied reality. As they flipped a U-turn and headed back up the street I already missed her sweet smile and shy eyes but my spirits were minutely lifted by the used car sticker plastered to the windshield and the thin disappearing paint on the hood of the once flashy coach. With a wry smile I hoped they’d at least make it until midnight.
The world of Dame Beryl Grey ballerina
Telegraph.co.uk – Nov 24, 2007
I also write articles and give speeches so I have research to do. Starting out I started dancing when I was four quite by accident. My older cousins lived in the same road and had a dance teacher who came to them once a week. Aunty said to my parents let Beryl join them as I was an only child. The teacher spotted my talent and encouraged me to take lessons three times a week. First break When I was 10 I auditioned for Ninette de Valois the director of Sadler’s Wells (then Vic-Wells). She offered me a four-year scholarship at the Sadler’s Wells school and if at 14 I was satisfactory a four-year contract with the company… Aunty said to my parents let Beryl join them as I was an only child. The teacher spotted my talent and encouraged me to take lessons three times a week. First break When I was 10 I auditioned for Ninette de Valois the director of Sadler’s Wells (then Vic-Wells). She offered me a four-year scholarship at the Sadler’s Wells school and if at 14 I was satisfactory a four-year contract with the company. Childhood ambition The ballet school was in the theatre and I would watch rehearsals of The Sleeping Beauty. I was 11 and too young to perform but I would dream that Margot Fonteyn became ill and I danced in her place. Dream come true In point of fact that’s what happened three years later.