Born in Copenhagen in 1936, dancer and choreographer Flemming Flindt is one of dance world's most distinguished artists. Trained at the Royal Danish Ballet School, Flindt joined the main company at the age of 19, quickly rising to the rank of international star. One of the most courtly and gifted premier danseurs of the 1950s, he was made etoile at the Paris Opera Ballet, starred at the Royal Ballet and the London Festival Ballet, and in 1950 he danced at the celebrations of Grace Kelly's wedding.
By 1963, his attention had turned to choreography with his highly regarded balletic adaptation of Eugene Ionesco's "The Lesson," and in 1966, at the age of 29, Flindt was appointed director of the Royal Danish Ballet, a post he held for twelve years.
Like many of the dancers of the Danish tradition, Flindt himself was as at home interpreting the characters of the 19th century narrative ballets of August Bournonville as he was in contemporary work of Birgit Cullberg and Roland Petit. And during his tenure at the Royal Danish Ballet, he was credited with carefully shepherding the historical heritage of the company while expanding the repertoire to include the work of modern choreographers such as Paul Taylor, Murray Louis and Glen Tetley.
Read more on the KQED Spark website.
Thursday, September 1, 2005
KQED Profile: Healy Irish Dance
Beneath all the smoke and lights of popular stage shows like Riverdance and Lord of the Dance lies the precise and fleet-footed drama of Irish step dancing, a traditional folk dance with a history hundreds of years old, that continues to be passed down from generation to generation.
With its lively and intricate music - jigs, hornpipes, reels - and a scrupulously unbending carriage of the torso, Irish dancing is uniquely demanding, requiring both a high level of skill and of concentration to create the right combination of mesmerizing rhythms and graceful movement.
Read more on the KQED Spark Website.
With its lively and intricate music - jigs, hornpipes, reels - and a scrupulously unbending carriage of the torso, Irish dancing is uniquely demanding, requiring both a high level of skill and of concentration to create the right combination of mesmerizing rhythms and graceful movement.
Read more on the KQED Spark Website.
KQED Profile: Rasta Thomas
Gifted with movie star good looks, prodigious talent and a youthful ambition, dancer and actor Rasta Thomas could be thought of as the epitome of the dance world's perfect star - a mercurial action hero as at home in the ballet classics as he is in Broadway musicals.
Born in San Francisco in 1981, Thomas displayed a phenomenal natural affinity for movement early on, studying martial arts, swimming and gymnastics from the age of 3 on. He won his first dance competitions at 9, and made a splash in the ballet world at Varna, Bulgaria in 1996 when he won the gold medal in the Junior Division, and then again in 1998 when he won the gold medal in the Senior Division at the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, MS -- the first 16-year old to do so.
Read more on the KQED Spark website.
Born in San Francisco in 1981, Thomas displayed a phenomenal natural affinity for movement early on, studying martial arts, swimming and gymnastics from the age of 3 on. He won his first dance competitions at 9, and made a splash in the ballet world at Varna, Bulgaria in 1996 when he won the gold medal in the Junior Division, and then again in 1998 when he won the gold medal in the Senior Division at the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, MS -- the first 16-year old to do so.
Read more on the KQED Spark website.
Monday, May 30, 2005
KQED Profile: Merce Cunningham
"There are ... distinct elements which when put together makes something which ... was not possible otherwise."
One of the 20th century's most original dance-makers, Merce Cunningham has influenced a generation of choreographers with his abstract and complex methods of movement analysis and cerebral yet aesthetic creations. In fact, Cunningham's love of intellectual engagement and his academic background make his company a natural favorite at colleges and universities. In the "Masterworks" episode, Spark follows the Merce Cunningham Dance Company to Stanford University as he and his dancers take on "Encounter: Merce."
"Encounter: Merce" was an unusual campuswide interdisciplinary project that took place in March 2005. The event put Cunningham's decades-long career in context, with exhibits, films, workshops and panel discussions presented not only by the dance division and arts presenter Stanford Lively Arts, but also by the music and visual arts departments and the Stanford School of Medicine.
Read more on the KQED Spark website.
-- Merce Cunningham
One of the 20th century's most original dance-makers, Merce Cunningham has influenced a generation of choreographers with his abstract and complex methods of movement analysis and cerebral yet aesthetic creations. In fact, Cunningham's love of intellectual engagement and his academic background make his company a natural favorite at colleges and universities. In the "Masterworks" episode, Spark follows the Merce Cunningham Dance Company to Stanford University as he and his dancers take on "Encounter: Merce."
"Encounter: Merce" was an unusual campuswide interdisciplinary project that took place in March 2005. The event put Cunningham's decades-long career in context, with exhibits, films, workshops and panel discussions presented not only by the dance division and arts presenter Stanford Lively Arts, but also by the music and visual arts departments and the Stanford School of Medicine.
Read more on the KQED Spark website.
Monday, April 25, 2005
KQED Profile: Miss Tilly Abbe
Since 1970, countless generations of youngsters have donned tights and slippers for a weekly ballet class with San Francisco institution Miss Tilly. Teaching preschoolers about dance, however, is much more than plies and tendus for Tilly Abbe, whose 350 students range from 3 to 7 years old -- it's about giving them skills that will last a lifetime.
In "Ballet with Miss Tilly" Spark follows this veteran teacher to her California Street studios, where she and her daughter Iliza Gates offer a range of classes in dance, theater, hip hop and yoga, all designed to infuse a love of movement and the arts in their preschool-aged students. Early childhood is a critical time for physical and emotional development, Abbe argues, and she specializes in working with kids at an age when they are not only forming their reflexes and fine motor control, they're honing social skills that they'll need throughout their lives. Indeed, recent studies have shown that physical fitness is closely tied to a child's academic abilities, and with so many parents recognizing the importance of early exposure to the arts, Abbe's classes are always enormously popular.
Read more on the KQED Spark website.
In "Ballet with Miss Tilly" Spark follows this veteran teacher to her California Street studios, where she and her daughter Iliza Gates offer a range of classes in dance, theater, hip hop and yoga, all designed to infuse a love of movement and the arts in their preschool-aged students. Early childhood is a critical time for physical and emotional development, Abbe argues, and she specializes in working with kids at an age when they are not only forming their reflexes and fine motor control, they're honing social skills that they'll need throughout their lives. Indeed, recent studies have shown that physical fitness is closely tied to a child's academic abilities, and with so many parents recognizing the importance of early exposure to the arts, Abbe's classes are always enormously popular.
Read more on the KQED Spark website.
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