By Gary Smith With his 1978 Mayerling, English choreographer Kenneth MacMillan went to some very dark places to tell a historic story of love, lust, and troubled politics, played out against a fever-pitched passion that threatened a kingdom. Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, his mistress Countess Larisch, his wife Princess Stephanie of Belgium, and young
By Michael Crabb Clement Crisp, the eminent, irreverent, and some might argue outrageous late dean of British dance critics, did not believe in half measures. His freely admitted but always well-argued prejudices oscillated from one extreme to the other, even within the frame of a single review. For example, in the matter of a Tanztheater
By Deborah Jones “A dancer’s life may be glamorous in many ways, but there’s a huge amount of laundry,” writes Leanne Benjamin in her autobiography, Built for Ballet, published by Melbourne Books. The sentence neatly sums up the highs and lows of her art. The adrenalin rush of performing, rapturous applause, and after-party mingling with