Arts Blog

Texas Ballet Theater announced this afternoon at the Trammell Crow Center that it has raised $2.4 million and will be out of debt for the fiscal year that ends June 30.

But no live music for the season that begins Oct. 2 in Fort Worth's Bass Performance Hall with "The Russian Masters." Debut at the Winspear Opera House of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts comes Nov. 27 with The Nutcracker. Also at the Winspear will be Romeo and Juliet (March 12-14) and The Sleeping Beauty (June 11-13).

Manny Mendoza writes in today's GuideDaily about Alonso King's Lines Ballet, which TITAS presents today and Saturday at SMU's McFarlin Auditorium. Here a video of the troupe's work.

Texas Ballet Theater announced Thursday its plans to present The Fly Ball, which it's calling "the largest single fundraising event of the year." It's booked for Saturday, April 18, at the Omni Fort Worth Hotel. In past years, ballet officials said, The Fly Ball was hosted by Phazar Aerocorp at Meacham International Airport, with guests flying in "from far-away locations." The ballet company says this year's event will be "the first major event" since the grand opening of the Omni Fort Worth Hotel, where the theme will be French in nature: "La Vie En Rose." Honorary chair is recording artist Lyle Lovett. The Fly Ball begins at 7:30 p.m. on April 18 with cocktails, hors d'oeuvres and a silent auction featuring more than 75 items, including jewelry, gift packages and other items. The live auction features big ticket items including a Chanel J12 watch, a replica Louis Vuitton trunk, a fabulous Italian dinner catered by Chef Alessio Franceschetti, and a trip to Rancho La Puerta spa in California. The evening's entertainment, according to Texas Ballet Theater, will be "highlighted by sleight-of-hand magicians, mimes and casino-style gambling with all proceeds benefiting the ballet. Guests are also invited to dance to the music of 'The Wonders' and 'Johnny Reno and the Lounge Kings.' " Individual tickets are priced at $350 per person. Priority underwriting table sponsorships range from $5,000 to $100,000. Info: Call 817-763-0207, ext. 107, or visit this Web site.

Photo: A scene from Texas Ballet Theater's recent performance of Cleopatra

The Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs is developing a new master plan for the future of the Kalita Humphreys Theater, home of the Dallas Theater Center for the last 50 years. A team of a dozen distinguished consultants has been studying the history of the building (designed by none other than Frank Lloyd Wright, arguably the most famous architect in history). Now they're seeking input from arts groups and the public at large. I went to the Tuesday meeting at the South Dallas Cultural Center. There's another, open to everybody, at the Latino Cultural Center at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.

With the DTC moving to the Wyly Theatre in the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, the fate of the historical building is up in the air. The city wants to exploit (in a good way) the historical and aesthetic heritage -- without turning it into a mere museum. Theatre Three's Jac Alder spoke out eloquently at the Tuesday meeting for the need to have the needs of potential arts users uppermost in mind. Architect Ann Abernathy of Booziotis & Company, the architects who are the primary consultants, clearly wants to make sure Wright's intentions are to the fore. It's an interesting balance to be worked up.

The one thing I spoke up about was my own ambivalence about the new lobby space and south entrance added about 20 years ago. It's handsome in its own way and much improves the building's comfort and usability. But every time I enter the door, I'm struck by how un-Frank Lloyd Wright the addition is. (Wright loved narrow, cramped spaces like the original lobby.) I'm glad the decision about how to resolve that issue isn't in my hands: I have no idea what I'd do.

Attention, dance-lovers on a budget: You can check out Paul Taylor Dance Company rehearsing on Saturday for free. The rehearsal's at 3:15 p.m. at Eisemann Center in Richardson.

The performance is at 8 p.m. on Saturday. The inventive company, which took the No. 2 spot on The Dallas Morning News' list of top dance events in 2007, was founded in 1954.

The Fort Worth Symphony has been hired to provide live music for three Metropolitan Classical Ballet productions next season--the fall and spring programs as well as the annual "Nutcracker." The contract with the Arlington-based company is for approximately $85,000.

Another ballet company, the financially troubled Texas Ballet Theater, recently pulled out of a $350,000 contract with the FWSO.

A former dancer with Texas Ballet Theater, Margo McCann has been named managing director of the company, the chairwoman of its board of directors announced Thursday.
The board's executive committee voted unanimously to select McCann, whom it credited for helping execute "a number of new initiatives" for a company that has suffered financial struggles in recent months.
"Margo's background as a principal dancer and her experience in all aspects of production, company management, marketing, accounting and development make her the best choice for managing director for Texas Ballet Theater," Board Chairwoman Suzanne Charriere said in a statement. "She has exceeded the board's expectations as interim managing director over the past six months, and we are proud to affirm her appointment as one of the key directors to lead the ballet into a new and exciting chapter of our history." (Please click below to read on.)

Photo: Margo McCann

Media types had a chance to meet new Dallas Center for the Performing Art pres/CEO Mark Nerenhausen Monday. Nerenhausen took over last week, after 11 years running the Brouward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Nerenhausen is a man of no few words. Did any single question elicit an answer less than five minutes long? As he admitted, being on the job only a week didn't prepare him for much in the way of specific answers. But that didn't stop him from philosophizing at length on things like "making the arts available." Prize statement: "Our job is to create desireable outcomes."

He did acknowledge that most new performing arts centers have run up deficits in their first years, but he said that's no different from startup businesses. He said there's a "three- to four-year cycle before a PAC really hits its stride."

He also said there are only about 30 performing arts complexes in the country, as opposed to one-off theaters, and only about 12 in the DCPA's league.

An irreverent list from LA Times art critic Christopher Knight:

The culture industry is cosmopolitan, so flag-waving options are few.
The culture industry is pluralistic, but Congress is only marginally so.
As corporations, arts institutions are nonprofit, so there's no money to be made via lobbyists.
Culture is girlie, not manly.
The arts often look at sexual experience -- eek!

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) -- Jeremy Piven says his decision to abruptly leave the Broadway revival of "Speed-the-Plow" in mid-run because of mercury poisoning was "a completely humbling experience."

Speaking publicly Sunday for the first time about the incident, Piven told former football star Tiki Barber during NBC's Golden Globes red-carpet show: "I don't know if they've ever taken you out of a game or if you've had to kind of stop a season short, but that's basically what the doctors did to me. I could have gone against doctors orders. I didn't. I'm just grateful to be here to be honest with you."

Piven departed the critically praised production of David Mamet's comedy in December, less than two months after the show opened in New York.

The New York Times Sunday Travel section listed Dallas at No. 17 in its "44 Places to Go in 2009" story. The reason: the Dallas Arts District, with the Winspear Opera House and Wyly Theatre set to open in October. Dallas rated behind Vienna, the Galapagos and Hawaii, but ahead of Rome, the Florida Keys, Stockholm and Buffalo.

Funny: This major development wasn't noticed in a certain local newspaper's story on major local developments coming up in 2009.

For anyone who really loves the dance aspects of Dancing With the Stars, moreso than the celebrity factor (who'll be next season's Cloris Leachman??), the live tour is actually a lot more fun than the show. The version that came to American Airlines Center on Sunday night showcased the show's professionals more than the stars -- Toni Braxton, Maurice Green, Lance Bass, Marlee Matlin and Cody Linley -- and rightly so. The choreography, by dancer Maxsim Chmerkovskiy, was more complex and exciting than that usually seen on the show, probably because for the most part it wasn't an experienced dancer working with amateur celebrities, but two or more pros at the top of their game.

The show had a couple of surprise appearances -- Mark Ballas, who was injured a little more than a week ago and had said he expected to be out of the tour for a couple of weeks, showed up seeming completely healed. And Lewisville native Cody Linley, co-star of Hannah Montana, also showed up unannounced. Mark and fellow dancer Derek Hough were slated to appear at House of Blues with their band immediately after the AAC show.

If I were a judge -- well, maybe not that one in the middle who's always grumpy -- I'd give the DWTS tour a solid 8 -- with 10s all around for Maxsim and his partner, Karina Smirnoff. When they're onstage, everyone else pretty much disappears. Of the "star" stars, Lance Bass and Maurice Green ably proved why they were fan favorites during Season Seven, making it look almost easy.

Look for a full review online Monday afternoon at guidelive.com.

I just had an email in my box that Clive Barnes has died -- still a working dance and theater critic at 81. Clive added the New York Times theater beat to the dance-critic job he already had back in 1967, and he was the voice of the Times during the years I lived in and around New York. He was a very good, if not infallible, dance critic. In retrospect, though, he was not a good influence on us East Coast theatergoers during those years. He lured us into some real duds (one was called After the Rain, as I recall). And he discouraged me from seeing the original productions of Sondheim's Company and Follies, which he panned -- and which I have bitterly regretted ever since.

After the Times ousted him, he went over to the New York Post, where his writing became increasingly garrulous and his opinions little heeded. They pushed him down to second chair a few years ago -- but he bounced back when the lead critic fell ill. I've seen him frequently at critics' previews over the last decade, a strange reminder of my remote youth.

I wonder what will happen to that job now. Many newspapers around the company are doing without theater critics...but they can't do that in NEW YORK, can they...?

Texas Ballet Theater has had a lot of drama going on lately that has little to do with the stage. That's why dance critic Margaret Putnam thinks its performance Friday night was especially electrifying and ironic. Check out the review here; it also contains links to our coverage of the company's recent financial woes and comeback.

(Photo by G.J. McCarthy / DMN: Leticia Oliveira and Andre Silva perform during the Diana and Acteon segment at dress rehearsal on Thursday.)

Earlier this afternoon I interviewed Grover Dale, an original Broadway cast member of West Side Story who is in Iriving to direct that show for Lyric Stage. He has an amazing history (he was Anthony Perkins' domestic partner and Anita Morris' husband -- their son is actor James Badge Dale). Also an amazing resume -- to quote from his dance eduction webiste, www.answers4dancers.com:

It never would have occurred to him that he would be cast in the original company of West Side Story, be discovered by Noel Coward in Paris, be praised by Judy Garland in London, be fired by Agnes de Mille in New York, beat out Dustin Hoffman for an acting role on a daytime soap, swim with Esther Williams on CBS' first color broadcast, teach Barbra Streisand the "lindy" for "The Way We Were," splatter a rotten tomato on Debbie Reynold's face in the film of "Unsinkable Molly Brown," dine in the south of France with Orson Wells and Marlene Deitrich, or co-direct a Bway musical with Jerome Robbins.

Teco Theatrical Productions will host the official grand opening of its new Oak Cliff space, the Bishop Arts Theater Center wth multiple events on the afternoon of Sunday, Sept. 14. Read the continuation for exact details and schedule.

WRR-FM (101) and design jeweler Bachendorf's will host a special two-hour live broadcast benefiting Texas Ballet Theater from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday. Originating in the Bachendorf's store, at 8400 Preston Rd., the broadcast will be hosted by WRR's Christopher Hackett, and will include interviews with TBT officials and dancers, including artistic director Ben Stevenson and interim managing director Margo McCann.

The loss of at least one major sponsor has left the ballet company in precarious financial condition just weeks before the opening of the 2008-2009 season.

Guide Live reported Saturday that TBT's trip to the China Shanghair International Arts Festival was in jeopardy because of a financial shortfall. The company needed to raise at least $75,000 by today to make the trip. According to Robin Arena, chairwoman of TBT, "China is such a dream for us."

But the company fell far short of its goal and had to cancel the trip. Watch GuideLive.com for more details.

Before select performances of The Drowsy Chaperone, you can check out free outdoor tap performances outside Fair Park Music Hall as part of the National Tap Dance Celebration. Check 'em out Tuesday (June 3) from 7 to 8 p.m., as well as June 7, 8, 14 and 15 from 1 to 2 p.m. Tuesday's performance features Buster Cooper, who Michael Granberry profiled earlier this year.