The Latest: News of Note

Comings & Goings

Former New York Live Arts artistic director Carla Peterson has become director of Florida State University’s Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography. â–  BalletNext has named Brian Reeder resident choreographer. â–  Sarasota Ballet principal Ricardo Graziano has been named resident choreographer for the 2014–15 season. â–  Amandine Albisson has become an étoile at Paris Opéra Ballet. â–  Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s Yoshiaki Nakano and Amanda Cochrane have been promoted to principal. â–  Principal retirements include National Ballet of Canada’s Aleksandar Antonijevic, English National Ballet’s Daria Klimentova, PBT’s Christine Schwaner, Pennsylvania Ballet’s Julie Diana, Australian Ballet’s Lucinda Dunn and Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Kaori Nakamura.

Awards & Honors

Dance/USA is honoring Liz Lerman with its Honor Award, given to outstanding dance community members. â–  Jerome Robbins Foundation will give Paris Opéra Ballet its Jerome Robbins Award, worth $50,000. â–  Winners of Ballet Austin’s New American Talent/Dance choreographic competition include: James Gregg (awarded $9,000), Jimmy Orrante ($5,000) and Gabrielle Lamb ($4,000). â–  American Ballet Theatre’s Calvin Royal III has been awarded a Leonore Annenberg Arts Fellowship, worth up to $50,000.

Photo of Aleksandar Antonijevic by Sian Richards, Courtesy NBC.

TEST
, a film by Chris Mason Johnson, renews the story of AIDS in dance: It’s San Francisco, 1985. Frankie (Scott Marlowe, LEVYdance), a gay man, is apprenticing at a local company. Little is known about HIV: A dancer asks her partner to towel off, scared of catching it through sweat. The film is heavy on content, but also on dance: San Francisco Ballet and Joffrey Ballet dancers breeze through Sidra Bell’s silky choreography. Opens nationwide in June. testthefilm.com.

Left: A scene from
TEST. Photo by Serious Productions.