The last ever issue of Dancing Times magazine has been published, the September 2022 edition, after 112 years of uninterrupted work in communicating all things dance to its readership.
Jonathan Gray, its editor, says:
It fills me with great sadness to write that this will be the last-ever issue of Dancing Times. Despite valiantly trying to recoup our losses in revenue since the coronavirus pandemic, we have come to the sad conclusion we simply cannot continue.
Considering the oncoming inflation tsunami that will sweep so many businesses away, coming after the hard hit that many businesses took during the Covid-19 pandemic, maybe it is not surprising that in this digital age a print magazine that is concerned with the often ethereal world of dance, with its advertisers having less economic possibilities too, can no longer make ends meet. Gray says that the magazine to many people ‘must have seemed invincible'.
As a regular contributor for several years with my Danza in Italia column, as well as interviewing dancers for cover stories, it saddens me greatly to be losing both the magazine of which I was an affectionate reader, as well as the family atmosphere of being part of ‘the team'. Writing a blog is not like that at all. Gray says thank you ‘to all our subscribers, readers, advertisers and friends' and pays his grateful thanks ‘to my wonderful colleagues, who have made working for Dancing Times such a great honour and a privilege'.
Jonathan Gray joined Dancing Times in 2005. He became its editor three years later when Mary Clarke retired after having edited the magazine for 45 years. Gray has great admiration for the woman who ‘championed dance in all its forms and was passionate about good dance criticism and photography'. Gray adds, “Something I hope I inherited from her.”
While thanking Dancing Times' ‘subscribers, readers, advertisers and friends' as well as expressing his grateful thanks ‘to my wonderful colleagues, who have made working for Dancing Times such a great honour and a privilege', he, as we all do, can hold his head up high:
Dancing Times has much to be proud of – it is, as far as I and the team are concerned, the best dance magazine there has ever been – and we celebrate everything it has achieved. It certainly feels like the end of an era to us.
And not only…
Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.
Very sad, sad, sad. And a scandal!
In the early 1980s, Italy was a bit behind as to the dance news. I was starting to teach ballet and I thought that my subscription to “The Dancing Times” magazine could be my window to the world and so it was. It was a unique and precious tool for me, I still remember and consult the articles by Richard Glasstone about the ballet technique, unmissable. But times change and this sometimes brings sad but inevitable consequences. I still have all the issues of the magazine, I will keep them even more jealously. Thank you The Dancing Times!
As a dancer in the 1970s, the Dancing Times was my favourite and fabulous read. I still have back copies. Firstly October 1970 Diamond Jubilee issue with articles on Carlotta Zambelli in Russia by Ivor Guest, “Off Stage” by GBL Wilson, and an obituary of Natalia Dudinskaya by John Gregory. Next up November 1996 with the cover photo of Sir Frederick Ashton marking the publication of a new book by Julie Kavanagh.
Inside this Dancing Times are photographs of Mathilde Kchessinskaya in Letter from St Peters burg by Igor Stupnikov. Finally in my collection July 2017 edition with The Memoirs of Nadia Nerina and Giselle in Leningrad on her historic visit in 1960.
The Dancing Times educated us, fed us marvellous information, encouraged us and enthralled us. As a ballet student and then professional dancer it certainly kept me going.
I am sad that it will no longer continue. My concern is who will sustain the new generations of dancers today. The history of dance and the new history that each generation creates is a legacy handed down throughout the decades.
I trace my own history thus ( even though I was just a jobbing dancer) from Arts Educational ( Dame Beryl Grey) to the Dance Centre in Floral Street ( Anna Nortcote, Maria Fay, John O’Brien,) to the the RAD ( Keith Lester one time partner of Tamara Karsavina and Olga Spessivtseva and then through the 2nd World War an Adagio Dancer at the Windmill Theatre, painted in gold).
Also Clement Crisp who shared his knowledge and love of ballet with us would be teachers so that we would understand our art so much better.
The legacy goes on and on and is part of each dancer’s heritage. The filaments of the legacy are too numerous to list, but you get the picture. Who will chronicle the individual stories of our wonderful dancers?
Thank you Dancing Times for your inspiration whilst I was a young aspiring dancer. Thank goodness I have some back copies, a historical collection of ballet books, endless programmes, all lovingly kept through the years in case these items are of historical importance but which I can read and re read whenever I want.