13 replies to this topic

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A review of the National Ballet of Canada in "Romeo and Juliet" by Dana Glassman in The National Post.

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Is there anything Côté can’t do? While there are a handful of dancers with similarly elegant lines and stunning legs and feet, few can turn and jump with the same power and softness as Côté. He’s matured into a fine actor, drawing the audience into his emotionally charged performance as Romeo. Côté may be the best male dancer — both from a technical and artistic standpoint — the company has ever produced.

And Côté’s a wonderful partner to the company’s newest star Elena Lobsanova. Ratmansky hand-picked the 25-year-old first soloist to perform the role of Juliet on the coveted opening night over the company’s many accomplished principals. (Côté and Lobsanova share the lead roles with four other pairs in other performances.) Ratmansky knows talent when he sees it.

[dirac]

A review of LINES Balletby Michael Upchurch in The Seattle Times.

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"Dust and Light" unfolded on a bare stage, with some oddly abrupt lighting by Axel Morgenthaler. Morgenthaler brought a more luscious, seductive and wizardly touch to "Scheherazade," showing off the dancers to even greater advantage.

The stars here were David Harvey, as serial bride-killer King Shahryar, and Kara Wilkes, as Scheherazade, his latest wife whose storytelling keeps his murderous instincts at bay. An extended duet between the two of them, dancing each other past the point of exhaustion, is the centerpiece of the show. They brought a sumptuous flow to their tough, wrangling actions.

[dirac]

The State Ballet Academy of Minsk takes their Nutcracker on tour.

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As part of a UK tour taking in 35 venues, the ballet presented by Amande Concerts plays in Lichfield until Saturday.

[dirac]

An interview with Caroline MacDonaldof the Portland Ballet. Video clip included.\

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MacDonald, who lives in Cedar Mill, has been dancing for 10 years. She joined the company as a freshman in high school and now, with her spotlight role among 82 other dancers, balances the rigor of two- to three-hour dance practices six days a week, yoga class and a full school workload. The key, she said, is sleep. "And not being too stressed out," she added.

MacDonald hopes to join a company such as the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, where she spent last summer refining her skills. After a professional ballet stint, MacDonald plans to attend college.

[dirac]

Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied sort out who's minding the baby.

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The 34-year-old is one of ballet’s most sought after choreographers and he met Natalie while working on her critically acclaimed movie Black Swan. But his priorities are now said to have changed.

“Benjamin retired from his position at the New York City Ballet so Natalie could get back to her career,” a source close to the actress told In Touch. “He wants to support her.”

[dirac]

Reviews of Ballet B.C.

Vancouver Sun

Called 3 Fold, the three works by three very different choreographers show the company at its best. With plenty of intensely physical and challenging dance, inventive staging and dramatic lighting, opening night on Thursday was an evening of ballet with brains that never forgot the heart.

Straight.com

This kind of bold, contemporary choreography is challenging, but it’s obvious the fearless corps is up to the task. This season, artistic director Emily Molnar has added some exciting new talent to the roster. A standout was cropped-haired American Rachel Meyer, who really nailed the odd mix of grace, awkwardness, and explosive power in Diversion. At one point she skitters toward Connor Gnam sideways on her hands and feet, her limbs bent up and moving like a broken spider, and he raises her in an achingly sensual lift. Daniel Marshalsay gives ’er in a muscular duet with Racheal Prince, and yet finds a delicacy in the refined, gender-bending ballet moves of Doppeling. And Vancouver’s own Alexander Burton, an Arts Umbrella grad, also has charisma to burn. Just watch him master the right tone in the deadpan routine with Peter Smida that opens Parole Sospese, an almost carnivalesque vignette that ends with them falling face-first into the floor.

Globe and Mail

Parole Sospese (Words Suspended), by Italy’s Walter Matteini, presented a very different world. Instead of driving electronic music, Matteini gave us Scarlatti, Beethoven and Vivaldi. And instead of a work driven by movement, Parole Sospese focused on atmosphere and character. A man (Jed Duifhuis) wanders about the stage in a tux and patent-leather shoes, mostly watching the others, who often seem infused with sadness as they skitter and crawl about the stage.

[dirac]

A review of the National Ballet of Canada in "Romeo and Juliet" by Paula Citron in The Globe and Mail.

After a routine start, Act One ends with an incredibly challenging balcony-scene pas de deux. (Elena Lobsanova as Juliet actually slipped coming down from a lift.) The second act raises the ante with electrifying fight sequences.
Act Three is the clincher because of its originality. Ratmansky, who has up until that point been very faithful to Prokofiev’s scenario, adds in some unusual touches of his own. In fact, the third act is absolutely compelling theatre because of the original scenes he’s put in, including an elegant dream sequence.

[dirac]

A feature on Ballet Next by Susan Reiter for City Arts.

He retired from New York City Ballet last month with considerable fanfare. She slipped away from American Ballet Theatre earlier this year so unexpectedly that even dance insiders had no idea she’d given her final performance. Now these former principal dancers, Charles Askegard and Michele Wiles, are ready for their next move: a new venture called, appropriately enough, Ballet Next.

These two veterans of our largest ballet companies are currently thinking on a smaller and more intimate scale, launching what could be termed a chamber ballet company.  They have eight dancers—including themselves—for Ballet Next’s official debut: a single performance on Monday at the Joyce Theater. The evening juxtaposes Petipa and Balanchine classical pas de deux with new choreography created for this occasion.

[dirac]

An essay on stealing in the arts by Sarah Kaufman in The Washington Post.

If it seems a stretch to liken any aspect of Beyonce’s output with that of esteemed visual artists, there is a concept that links them all: appropriation, the art world’s term for using borrowed material to create new work. It’s a method that the field proudly stands behind, and in addition to Warhol and Duchamp, those who have practiced it include many prominent names in modern painting and sculpture.

[dirac]

New Jersey Ballet presents its first evening length "Don Quixote."

It’s a very costly production,” says New Jersey Ballet’s artistic director, Carolyn Clark, adding that staging a full “Don Quixote” only became possible when she learned where she could rent the costumes and scenery—including the windmill, which the pixilated title character attempts to spear.

Although the setting of the tale is Spanish, the ballet version of “Don Quixote” is a Russian tradition. Albert Davydov, a principal dancer with New Jersey Ballet, has staged the work based on the production in his native Kazan, enlisting help from ballet mistress Marina Bogdanova, who performed “Don Q” with the Russian National Ballet.

[dirac]

A review of Ballet Frontier of Texas' Nutcracker, "The Nut."

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Q&A with Val Caniparoli.

Other than the dancers’ technical ability levels, what are your other considerations when agreeing to work with a company?

All of this depends on what kind of work they want. For example is it a story ballet or purely an abstract work, the amount of dancers required, actual time available on the stage, the dancers’ technical abilities, strength of the music department (if there is to be live music), among others. There are so many different considerations, and many of them have to do with the creation they wish to perform.

[dirac]

A preview of Coleman Lemieux and Compagnie by Elissa Barnard in The Chronicle Herald.

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A Canadian dance icon for three decades, Kudelka is the former artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada (1996 to 2005) and choreographs both ballet and contemporary works. CLC only performs his contemporary pieces.

"He’s great," says Lemieux. "His work has the capacity to speak to very broad audiences but is also sophisticated work. It’s very physical. It’s very passionate in a way; it has humour and it’s very smart work."

[dirac]

Pat Colgate retires as the artistic director of Placer Theatre Ballet.

That experience consists of 50 years of professional dancing, beginning with two years in the Boston Ballet and then a role in “Hit the Deck” in New York City when Colgate was only 16 years old. She was called to audition, and she and her family knew it was an opportunity not to be missed. She toured in the show with Gene Nelson and then returned to her family, who by then had moved to San Francisco, to finish high school.

Colgate opened her own dance studio in San Francisco and danced with a company in the Bay Area until 1995, when she moved to Rocklin. Some of her favorite productions include “A Chorus Line,” “Follies, “No, No Nanette” and “Good News.”