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Angel Corella is leaving American Ballet Theatre to concentrate on Barcelona Ballet.

Mr. Corella, whom Alastair Macaulay has described as "brilliantly charming," will give his farewell performance on June 28 in the role of Prince Siegfried in "Swan Lake," dancing opposite Paloma Herrera.

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A Miami Herald editorial on the appointment of Lourdes Lopez at Miami City Ballet.

Ms. Lopez, 53, was among two finalists (both women) for the director's post. Mr. Villella's choice was not Ms. Lopez, but she earned the search committee's support (9-2 vote) with her broad experience, grace and, yes, a little grit.

She plans to build on Mr. Villella's foundation, and that's as it should be. We hope Mr. Villella will soon embrace the charismatic ballerina that his former mentor trained to become the New York troupe's principal dancer.

Related.

......Villella is also on record in support of Jennifer Kronenberg, an MCB-bred dancer who's spent her entire career in Miami, as his successor.

That means Lopez already has a lot of work to do -- both in preparing herself for her new position, and for the inevitable pushback from Villella loyalists at the company.

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Reviews of the Eifman Ballet in "Anna Karenina."

The Telegraph

Boris Eifman has run his own ballet company since 1977 and is much feted in his homeland. In 2009 the government of St Petersburg elected to build the Dance Academy of Boris Eifman, whose curriculum will probably not be overly exigent since, on the evidence of this Anna Karenina, the company knows only about five steps.

The Guardian

Most frustratingly, there are moments where Eifman shows he can do much better. Anna and Vronsky, alone in their separate bedrooms, dance a dreamy, disconnected duet of longing. In the suicide scene, the train is powerfully reinvented as a chorus of 24 seething, chugging mechanised dancers.

The Evening Standard

The pre-recorded music, mostly culled from Tchaikovsky, contributes to a feeling of relentless cheap emoting, studded with moments of real genius. Anna’s premonition of her death — circled by her son’s model train — is chillingly economical, as is the aftermath of her eventual suicide. The body that was so full of tormenting life gets wheeled out face down — not even a corpse, just a waste disposal issue.

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More.

The Independent

The staging is brisk. Z Margolin’s sets whisk in and out, gilded arches and balconies suggesting a ballroom or the races. V Okunev’s stylised costumes have some period touches – long skirts for the women, a frock coat for Karenin. The music is a hotchpotch of recorded Tchaikovsky, chunks of symphonies, orchestral suites and Francesca da Rimini. It sets an emotional tone, but Eifman rarely engages with the details of his music.

The Arts Desk

The story is reduced to its bare minimum, simply Anna (Nina Zmievets) torn between an agressive husband (Oleg Markov) and a loved son, and Vronsky (Oleg Gabyshev), all swoony rapture. There is no attempt to show the society the trio live in, to explore why Anna is unable to settle. Karenin has no tragic grandeur, he is not the caring but restrained man, but simply a bully, and a rapist to boot.

Londonist

Act II finds its feet with a build up of tempo, including easily the most impressive scene of the show: an extravagant Venetian masked ball showcasing some spectacular costumes and beautiful choreography. We also see a passionate pas de deux by Nina Zmievets (Anna) and Oleg Gabyshev (Vronsky) and are impressed with the atmospheric build up to the suicide scene itself.

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Ballet Idaho presents "Cinderella."

Ballet Idaho's Artistic Director Peter Anastos first envisioned Cinderella for the American Ballet Theater in New York City. Anastos collaborated on the performance with one of the most-famous dancers in the history of ballet, Mikhail Baryshnikov.

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Photo gallery of Gareth Pugh's costume designs for Wayne McGregor's new piece.

The British-born designer, who last month showcased a film of his own Cabaret dance act, has twisted conventional ballet looks with his signature sculptural, dark designs. Ballet pumps will take the form of moulded black spiked boots, while the dancer's face will be covered with an angular pointed mask.

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The Australian Ballet presents a triple bill spotlighting homegrown choreographers.

Opening at the Sydney Opera House on April 5, Infinity brings together the world premiere of specially commissioned works by Graeme Murphy, Gideon Obarzanek and Stephen Page.

It makes for an impressive show, but as corps de ballet company member Benjamin Stuart-Carberry told the Star Observer, there’s perhaps a reason such a production hasn’t been tackled in the Australian Ballet’s history: it’s bloody difficult to pull off.

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A story on the appointment of Lourdes Lopez by Susan Reiter in The Los Angeles Times' blog.

The selection of Lopez retains the company’s strong association with the Balanchine’s ballets, which have formed the core of its repertory, and in which the company has gained an international reputation for excellence.

“It’s clearly the rep that I know and that I love – that I’ve been an advocate of,” Lopez said from the Morphoses office in New York, hours after learning she had the job. “Their board is very interested and committed to the Balanchine rep -- as I am. I said, absolutely that would not change. But there is the possibility of introducing other works -- and certainly commissioned work. They started this year with Liam [Scarlett] and Alexei [Ratmansky], and it would be great to continue that."

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A review of Miami City Ballet's "Coppelia" by Harriet Howard Heithaus for Naples News.

The lighthearted mazurka that fills the stage. It's rustic elegance with maidens in swirling, ribbon-trimmed gold skirts — thanks to American Ballet Theatre costumes — and men in collared vests and boots. Moves were both rapid-fire and wide open, making it sumptuously showy, a reminder that this corps de ballet is strongly disciplined. The subsequent czardas, during which one of the dancers is caught and then twirled at waist height in the air by her partner, is an omigosh-they-can't-do-that-twice moment. (They do.)

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A review of New York City Ballet by Sarah Halzack in The Washington Post.

Although line and shape are critical to the Balanchine style, it’s what Peck does in between those poses and positions that makes her dancing so singular. In “The Man I Love,” she prowls backward on a long diagonal toward her duet partner, Robert Fairchild. It’s only a walk, but the slight sway of her hips, the tension in her chest and her lowered brow instantly reveal everything we need to know about her character: This is a woman longing for the man she passionately loves.

Peck also seems to have an impeccably tuned internal compass that tells her when to summon her virtuosity and control and when to throw those assets to the wind. In a solo section, “Fascinatin’ Rhythm,” she’s able to polish off a difficult cross-stage pirouette sequence because her positioning is so precise that it allows her to reach maximum speed without sacrificing any musicality. But in the duet with Fairchild, the way she swoons into his arms is wholly uncalculated — it’s purely (and rightly) emotional.

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A review of the National Ballet Orchestra's 60th anniversary concert by Colin Eatock in The Globe and Mail.

But the concert really belonged to music director David Briskin, who led his orchestra through a program of ballet music from the company's productions.

In so doing, he inadvertently made two convincing arguments: Not all ballet music is suitable as concert repertoire, and performance practices cultivated in an orchestra pit don't always work well when the same orchestra is up on stage.