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[dirac]

A review of Ballet West by Kathy Adams in The Salt Lake Tribune's blog.

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At this performance, I was blown away by soloist Sayaka Ohtaki and Christopher Ruud in the opening pas de deux of "But Never Doubt." Ohtaki is so musical that at times it seemed as if she could also be in a dance with the on-stage pianist Jared Oaks. She’s a very expressive dancer, and because she has the technique to back it up, she can draw the music out, hanging on a note until it gently slips away from under her. Soloist Adrian Fry and artist Alexander MacFarlan were two parts of a whole. McFarlan is young, and it’s great to see him get challenging roles and to see that he more than meet the challenge.

[dirac]

Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre holds a fundraising ball.

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Following cocktails, seats were taken around tables accented with moody candlelight and centerpieces of lush, scarlet hued florals a la Hens and Chicks. In between seven mouth-watering French courses that began with seared scallops and ended with gluttony, the PBT company dancers performed perfectly timed vignettes that were received with one standing “O” after another, before Gary Racan and the studio-e band ensured the dance floor stayed full well past midnight.

When it was all said and done, the evening raised more than $449K, including auction proceeds of $115K alone.

[dirac]

A review of Spellbound Contemporary Ballet by Donald Rosenberg in The Plain Dealer.

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The Rome-based company, opening its first official United States tour, introduced three pieces – two of them closely linked – by artistic Mauro Astolfi, a choreographer who embraces passion and ambiguity in equal measure. He has honed a troupe of nine dancers of exceptional elegance and earthiness, melding classical and modern techniques with seamless dexterity.

[dirac]

A review of the Royal Ballet by Jenny Gilbert in The Independent.

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The work of Christopher Wheeldon has often sailed daringly close to pretty, and in Fool's Paradise he seems to be testing the limits of that currently unfashionable quality. Set to Joby Talbot's plush score, replete with swooning harp, all the allusions point to early Hollywood. Gilded confetti drifts down as the nine-strong cast unfurl in eerily symmetrical duets and trios, like decorative features on an embossed party invite, or sculpted caryatids on a movie set, glamorously bathed in a golden haze. It's exquisite, but unnerving. Who are the fools of the title – the gilded ones who believe their own cinematic hype, or the gawping, earth-bound masses?....

[dirac]

Candice Adea leaves the Philippines for Hong Kong Ballet.

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Damian’s choreography and both costumes were said to be gifts to the couple by Damian himself and a group of supporters who bemoaned the lack of support for the dancers’ efforts in their two-year competition marathon in an effort to reach their goals while beating the international competitions’ age limit.

Adea just turned 26, the age limit in the Senior category. Perhaps 70 percent of the financing for the international competitions they joined—Jackson, Mississipi; Boston, Korea and Helsinki—came from the couples’ own coffers.

[dirac]

A review of Morphoses by Deborah Jowitt in her blog, DanceBeat.

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Labyrinth Within stars the New York City Ballet’s remarkable Wendy Whelan as the wife, dancer-choreographer Giovanni Bucchieri as the increasingly unbalanced husband, and Lidberg as her possible lover. The film is beautiful to look at. Most of it was shot in a castle outside Stockholm. A chill, wintry light slants into a long train of nearly empty rooms with bleached wood floors. No one speaks. The interplay of rapid cuts and meaningful close-ups (like the shot of Bucchieri’s wedding-ringed hand) helps convey the basic facts of the tale, but it also deliberately skews time, so you’re never entirely sure what precedes what, or what is real and what imagined.