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  2. Helene
    Ms. Dec has performed as a guest artist with Ballet Hawaii, California Ballet, Corpus Christi Ballet, Dance Arts Theatre, Grand Rapids Ballet, Lafayette Ballet, and Mid-Columbia Ballet, and is an artistic advisor for Ballet North Texas. This is sad news for the audience, but I wish her happiness in her immediate and long-term future plans. . Couples aren't always compatible partners onstage, but Lindsi Dec and Karel Cruz were one of the best on-stage partnerships I've ever seen.
  3. Helene started following Lindsi Dec Has Retired
  4. Helene
    From PNB: Pacific Northwest Ballet Principal Dancer Lindsi Dec Announces Retirement. SEATTLE, WA — Pacific Northwest Ballet Artistic Director Peter Boal and principal dancer Lindsi Dec have announced that Ms. Dec has decided to retire. Ms. Dec joined PNB as an apprentice in 2001, and was promoted to corps de ballet in 2002, soloist in 2009, and principal in 2014. Ms. Dec will focus her post-PNB career on teaching private and master classes, in addition to working on plans for a private ballet studio, and continuing with Solu, the professional dancewear line created with her husband, former PNB principal dancer Karel Cruz. (For more information, visit LindsiandKarel.com.) “With a mix of emotions, I announce the news of Lindsi Dec’s decision to retire from PNB,” said Mr. Boal. “Lindsi stepped into our School as a wide-eyed teenager with a burning desire to dance and perform. When I met Lindsi, she and Karel were both stand-out talents in the corps de ballet. After the rehearsal day was done, they would start their own work on classics, exploring technical and artistic growth. In many ways, Lindsi grew up at PNB becoming not only a striking presence in a wide-ranging repertoire, but also a friend, supporter, and champion to everyone at PNB; from students to staff, and from fellow dancers to audience members, sharing joy and inspiration for all along the way. As I watched her in Don Q, Red Angels, Rubies, The Nutcracker, Petit Mort and the many original works created for her by friend, Kiyon Ross, Lindsi never held back on the work, laughter, tears, or triumphs. It has been a true pleasure to work with her over the years. I know leaving her PNB family is hard, but she and Karel have a new family now and her decision, like everything Lindsi has done, is admirable. We will miss you, Lindsi.” “It is with a heavy heart that I am announcing my retirement from PNB,” said Ms. Dec. “I have spent 19 years growing up here, never imagining the beautiful journey I would go on, growing as an artist, dancing wonderful roles, becoming a wife and now a mother of two. There are so many people in the PNB family to thank: To [PNB Founding Artistic Directors] Kent Stowell and Francia Russell, thank you for taking a chance on a very weak, gangly student, and for your unconditional love and support throughout my entire career. Words cannot express how much you both mean to me. Thank you, Peter, for the numerous demanding, satisfying, amazing dancing opportunities – always giving me roles that challenged me on so many levels and for believing in me. Thank you to the artistic staff for being with us every day in the studio, pushing us more than we thought imaginable. Thank you to all the hard working development, admin, PR and marketing teams. Thank you to the costume and wardrobe shop, who always made me feel beautiful and made sure we were always feeling great in our costumes; to the stage crew and stage managers, who helped produce such wonderful shows, making sure we were always comfortable on stage so we could dance our best; and the talented PNB Orchestra and our daily pianists who brighten our day and time on stage with their beautiful music. Thank you to Boyd Bender and the therapists for helping our minds and bodies to continue pushing to do what we love so much. Thank you to our generous donors and audience members for the constant love and support, who are always there for us. It was a true honor and gift to be able to dance on stage all these years for you. And thank you to my beautiful colleagues, my friends. My family. Their love and support along the way has meant the world, not only to me but to Karel as well. I will miss you all so much and am incredibly grateful and blessed for this cherished time in my life. Thank you all.” Kiyon Ross, PNB’s Director of Company Operations (and former company soloist) added: “Lindsi and I have been friends for nearly 20 years and in that time I have danced alongside her, danced as one of her many lucky partners, created several new works for her, and watched her steady rise to the pinnacle of her career. Lindsi is an extremely generous artist, giving everything she has each time she steps into the studio or onto the stage. Her gifts are plentiful and one cannot help but be in awe when she performs. Whether in Balanchine’s leggy, and jazzy Rubies lead or her ethereal and fierce Myrta in Giselle, she is the epitome of grace and beauty personified. Despite the fact that Lindsi will not be able to share a final performance with her PNB family and fans, I am certain that those of us who had the opportunity to see this incredible artist in her natural habitat have a special memory of her that we can recall so that we may once again experience the joy produced by Lindsi’s dancing. As she moves into this new chapter of her life of raising two incredible sons with her husband Karel, I am certain that Lindsi will continue to find ways to share her gifts and all of the acquired knowledge she has gained during her incredible career. Leaving the stage is no easy task for a dancer, however, I know that Lindsi will carve out a new path with new challenges and treasures. I am so grateful to know Lindsi, to have seen her dance, and to be able to watch what comes next. It’s going to be great! From me and all of the PNB family, we love you, Lindsi!” Ms. Dec will be focusing her post-PNB career on freelancing, teaching master classes and private classes. She and Mr. Cruz recently launched their new website, LindsiandKarel.com, which also includes educational information, interviews with professional dancers, clean eating recipes, info about online classes and how to book privates, and more. For additional information, visit LindsiandKarel.com. The new website is also the link to Solu, their professional dancewear line. “As dancers, staring in the mirror for hours, what we wear makes a difference with how we dance – garments that follow the fluidity of our movements and cater to the versatility of jumping, turning, and partnering – are forefront. We wanted to create a line of dancewear for every type of dancer — to provide a unique, edgy yet elegant look.” Seed money for Solu came from Second Stage, PNB’s career transition program for its company dancers. Conceived in 1999, Second Stage supports PNB dancers in achieving their goals following a career in dance. Its resources allow dancers to take classes, access mentors and vocation counseling, and receive grants. At its inception, only a handful of dancers actively planned for their career after dance. Since that time, Second Stage has provided nearly $1.1 million in grants to over 200 dancers. For more information, visit PNB.org. ADDITIONAL ARTIST BIO INFORMATION Lindsi Dec is from Fairfax, Virginia. She trained at Washington School of Ballet and on scholarship at Pacific Northwest Ballet School before joining the company in 2001. At PNB, Ms. Dec has performed leading roles in George Balanchine’s Agon, Apollo, Concerto Barocco, Coppélia (Discord and War, Prayer), Emeralds, The Four Temperaments, George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker® (Sugar Plum Fairy, Coffee, Dewdrop), Prodigal Son, Rubies, Serenade, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, and Symphony in C; Peter Boal’s Giselle (Myrtha); Trisha Brown’s Spanish Dance; Val Caniparoli’s The Bridge and The Seasons; David Dawson’s Empire Noir and A Million Kisses to My Skin; Ulysses Dove’s Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven, Red Angels, Serious Pleasures, and Vespers; Nacho Duato’s Jardí Tancat and Rassemblement; William Forsythe’s In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated and New Suite; Kiyon Gaines’ Sum Stravinsky; Paul Gibson’s Sense of Doubt; Ronald Hynd’s The Sleeping Beauty (Lilac Fairy, Gold and Silver pas de trois, Queen); Jiri Kylian’s Forgotten Land and Petite Mort; Jean-Christophe Maillot’s Roméo et Juliette (Lady Capulet); Benjamin Millepied’s 3 Movements; Mark Morris’ A Garden and Pacific; Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Cylindrical Shadows; Justin Peck’s Debonair; Crystal Pite’s Emergence and Plot Point; Yuri Possokhov’s RAkU; Alexei Ratmansky’s Don Quixote (Kitri, Mercedes, Piccilia) and Pictures at an Exhibition; Jerome Robbins’ The Concert, Fancy Free, Glass Pieces, In the Night, and West Side Story Suite (Anita); Kent Stowell’s Carmina Burana, Cinderella (Stepsister), Hail to the Conquering Hero, Nutcracker (Clara, Flora, Peacock), and Swan Lake (Black Swan pas de deux, Pas de trois, Persian Dance); Susan Stroman’s TAKE FIVE…More or Less; and Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room, Nine Sinatra Songs, Opus 111, and Waterbaby Bagatelles. She originated leading roles in Andrew Bartee’s Dirty Goods, Kiyon Gaines’ M-Pulse, Paul Gibson’s Mozart Pieces, Victor Quijada’s Mating Theory and Suspension of Disbelief, and Christopher Wheeldon’s Tide Harmonic. She has been featured in Balanchine’s La Valse; Robert Joffrey’s Remembrances; Todd Bolender’s Souvenirs; William Forsythe’s In the middle, somewhat elevated; Stowell’s Carmina Burana, Silver Lining, and The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet; Richard Tanner’s Ancient Airs and Dances, and Christopher Wheeldon’s Variations Sérieuses.
  5. Today
  6. Buddy
    BBC News “The Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has announced that outdoor theatres and music venues will be able to re-open.” https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-53356040/culture-secretary-support-the-places-we-all-love (thanks to Ian Macmillan at BalletcoForum) Here are UK updated guidelines. “Performing arts” “Guidance for people who work in performing arts, including arts organisations, venue operators and participants.” https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19/performing-arts#arts-5-2 (thanks to Ian Macmillan at BalletcoForum)
  7. volcanohunter
    The Royal Ballet in Kenneth MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet, with Yasmine Naghdi and Matthew Ball.
  8. Ashton Fan
    While I am not a great Cathy Marston fan the Cellist may be of interest as it was made on Cuthbertson, Ball and Sambe all of whom are on top form in their created roles. My problem with it in the theatre was that I thought it could have done with some serious editing and that Marston had wasted a large number of talented dancers who seemed to have little reason to be on stage except to populate it as moving scenery and occasionally to act as props. My main interest in this DVD will be in Dances at a Gathering which again provides an opportunity to see a lot of the company's dancers but this time used to considerable effect. I was lucky enough to see the Royal Ballets original cast in the work and the impact of those performances has remained with me ever since. When it was announced that D A A G was replacing the previously advertised new ballet by Liam Scarlett I bought tickets for every performance which I could attend and I was not disappointed by either cast. This is a recording that I am likely to buy. It is due to be issued on the 22nd January 2021. There are rumours that last season's revival of Coppelia which was streamed to cinemas with a cast led by Nunez and Muntagirov will find its way onto DVD. I hope it proves to be true because while I would have preferred to see a recording of the performance given by the first night cast led by Hayward, Campbell and Avis a new recording of Coppelia is to be welcomed.
  9. Ashton Fan
    While I am not a great Cathy Marston fan the Cellist may be of interest as it was made on Cuthbertson, Ball and Sambe all of whom are on top form in their created roles. My problem with it in the theatre was that I thought it could have done with some serious editing and that Marston had wasted a large number of talented dancers who seemed to have little reason to be on stage except to populate it as moving scenery and occasionally to act as props. My main interest in this DVD will be in Dances at a Gathering which again provides an opportunity to see a lot of the company's dancers but this time used to considerable effect. I was lucky enough to see the Royal Ballets original cast in the work and the impact of those performances has remained with me ever since. When it was announced that D A A G was replacing the previously advertised new ballet by Liam Scarlett I bought tickets for every performance which I could attend and I was not disappointed by either cast. This is a recording that I am likely to buy. It is due to be issued on the 22nd January 2021. There are rumours that last season's revival of Coppelia which was streamed to cinemas with a cast led by Nunez and Muntagirov will find its way onto DVD. I hope it proves to be true because while I would have preferred to see a recording of the performance given by the first night cast led by Hayward, Campbell and Avis a new recording of Coppelia is to be welcomed.
  10. Ashton Fan
    These are the latest Royal Ballet performances to be made available to a worldwide audience during shutdown. Romeo and Juliet is being shown today at 7pm London time and will be available for a further fortnight. Now I know that I often feel that MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet is in danger of being done to death and that I would appreciate it much more if it were rested for several seasons and replaced, say by Ashton's version, but this is a performance that I shall be watching as the leading roles are taken by Yasmine Naghdi and Matthew Ball. It was a revival of this ballet a couple of seasons earlier which made London audiences sit up and take notice of both dancers as potential company principals. The ballet is strongly cast and if I recall correctly Juliet's Friends at this performance included at least one dancer who was almost certainly making her final appearance in that role. Sleeping Beauty is being shown on 24th July at 7 pm and will also be available for a further fortnight. The cast is led by Fumi Kaneko and Federico Bonelli. It goes without saying that this is a ballet which gives the audience the opportunity to see a lot of the company in action. This performance is of great interest as Kaneko was replacing a senior dancer at short notice and had, I think, only made her debut as Aurora a few days earlier with a different partner. Kaneko is another dancer to watch and whose career is likely to be of interest.
  11. Rosa
    School of American Ballet's Virtual Workshop (available until Monday, July 13 at 7pm ET)
  12. Rosa
    English National Ballet's Cinderella
  13. Dale
    Here's the press release for the City Center dancing offerings: New York City Center Live @ Home virtual programming announced Ayodele Casel’s Diary of a Tap Dancer V.6: Us a seven-part performance series conceived and curated by Ayodele Casel and Torya Beard Studio 5 | Great American Ballerinas a five-part series featuring Misty Copeland, Sara Mearns, and Tiler Peck July 8, 2020 (New York, NY) – New York City Center President & CEO Arlene Shuler today announced New York City Center Live @ Home virtual programming including a newly commissioned weekly performance series conceived and curated by tap dancer Ayodele Casel, alongside frequent collaborator Torya Beard, called Ayodele Casel’s Diary of a Tap Dancer V.6: Us, and the popular Studio 5 series curated and hosted by Alastair Macaulay and featuring Misty Copeland, Sara Mearns, and Tiler Peck in a special five-part event titled Great American Ballerinas. The much-loved social media series Encores! Archives Project, which revisits selections from City Center’s illustrious musical theater vault, also continues through September. “During these uncertain and turbulent times, it is even more important that City Center provides a platform for artists to develop and share their work,” said Shuler. “I’m excited that City Center Live @ Home programming showcases some of the extraordinary dance artists who are part of our extended family. This has been a challenging time for so many and I am personally grateful for the support City Center has received from our loyal audiences. I hope you will all tune in as we launch these new online initiatives.” In keeping with City Center’s founding mission to provide access to the best in the arts for all, City Center Live @ Home programs will premiere for free on City Center’s YouTube page and website at NYCityCenter.org. Ayodele Casel’s Diary of a Tap Dancer V.6: Us For this new virtual series, Ayodele Casel, one of the “Biggest Breakout Stars of 2019” (The New York Times), has curated a group of artists who will present seven different video performances—solos and duos created and performed by a multigenerational and multicultural group—to be released weekly at 12pm beginning Tuesday, July 14 (through Tuesday, August 25). Co-directed by Casel and Torya Beard, the series is a continuation of her Diary of a Tap Dancer project and will feature performances from Casel and other tap artists including Amanda Castro, Starinah Dixon, Andre Imanishi, Ryan Johnson, Lisa La Touche, Ted Levy, Michela Marino Lerman, Anthony Morigerato, Makenna Watts, and more. Kurt Csolak serves as editor of the series, with Darren Biggart and Anthony Morigerato acting as creative producers. “We all have something to say. We have something to give, something to communicate about who we are and where we've been,” said Casel. “Diary of a Tap Dancer is predicated on the belief that by revealing our stories, we expose our shared humanity and provide a deeper understanding of how our life experience moves the dance.” Casel began her relationship with City Center in 2016 performing her solo piece, While I Have the Floor, as part of the Encores! Off-Center Jamboree and was invited that October to reprise the work as part of the Fall for Dance Festival. She choreographed and performed in the 2017 Encores! Off-Center production of Carole King and Maurice Sendak’s Really Rosie, with Torya Beard serving as assistant choreographer. Both Casel and Beard served on the Encores! Off-Center Artist Board for three years. Casel also appeared with Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra in a one-night-only event as part of the ¡Adelante, Cuba! Festival in 2018. In April 2019, Casel, along with O’Farrill, and Beard as creative director, helped launch City Center On the Move, a community engagement initiative first presented as part of City Center’s 75th Anniversary Season. In partnership with NYC Parks Arts, Culture & Fun, On the Move brings world-class artists directly to New Yorkers in their own neighborhoods. Studio 5 | Great American Ballerinas City Center’s Studio 5 goes virtual with a five-part series—Great American Ballerinas—featuring performance excerpts from three of today’s leading ballerinas: Misty Copeland, Sara Mearns, and Tiler Peck, curated and hosted by dance critic and historian Alastair Macaulay. In this special series, each dancer works in a live coaching session with another acclaimed dance artist, including Nina Ananiashvili, Merrill Ashley, Alessandra Ferri, Stephanie Saland, and Pam Tanowitz. In July, New York City Ballet (NYCB) principal dancer Tiler Peck, famous for her prodigious technique and musical skill, works with former NYCB star and ballet master Merrill Ashley, who created numerous roles for Balanchine and is credited with establishing unprecedented levels of technique in the 1970s and ‘80s. Together they will explore a selection of Balanchine solos with Ashley coaching Peck. This program begins live streaming on Thursday, July 16 at 3pm and will be available to view through Wednesday, July 22. NYCB principal dancer Sara Mearns has become known as one of America’s foremost interpreters of the dual role of Odette-Odile in Swan Lake. She will explore this classic role alongside “one of the twelve greatest ballerinas of all time” (Daily Telegraph), Georgian ballerina Nina Ananiashvili. This program begins live-streaming Thursday, July 30 at 12pm and will be available through Wednesday, August 5. In September, Peck works with former NYCB ballerina Stephanie Saland (Sep 16) on the “green” solo from Jerome Robbins’s Dances at a Gathering—the only female solo in the hour-long quintessential piano ballet. Saland was coached in the role by Robbins himself, who also choreographed a number of roles for her in the 1970s and ‘80s. Mearns also returns with choreographer Pam Tanowitz (Sep 23) to explore new solo material created for her. Both artists have extended their artistic range in recent years—Tanowitz revealing her distinct choreographic voice through a witty and inventive post-modern treatment of classical dance vocabulary and Mearns expanding her repertory to include works by modern dance pioneers Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, and Merce Cunningham, among others. In the final program of the Great American Ballerinas series (Sep 30), Misty Copeland, the first African American principal ballerina with the prestigious American Ballet Theatre, revisits Juliet’s solo scenes in Act Three of Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet with international ballet star Alessandra Ferri. All virtual Studio 5 events will be streamed for one week on City Center’s YouTube page and website at NYCityCenter.org/Studio5. Following the week-long streaming period, members will receive exclusive access to an archive of the full series. For information on becoming a member (starting at $100) visit NYCityCenter.org/Support or email Membership@NYCityCenter.org. Ayodele Casel’s Diary of a Tap Dancer V.6: Us NYCityCenter.org/Tap New performances every Tue, Jul 14 – Aug 25, 12pm Ayodele Casel and special guests Amanda Castro is a multidisciplinary artist. She is a graduate of California Institute of the Arts, where she studied under Glen Eddy of Nederlands Dans Theatre and Andre Tyson from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Recent credits include Singin’ in the Rain (Olney Theatre Center) and 42nd Street (Ordway Center). @acastrodance Starinah Dixon is an assistant director, choreographer, and original principal dancer of world-renowned tap company M.A.D.D. Rhythms. She has performed as a guest with companies such as Michelle Dorrance's Dorrance Dance and as a part of Savion Glover’s All Funk’d Up. Dixon has taught and performed at the most distinguished tap festivals in the country including the LA Tap Fest, DC Tap Fest, RIFF Dallas, and more. Andre Imanishi is a 2020 National YoungArts winner and was most recently seen at The Joyce Theater as part of the Ayodele Casel + Arturo O’Farrill production. His tenacious approach to training, passion for hoofing, and unique point of view, has garnered invitations to perform with Cartier Williams, the Bernstein Tribute at the Kennedy Center, Ziggity Bop, The Giz, Ayodele Casel, New York City Center’s On the Move, and more. Ryan Johnson is the co-founder and artistic director for SOLE Defined percussive dance company, and an artist-in-residence at Dance Place in Washington, DC. His work weaves together the techniques, history, and aesthetics of tap dance, body percussion, stepping, and theater to forge works that reclaim Black narratives. @rkj.dance Lisa La Touche is co-founder of Training Dayz alongside Danny Nielsen in Calgary, and founder of Tap Phonics. La Touche has performed, choreographed, and taught worldwide on various independent projects. Recent credits include Shuffle Along, choreographed by Savion Glover and directed by George C. Wolfe. lisalatouche.com Ted Levy made his Broadway debut in the smash hit Black & Blue, and collaborated with George C. Wolfe and Gregory Hines on the choreography of Jelly's Last Jam (Tony nomination, Drama Desk Award nomination, Outer Critics Circle Award). Other credits include: Spike Lee’s Malcom X, PBS’ Precious Memories (Emmy Award), Ted Levy and Friends, Dancing Under the Stars, Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk!, and more. @tedlouislevy Michela Marino Lerman is a globally sought-after tap dance artist, performer, choreographer, educator, and all-around creative spirit. Lerman has performed, choreographed, produced, and directed many projects throughout her career and has performed with masters including Jon Batiste and Stay Human, Savion Glover, Benny Golson, Roy Hargrove, Barry Harris, Wynton Marsalis, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Marcus Roberts, and many more. michelataps.com Anthony Morigerato is a tap dancer, producer, director, content creator, writer, and Emmy-nominated choreographer. Morigerato is the executive producer and artistic director for AM Dance Productions. He is currently the co-artistic director for American Tap Festival and Operation: Tap, and continues to teach and choreograph for dance organizations, festivals, competitions, theater schools, and dance studios all over the world. amtapdance.com Makenna Watts is a Florida-based tap artist. She is a member of Sole Talk Youth Company and has represented Florida in the Southern Open Rhythm Collective’s Youth Program. Studio 5 | Great American Ballerinas NYCityCenter.org/Studio5 Thu Jul 16, 3pm (on view through Jul 22) Tiler Peck with Merrill Ashley, Balanchine solos Thu Jul 30, 12pm (on view through Aug 5) Sara Mearns with Nina Ananiashvili, Swan Lake Wed Sep 16, 5pm (on view through Sep 22) Tiler Peck with Stephanie Saland, Dances at a Gathering Wed Sep 23, 5pm (on view through Sep 29) Sara Mearns with Pam Tanowitz, New Work Wed Sep 30, 5pm (on view through Oct 6) Misty Copeland with Alessandra Ferri, Romeo and Juliet Misty Copeland is a principal dancer at ABT. She was promoted in 2015, historically making her the first Black woman to be named a principal dancer in the company’s then 75-year history. Copeland joined ABT’s Studio Company in 2000 and the main company’s corps de ballet in 2001. She was promoted to soloist in 2007. She performed the world premiere of Kyle Abraham’s Ash, a City Center commission, at the 2019 Fall for Dance Festival. Copeland is a devoted mentor, activist, and philanthropist, as well as the bestselling author of Ballerina Body, Life in Motion, and the award-winning children’s book Firebird. She received an honorary doctorate from the University of Hartford, has been named as one of Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” and Glamour magazine’s “Women of the Year,” and was honored with a Black Girls Rock! Award. Sara Mearns of Columbia, South Carolina, has been a principal dancer with NYCB since 2008. She has been a guest artist with the Paul Taylor Dance Company, Jodi Melnick Dance, and Wang Ramirez. She has also starred in the US premiere of Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes at City Center and performed the Dances of Isadora Duncan at both Lincoln Center and City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival. Mearns was also featured in the Fall for Dance Festival in 2013, 2017, 2018, and 2019. She has worked with world-renowned choreographers including Alexei Ratmansky and Justin Peck. In 2019, she made her City Center Encores! debut in I Married an Angel. Mearns is the winner of the 2018 Bessie Award for Outstanding Performer and a nominee for both the Benois de la Danse and Princess Grace Awards. She has partnerships with Cole Haan, Tiger Balm, and SoDanca. Tiler Peck is a principal dancer with NYCB. She has several Broadway, television, and film credits including choreography for John Wicks 3: Parabellum (2019) and a guest appearance on Dancing with the Stars. She danced at the Kennedy Center Honors twice for the Obamas. She was a “30 Under 30” in Forbes magazine and has been the recipient of several awards including a Dance Magazine Award, a Princess Grace Foundation Fellowship, and a Mae L. Wien Award. Peck has also appeared in previous City Center events including Studio 5, the 2015 and 2018 Fall for Dance Festival, and the 2016 Vail Dance Festival: ReMix NYC. Nina Ananiashvili was born in Tbilisi, Georgia. At the age of 10, she began studying ballet at the Georgian State Choreographic School and entered the Moscow Choreographic School when she was 13. Ananiashvili joined the Bolshoi Ballet upon graduating in 1981. While she was a prima ballerina there, she became a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre and danced with The Royal Ballet, Houston Ballet, La Scala Theatre Ballet, and the Metropolitan Opera, among others. She has performed more than 100 ballet pieces and won first prizes at several international ballet competitions. In 2004, Ananiashvili took on the responsibilities of artistic director of the State Ballet of Georgia. She was awarded the Rustaveli State Prize of Georgia and the State Prize of Russia (Triumph). She is also a People’s Artist of Georgia and of the Russian Federation, and a recipient of the Georgian Order of Honor, Georgian Order of Excellence, and the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity by the president of Italy. In 2017, she received the prestigious Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, a Japanese government honor established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji of Japan. Merrill Ashley was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and began her ballet training when she was seven years old. At 13, she won one of the first Ford Foundation scholarships to the School of American Ballet. In 1967, she was invited to join NYCB and was promoted to principal dancer in 1977. In addition to dancing classic Balanchine works like Concerto Barocco, Firebird, and Square Dance, Balanchine choreographed Ballo della Regina and Ballade for her. One of the great Balanchine ballerinas, Ashley retired from the stage in 1997 and currently stages and coaches Balanchine ballets around the world. The film The Dance Goodbye documents her transition into retirement. She is the author of Dancing for Balanchine and co-author of The Balanchine Essays. Born in Milan, Italy, Alessandra Ferri joined the Royal Ballet in 1980 where Sir Kenneth MacMillan selected her for leading roles in his ballets Romeo and Juliet, Manon, and Mayerling, and choreographed others for her. In 1985, Ferri joined ABT as a principal dancer. She is also a permanent guest artist at La Scala. From 2008–2014, she directed dance at the Spoleto Festival. Ferri choreographed The Piano Upstairs, written by John Weidman, and was directed by Martha Clarke in Cherì. Other roles created for her includes Virgina Woolf in Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works and Eleonora Duse in John Neumeier’s Duse. She premiered McGregor’s Witness with Herman Cornejo at the 2016 Fall for Dance Festival and AFTERITE for ABT in 2018. In 2019, with Cornejo, Ferri inaugurated the new Linbury Theatre at the Royal Opera House with Trio ConcertDance. Ferri received numerous international awards including two Sir Lawrence Olivier Award, the Dance Magazine Award, and the Benois de la Danse. During her long career with NYCB, Stephanie Saland performed in leading roles under Balanchine's direction and received guidance from Jerome Robbins for two decades. Saland was a guest performer in Nureyev and Friends, Giselle with Alexander Godunov, and numerous Live from Lincoln Center broadcasts. Since 1993, she has been a freelance instructor based in Seattle where she continues to teach, coach, and mentor throughout the US and internationally. Saland is inspired and informed by non-ballet modalities and is working to evolve a teaching style that synthesizes and provides a creative response to the valuable aspects of these approaches. Pam Tanowitz is a New York-based choreographer and founder of Pam Tanowitz Dance. Her work was selected by The New York Times’ “Best of Dance” from 2013 to 2015 and 2017 to 2019. Tanowitz’s 2017 New Work for Goldberg Variations, created in collaboration with pianist Simone Dinnerstein, was called a “rare achievement” (The New York Times). Her most recent work, Four Quartets (2018), inspired by T.S. Eliot’s literary masterpiece and set to music by Kaija Saariaho, was called "the greatest creation of dance theater so far this century” (The New York Times). Tanowitz’s work was featured at The Juilliard School and City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival in 2012, 2015, and 2018. Her piece One Last Good Chance was co-commissioned by the Fall for Dance Festival and Vail International Dance Festival in 2015. Tanowitz’s honors include two Bessie awards in addition to numerous commissions and fellowships. Alastair Macaulay was chief theater critic of the Financial Times from 1994 to 2007, and chief dance critic of The New York Times from 2007 to 2018. In 1983, he was founding editor of the British quarterly Dance Theatre Journal, and in 1988 and 1992, he was guest dance critic to The New Yorker. He has written the short biography Margot Fonteyn (1998) and the extensive book of interviews Matthew Bourne and His Adventures in Dance (2011). He has convened a series of seminars at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts on ballets from Giselle to Afternoon of a Faun and has given public presentations there on dance from The Sleeping Beauty to Merce Cunningham. A Director’s Fellow at the NYU Center for Ballet and the Arts in 2020, he is working on a critical biography of Merce Cunningham. NEW YORK CITY CENTER (Arlene Shuler, President & CEO) has played a defining role in the cultural life of the city since 1943. The distinctive neo-Moorish theater welcomes over 300,000 annual visitors to experience internationally acclaimed artists on the same stage where legends like George Balanchine, Leonard Bernstein, and Barbara Cook made their mark. Its landmark 75th Anniversary Season (2018 – 2019) paid tribute to this rich history and celebrated the institution’s singular role in the arts today. City Center’s Tony-honored Encores! series has celebrated the tradition of American musical theater for over 25 years. In 2013, City Center launched the Encores! Off-Center series, which brings today’s innovative artists into contact with groundbreaking musicals from the more recent past. Dance has also been integral to the theater’s mission from the start and programs like the annual Fall for Dance Festival, with all tickets $15, remain central to City Center’s identity. Home to a roster of renowned national and international companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (City Center’s Principal Dance Company) and Manhattan Theatre Club, New York City Center is Manhattan’s first performing arts center, founded by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia with the mission of making the best in music, theater, and dance accessible to all audiences. That mission continues today through its dynamic programming, art exhibitions, studio events, and master classes, which are complemented by education and community engagement programs that bring the performing arts to over 11,000 New York City students, teachers, and families each year. NYCityCenter.org
  14. Yesterday
  15. Dale
    DTW in Works & Process, including an excerpt from The Four Temperaments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F1FHvazGrQ ETA - not a performance. Zoom talk about the piece and coaching it.
  16. nanushka
    This definitely sounds exciting. Thanks for the heads-up, @Ashton Fan.
  17. pherank
    And we get to see the Emma Rubinowitz's full length version of You Don't Own Me performed by her SFB friends. 😉
  18. Buddy
  19. pherank
    A must see if you are at all familiar with SFB and its dance family - the San Francisco Dance Film Festival Digital Season. Madison Keesler is one of the presenters and dance participants. Myles Thatcher and Ben Freemantle also appear. Big roles for Sasha De Sola and Luke Ingham in Sirens Tango (look for all the familiar faces in the background of the scenes). Many of the choreographers, dancers, various film production staffs in these pieces, have connections to SFB.
  20. pherank
    This could be posted various places... San Francisco Dance Film Festival - 1st Digital Season On YouTube:
  21. Helene
    I have the privilege of doing the same. Not everyone does, and with schools planning to open, that leaves a lot more people without the privilege to stay home. Edited to add: I hit send before I saw your reply, @pbl, and before I didn't type what was in my thoughts, which was trying to stay out of your ER, @pbl and add to a system that is overburdened. While some people might be in denial at obvious symptoms and/or feel they can't stay home regardless what I was obsessing about thinking of were those symptoms that are really mild and isolated at first, when a person is still contagious, but before they even thought of themselves as a danger.
  22. pbl
    Got it. So in a sense this applies right now to the other emergency physicians, and the nurses and techs and other staff I work with. If one of us has symptoms that might be COVID we need to stay home until we've been tested and ruled out or recovered. You might think that would keep too many people out of work, but in practice at 50 I'm the oldest person working this shift in the ER today, the vast majority of people my age and younger don't have such symptoms most days and it's pretty rare that people call out sick. Winter might be different of course. I've had about ten of my friends who are also ER docs get COVID. A few of them were flattened for a couple of weeks, others had milder illnesses, one of my friends died (she was widely reported in the news). But for most people it's pretty clear - if you have some combination of fever, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, body aches, loss of smell, diarrhea - stay home, get tested. Thank goodness I didn't get it myself, or if I did I had a very mild illness.
  23. Helene
    Oh that is the BEST news!
  24. nanushka
    Many of us have been staying mostly at home even without any symptoms for much of the past 4 months — not only for fear of contracting the virus, but also because asymptomatic spread does indeed seem possible. Until there is a treatment and/or vaccine widely available, I would hope that anyone with potentially COVID-related symptoms would either stay isolated or, at the very least, pretty strictly minimize contact with others. That's the reality of living through a pandemic, unfortunately.
  25. Ashton Fan
    The latest Royal Ballet DVD will be issued on the 17th July 2020. It contains performances of three ballets which entered the company's repertory towards the end of the 1960's. Concerto has an interesting cast which includes Hay and O'Sullivan in the opening section and Naghdi and Hirano in the central section of the work. The performance of Ashton's Enigma Variations has the best cast that the company has mustered in years with Saunders as Elgar, Morera as Lady Elgar, Gartside as Jaegar and Hayward as Dorabella. In fact this revival was exceptionally well cast and coached with only one dancer in three casts whose presence on the stage I would question. It came as a pleasant surprise to discover that the company had three Troytes in its ranks. Finally to round off what in the theatre was a good old fashioned style mixed bill full of contrasts rather than three ballets with some sort of uniting theme there is Nureyev's Raymonda Act III. This was one of Nureyev;s earliest stagings of versions of the Petipa classics and was heavily influenced by the activities of Russian folk dance groups of the period. I have not seen the recording because I was in the theatre when the performance streamed . This means that I have no idea whether the recording suffers from an over busy camera but on paper the recording provides an excellent opportunity to see a good cross section of the company in ballets which for years were staples of its repertory.
  26. Helene
    What I mean is that if we decide not to leave the house because we're showing mild symptoms that overlap with COVID symptoms, but are not caused by COVID, although we can't be sure, I'm not sure how many of us would have to self-quarantine because we might be contagious. And among the more hypochondriacal people -- raises hand -- if we start looking for symptoms, yikes.
  27. fiddleback
    Ballet Arizona and the Phoenix Symphony will stream one act from their production of Napoli, on three successive Sundays, July 12, 19th, and 26th. Presumably, each of these will be available for 24 hours only, as in the past. Each of these will be posted on the Phoenix Symphony’s YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePhoenixSymphony/videos More info and discussion here as the ballets become available: Ballet Arizona Forum Ballet Arizona announcements here: https://balletaz.org/virtual-events/ It will be interesting to see if they post the first production, where sets and costumes were shipped in from the Royal Danish Ballet, or from the second production, where they were, for the most part, from Oregon Ballet Theatre... Nayon Iovino as Gennaro, in Ballet Arizona's Napoli, Act I
  28. pbl
    Helene can you clarify the question? I'm an ER doc, BTW. Standard disclaimer: nothing I write here should ever be construed as medical advice or take the place of consulting your own doctor.
  29. Helene
    Given the number of people with other conditions, diseases (chronic and periodic), and allergies, and the number of COVID symptoms, especially when mild, that overlap with other conditions, just taking into consideration the people who have a choice to self-quarantine when they are at all symptomatic, how many people would be able to walk out of the house in the morning?
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