Monday, March 2

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Ballet Victoria presents "The Little Prince."

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Artistic director Paul Destrooper was inspired by the 1943 French short story is bringing it to leaping life March 21-22 on stage at the Royal Theatre. The one-act vignette is part of a three-act show entitled, The Little Prince and New Works, which showcases never-before-seen pieces by the Victoria dance troupe.

 

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A review of Los Angeles Ballet by Valerie-Jean Miller for Broadway World.

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"Agon," with an incredible score by Stravinsky, is a study in the versatility of dance, given license by the intense and obscure, tonally and tempo-wise, score. It utilizes formations, groupings and specific dance steps and continuity to paint pictures and sections of a whole range of social interactions and competitions. Much like the French court dances, such as the saraband and the two-person galliard, it gives order to the range of possibilities. Beautifully danced and executed by the entire company; one of the standout sections being the pas de deux with Petra Conti and Eris Nezha. The dancers are extremely precise and give us a real feel for Balanchine's specificity.

 

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Promotions announced at Dutch National Ballet.

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Jessica Xuan is the first dancer who started her career in the Junior Company of Dutch National Ballet and has made it to the highest rank of the company.

 

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A review of New York City Ballet by Marina Harss for DanceTabs.

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In the last week of its winter season, New York City Ballet unveiled a new work by its resident choreographer, Justin Peck, to a score by the popular neo-Minimalist composer Nico Muhly. It was a homecoming of sorts for Peck, who has spent the last year working on Stephen Spielberg’s remake of West Side Story. (The film will be released in December.) And that is precisely what the ballet feels like. Rotunda revolves around a series of gatherings. The ballet’s short sections begin with a circle, in which each dancer is essential. When one is missing, the circle can’t close. When the particles unite, the organism comes alive.

 

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An interview with Francesca Hayward.

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Hayward’s ascent to starring in Swan Lake has been rapid, from the Royal Ballet school, through the ranks of the corps de ballet to her position as one of the company’s most exciting principal dancers. “The last couple of seasons have been quite hard to juggle,” she says. “And this is my debut as Odette. It’s the last big classical challenge.”

 

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An interview with Lisa Macuja-Elizalde of Ballet Manila.

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She added: “Many people have said that ‘As soon as Lisa Macuja stops dancing, that will be the end of Ballet Manila.' I have stopped dancing for many years now but Ballet Manila continues to grow, it continues to develop new dancers and we go on local and international tours.” 

 

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Review of a new release of previously unrecorded ballet music by Offenbach.

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Intended as a spectacular (if extended) interlude, the 11 episodes find Neptune inviting Eurydice into his underwater kingdom where she encounters its various inhabitants and during which the mythical city of Atlantis sinks beneath the waves. Among the subaqueous denizens are a dozen toads escorting a seal riding on a lobster, a jealous crab, assorted romping fish, Tritons and Argonauts, and the ‘birth’ of a pearl. The resulting aquatic fantasia boasts new music while borrowing from earlier work (conspicuously Le Papillon and Décaméron Dramatique) and was itself plundered for Le Voyage dans la Lune. To that extent, it is quintessential Offenbach; watercolour bright, impiously playful and borne along by brisk liquid rhythms. Occasionally overly earnest, Griffiths nonetheless delivers a persuasive account.

 

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David Hallberg will be the next artistic director of the Australian Ballet.

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In a telephone interview from Sydney, Mr. Hallberg said he has had ambitions to direct a company since his mid-20s. “It has been slowly simmering,” he said. “I have felt that calling to try to make a contribution to pushing the dance world forward almost as strongly as I felt a calling to become a dancer.” A few other possibilities had come up, he said, but the Australian Ballet job was the first one that “felt like the right time and place to make the move,” adding that he “felt satiated on a certain level as a dancer, and very ready for this transition.”

 

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Terez Rose goes backstage at San Francisco Ballet's ill-fated production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

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...........It was a luxury to watch these dancers up close; their loveliness and refinement were that much more apparent. Yuan Yuan Tan’s commanding presence and movements as Titania, Queen of the Fairies, assured a polished opening night performance. Tiit Helimets, as her consort, supported her deftly in a pas de deux that held unmistakable Balanchine touches —  quick movements interspersed with long, elegant arabesque lines and some nifty body shifts and twists. Benjamin Freemantle and Dores André oozed young love and infatuation as Lysander and Hermia, while Mathilde Froustey as Helena, pined to no avail after Demetrius, a compelling Ulrich Birkkjaer, who only had eyes for Hermia. Froustey and Birkkjaer delivered the drama; they have a great chemistry, calling to mind their searing performance in Cathy Marston’s 2018 Snowblind.