Wednesday, July 15

[dirac]

Catching up with James B. Whiteside in lockdown.

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Whiteside’s day begins at 7:00 a.m., first with a makeup application for his daytime look, then his egg sandwich breakfast, the making of his costume for his daily IGTV The Cindies workout (cohosted with ABT’s Isabella Boylston), and a pre-dinner drag transformation into a ginger-haired 1940s vamp: “As you can see, I look incredible.”

 

[dirac]

A review of the English National Ballet in a 2019 performance of "Cinderella" by Jann Parry for DanceTabs.

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Act II’s ballroom is also shot from above, showing numerous couples in blue and purple waltzing in formation on a dazzlingly patterned floor. Though Prokofiev overdid the repetitive waltzes in his 1940s score, Wheeldon makes good use of them for his mass effects, with some 90 dancers on stage at various times. The score has pungent, satirical passages to punctuate the pushy step-family’s antics, which verge on crude pantomime. Rojo’s Mme Hortensia does a drunken number with several glasses of wine; the step-sisters, capable of dancing perfectly well, fall over each other; Clementine, the one with glasses, is rescued by Benjamin, suddenly smitten by her in spite of his earlier mockery.