Saturday, October 31

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Christopher D'Addario isn't going quietly.

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Before he allegedly took down JoffreyBalletSchool.com, D’Addario texted childhood friend F. Lee Merwin, who succeeded him as the school’s executive director, telling him, “Say goodbye to your website, a—hole,” the school charges in the litigation.

 

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Smuin Ballet presents a virtual dance series.

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To further enhance the virtual series, the dancers (within their respective duos and groups) rehearsed and recorded outdoors at unique settings around the Bay Area. Among the filmed settings includes the oceanside at Fort Funston, the Point Reyes Shipwreck, and public green spaces around San Francisco; each program is also accompanied by pieces from the “Smuin Songbook,” which features music from the likes of Willie Nelson, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and more.

 

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Ballet West presents "Nine Sinatra Songs."

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“Nine Sinatra Songs” wasn’t the season opener Sklute planned before the pandemic. Originally, he had programmed Ben Stevenson’s massive ballet adaptation of “Dracula,” timed ahead of Halloween.

“The whole purpose of doing a ballet of that magnitude is to be able to pack the house,” Sklute said. “And in a situation when you can’t pack the house, it just wasn’t a viable option.”

 

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Ballet Theatre of Maryland presents Dracula outdoors.

 

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Ballet Theatre of Maryland’s production of Dracula is the perfect Halloween show, even in these scary times. Viewing the performance outdoors, on the grass lot of the future Maryland Theatre for the Performing Arts building, audiences stay masked and far enough away from each other and the stage (bringing their own blankets and folding chairs), yet still enjoy the marvelous dancing, thematic music, and creative lighting. Choreographed by BTM’s late founding Artistic Director Edward Stewart and staged by current Artistic Director Nicole Kelsch, Dracula is a faithful, beautiful adaptation of Bram Stoker’s classic novel.

 

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A review of Birmingham Royal Ballet by Jenny Gilbert for The Arts Desk.

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Like the Royal Ballet a fortnight ago, BRB will be hoping to top up meagre box-office revenue with pay-per-device streaming of the programme over the next seven days. This could be the new modus operandi for our major dance companies and those who value their survival should support it. That said, for the lucky 500 in the auditorium it almost felt like business as usual: a triple bill of new or unfamiliar ballets accompanied – hurrah – by live music. You only noticed that the orchestra had been Covid-downsized when Wagner’s Prelude and Liebestod came across as uncharacteristically thin. John Adams’ densely powerful Shaker Loops – the choice of choreographer Will Tuckett for his new ballet Lazuli Sky – worked better for the string players of the Royal Ballet Sinfonia who palpably enjoyed the mental challenge of its intricately pulsating textures.

 

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An interview with Robert Wallace, a former ballet dancer and the head of Stanford University's endowment.

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Mr Wallace, who learned the ropes of endowment investing from Mr Swensen when he switched careers after 16 years in professional ballet, working with Baryshnikov himself, now holds one of the industry’s most prestigious jobs. Five years into his tenure as chief investment professional of Stanford University’s $29bn endowment, one of the largest in the US, Mr Wallace has helped cement the “West Coast Ivy” into the highest echelon of institutional investment.

 

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Milwaukee Ballet presents virtual performances. Video.