Tuesday, May 18

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Gavin Larsen is interviewed by Gia Kourlas in The New York Times.

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In “Being a Ballerina: The Power and Perfection of a Dancing Life,” out now from University Press of Florida, Larsen puts that theory to the test. Her poignant book, told in first and third person, is both a personal account and a universal take on the life of a professional ballet dancer. It’s not what you might have gleaned from the horror film “Black Swan” or the recent sex-and-drug fueled series “Tiny Pretty Things,” which takes place at a ballet academy.

 

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A review of the Royal Ballet School in Ninette de Valois' "The Arts of the Theatre" by Jann Parry for DanceTabs.

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She advised viewers that it was not an ‘authentic’ remounting of de Valois’s creation but an informed interpretation of what it might have been like. Moreton’s rehearsal notes used familiar French ballet terms and provided details of groupings, travel paths and timings, but information was missing, including solos for de Valois and for Moreton herself. Meadmore supplied steps and poses from other early ballets by de Valois, with references to choreographers and dancers de Valois respected, such as Bronislava Nijinska, Leonide Massine, Anna Pavlova and Margaret Morris. All five original performers had studied with Diaghilev’s ballet master Enrico Cecchetti, so his influence would have been present, along with that of Dalcroze eurythmics exponents.

 

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After criticism, the Nutmeg Ballet Conservatory will perform the Kingdom of the Shades sequence from "La Bayadère" and call it something else.

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On May 7, Nevada-based Hindu activist Rajan Zed posted on his website that “a renowned ballet conservatory like NBC, whose sponsors reportedly include State of Connecticut, should not be in the business of callously promoting appropriation of traditions, elements and concepts of ‘others’ and ridiculing entire communities.

 

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A review of New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre by Robert Greskovic in The Wall Street Journal.

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New York City Ballet’s current digital season, through June 17, offers a changing array of archived and new dances as well as various talking-head and interactive programs. A special offering is this year’s spring gala—particularly the May 5 world premiere of “Solo” by NYCB resident choreographer and artistic adviser Justin Peck, set to a quartet arrangement of Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings.” Performed in the theater’s upstairs promenade and on the stage of the David H. Koch Theater of Lincoln Center, the gala was filmed with authority and visual beauty by Sofia Coppola and remains available through May 27 at nycballet.com/digitalseason.