Thursday, November 25

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A look at the precautions ballet companies are taking to keep everyone healthy by Sarah L. Kaufman in The Washington Post.

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I’ve spoken with ballet officials and artists to find out what changes are in store as they prepare their Sugar Plum Fairies and waltzing Snowflakes for live theater audiences for the first time in two years. In some cases, there will be slightly smaller casts. Many companies, having required their dancers to be vaccinated, are limiting their youngest student performers to 12 and older, to ensure that the entire cast is fully vaccinated by opening night.

 

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Queensland Ballet presents "Dracula."

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In accordance with his desire “to make a piece about love”, commissioned Polish choreographer Krzysztof Pastor emphasises the tale’s relationships in his storytelling. We are introduced to the medieval Transylvanian Count Dracula who leaves his beloved wife for war and returns to find that believing him to be dead, she has killed herself. Elizabeth’s denial of a burial because of her suicide impels Dracula to renounce God and transform into a vampire.

 

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The Royal Ballet tinkers with "The Nutcracker" to avoid ethnic stereotyping.

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At Tuesday’s opening of the reimagined production only two dancers performed the scene instead of the usual three male dancers and one female over worries that its harem overtones would offend.

Related.

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A review of Miami City Ballet at the Kennedy Center by Sarah L. Kaufman in The Washington Post.

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“The Nutcracker’s” very presence on stages around the country this season represents the triumph of ballet companies over the existential darkness of the past year-plus of shutdowns. In Wednesday’s case, it’s clear that Miami City Ballet has emerged in excellent form. It delivered a clean and uncluttered performance of George Balanchine’s production of the ballet, with its vision of perfected nostalgia. There were elegant, well-behaved little children in the first act’s Christmas Eve party; a storm of glamorous Snowflakes waltzing in spiraling eddies and cascading formations; and finally a spirited array of variations on 19th-century national dances.

 

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Ballet Jorgen launches a new program to address the challenges facing young boys who study ballet.

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In response, the company has launched a campaign called Boys Who Dance. It provides one-to-one mentorship for boys aged nine to 17 with volunteers from Ballet Jorgen’s contingent of men. The dancers’ role is to listen, to encourage and to offer insights into what a ballet career entails. Additionally, the company has already hosted the first of what are planned as recurring virtual town halls with expert panellists to raise awareness of the issues that may dissuade boys from entering the profession.