dirac Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 Ballet West returns to the stage with live music. Quote After 25 years, Michael Smuin’s Romeo and Juliet makes a glorious return to Ballet West! Sweeping and energetic, Smuin’s version captures William Shakespeare’s humor, drama, and heartache. It is carried by Sergei Prokofiev’s dramatic score that tells Bard’s story about two star-crossed lovers, caught in their families’ feuds. Ballet West is back to life with live music, featuring the Ballet West Orchestra! Link to comment
dirac Posted January 31, 2022 Author Share Posted January 31, 2022 A review of English National Ballet by Louise Levene in The Financial Times. Quote Despite its lustrous Glazunov score and a dazzling ballerina role, it has been more than 20 years to the best of my recall since anyone presented all three acts of Raymonda in London. It was a bold choice for Tamara Rojo’s directorial and choreographic debut — and swan song. After 10 years at English National Ballet, the Spanish star takes charge at San Francisco Ballet later this year. Her Raymonda at the London Coliseum is fluently written and strongly danced, but the updated setting and new feminist scenario are not entirely successful. Graham Watts' review for DanceTabs. Quote The new narrative is essentially a love triangle with Raymonda torn between her commitment to local soldier boy, John de Bryan (an alliterative nod to the ballet’s original crusader knight hero, Jean de Brienne) and the feisty Turkish leader, Abdur Rahman (in place of the Saracen warrior, Abderakhman). The opening night cast saw Isaac Hernandez in the role of the Englishman and Jeffrey Cirio as the noble Turk. Both had challenging variations to perform, which they did with great gusto and robust technique: the smooth elegance of Hernandez contrasting the fast attack of Cirio. Kase was demonstratively torn between duty and attraction and the audience was kept on tenterhooks as to her choice until the very end. Link to comment
dirac Posted January 31, 2022 Author Share Posted January 31, 2022 The Trocks visit Ohio. Quote It’s the second stop in a national tour that began Jan. 20 with shows in Philadelphia. The Trocks’ only other pandemic-era live performances took place in late December in New York. Link to comment
dirac Posted January 31, 2022 Author Share Posted January 31, 2022 Grand Rapids Ballet celebrates its fiftieth anniversary. Quote For five decades the Grand Rapids Ballet has been performing for West Michigan audiences. 50 years is a huge milestone, and they are planning to celebrate in a big way, with a lineup of brand new productions for 2022-23. Link to comment
dirac Posted January 31, 2022 Author Share Posted January 31, 2022 Q&A with Juan Jose Escalante, the new artistic director of the National Dance Institute. Quote What inspired you to move to the National Dance Institute? Well when you see my resume, I've been working with a lot of performing arts organizations. A lot of dance companies, all of them actually have an education component. NDI’s mission is education, and the amount of children that they reach surpasses most of those organizations combined. I'm very passionate about getting the arts into the public schools and to where every child should be exposed to it. That's what NDI does, and that's really what motivated me the most to come join the team. Plus the fact that they have a wonderful team in place already. There's a common theme around here that people come in and they're here for 10 years or 15 years. Our production manager has been here for over 21 years, but it's that commitment that is not just a family, but they're committed to the mission. Link to comment
dirac Posted February 6, 2022 Author Share Posted February 6, 2022 An oceanside villa once owned by Rudolf Nureyev is up for sale. Quote Those in the know will also recognize the home on account of its extraordinary pedigree. Originally built by a lieutenant of the United States Navy, the residence was purchased, furnishings and all, in 1990 by the ballet legend Rudolf Nureyev, whose exquisite taste has been well documented in the pages of Architectural Digest. Local lore has it that the Soviet-born dancer, who famously defected at Paris’s Le Bourget airport, wanted a terrace so broad he could dance on the water. Thus, he installed generous timber decking along the daisy chain of rooms, which today include a sauna and freestanding guest suite. Link to comment
dirac Posted March 7, 2022 Author Share Posted March 7, 2022 A review of Vienna State Ballet by Ilona Landgraf for "Landgraf on Dance." Quote Robbins’s “Other Dances”, a pas de deux set to one waltz and four mazurkas by Chopin, was tailor-made for Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov in 1976. In Vienna, Hyo-Jung Kang and Davide Dato brought folksy playfulness to their roles as the carefree, happy-go-lucky couple. Their encounter is as lighthearted and upbeat as the light blue backdrop and the sheer blue fabric of Kang’s dress suggest (costumes by Santo Loquasto). After swaggering about with macho energy in a solo, Dato attends to Kang’s every step with buttery care. Ingénue-like at first, Kang cuts a mature profile in her second solo, flirtatiously swinging her hips and slapping the floor with one hand. But this romance has little tethering to reality......... Link to comment
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