Thursday, February 3

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A review of San Francisco Ballet by Jim Munson for Broadway World.

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San Francisco Ballet is back - with a vengeance! The first program of their 2022 season concludes with arguably the most joyous 35 minutes of dance ever created, George Balanchine's neoclassical masterpiece Symphony in C. Set to Bizet's fizzy first symphony, composed when he was only 17, the entire ballet is a delight, but it reaches its apex in the final movement as dozens and dozens of dancers fill the stage, their stark white and black costumes standing in sharp relief against the sky-blue backdrop. As the dancers dive into the challenging choreography with gusto, it feels as if the stage erupts in a burst of fireworks. Yes, this is exactly what we've been missing for the past two years, this feeling of rapturous joy that simply cannot be transmitted via a video screen.

 

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The San Francisco Chronicle provides a helpful roundup of its Helgi Tomasson coverage.

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The Chronicle’s collection of stories on celebrated dancer and choreographer Helgi Tomasson, who plans to retire after 37 years as artistic director of the San Francisco Ballet at the end of the company’s 2022 season.

 

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A review of Manassas Ballet's Nutcracker by Susan Bardenhagen for InsideNoVa.

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Hearing the lush melodies of the Manassas Ballet Theatre Orchestra's instruments flow from the Merchant Hall's below-stage area up to the opera house's rafters was exciting and comforting.

 

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A preview of the Youth America Grand Prix.

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This weekend, hundreds of aspiring ballet dancers from across Utah will converge in Salt Lake City to compete at the regional YAGP semifinals. Not only will the young dancers — who range in age from 9 to 19 — be competing for a spot in the finals in Tampa, Florida, they’ll also be showcasing their talents in hopes of winning scholarships or company dancer positions at some of the world’s best ballet companies and schools.

 

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An interview with the choreographer Ja' Malik.

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Ja’ Malik is one of three emerging Black choreographers in a new Charlotte Ballet program “Innovative 1970,” celebrating the year of the company’s founding.

 

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An ABC interview with David Hallberg about the history of ballet in Australia.

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Philip Clark explores the history of Australian ballet with David Hallberg, artistic director of The Australian Ballet, Fiona Tonkin, the company’s artistic associate and principal coach and former principal dancer and Steven Heathcote, the company’s ballet master and former principal dancer.

 

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Miami City Ballet gears up for its first evening-length "Swan Lake."

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“It is really the greatest ballet, bar none,” Lopez said of why she wanted to take on a full-length version. “I think it will really inform the dancers, and help them grow. It is something they can come back to again and again.”

It is a stretch for a company of 54 dancers. To fill its ranks, the company has had to augment the corps with more than a dozen upper-level students from the school. Fifty-seven dancers are involved in each show.

 

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A review of New York City Ballet by Leigh Witchel in dancelog.nyc.

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In the theme and variations [of "Mozartiana"], the penultimate variation serves as the main pas de deux, and looked as if it had been coached and rehearsed more than any other part. All the blanks in the other sections got filled in; Huxley was finishing poses, musically more expansive and directing our attention by his gaze. That’s where the rest of the ballet needs to be, but he and Hyltin played it safe in the coda. In a risky move where he was supposed to come out of a turn and grab her while she’s still turning, he stopped and came towards her before she started, so there was never a point where they were both spinning. Will they add some swagger? The role’s originator, Ib Andersen, was anything but a showoff, but it was handed down to Damian Woetzel and got massaged, like his other virtuoso roles, into a showpiece.