Wednesday, February 16

[dirac]

An obituary for El Paso ballet teacher and choreographer Ingeborg Heuser.

Quote

The former professor in the music department of the University of Texas at El Paso and artistic director of Ballet El Paso, Ballet of the Americas, UTEP ballet, and Texas Western Civic Ballet, her productions graced the stages of El Paso’s performance venues with local ballet students and dancers for over five decades.

 

[dirac]

A review of Miami City Ballet in "Swan Lake" by Robert Greskovic in The Wall Street Journal.

Quote

With any luck, his informed staging will be documented step-for-step so that subsequent productions crediting Petipa and Ivanov’s renowned choreography—as numerous productions of “Swan Lake” do—can have this yardstick to go by.

While Mr. Ratmansky’s “Swan Lake” recalls other productions based on Petipa and Ivanov’s creation, his pacing and scrupulously set movements yield an especially authoritative rendering of the ballet’s narrative.................

 

[dirac]

Revisiting diversity issues at San Francisco Ballet in the wake of Helgi Tomasson's retirement announcement.

Quote

As part of their commitment to DEI work, SFB has hired their first-ever Chief Diversity Officer Rob Sánchez Nelson in Oct. 2021, “and we have an intentional focus to bring more diversity into our leadership positions,” says St. Germaine-Gordon.

Sánchez Nelson has a background in LGBTQIA+, housing and disability rights advocacy—not ballet or the arts. But that also means they aren’t as entrenched in the art form’s norms and biases. “[SFB] really wanted a fresh approach,” they say.

 

[dirac]

Henry Danton has died at age 102.

Quote

Meanwhile, to Ninette de Valois’s fury he had fallen in love with Vera Volkova, a newly arrived Russian ballet teacher whom she viewed as a disruptive influence on the nascent Sadler’s Wells style. Margot Fonteyn, Moira Shearer and Ashton sought out Volkova’s private lessons, which they felt superior to Ninette de Valois’s.

 

[dirac]

Golfer Aaron Beverly talks about his background in ballet.

Quote

After 14 years of ballet lessons, Beverly realized he liked practicing chipping and putting more than the leaps and jumps of a danseur. That said, he admits he was “way better at ballet than I was at golf for a long time,” and he even took an advanced dance class as a college senior.

What he loved more than anything, though, was getting up at 5 a.m. and tagging along with his dad, who was a successful high school and community college football coach, when he went to a nearby executive golf course every Saturday morning.

 

[dirac]

Q&A with Dominic Antonucci, the assistant director of Birmingham Royal Ballet.

Quote

Having trained and danced with the American Ballet Theatre (and grown up in the USA), how was moving from an American company to a European one?

It took some time for me to adapt to the ‘British’ style of ballet but BRB has such a rich and fantastic repertoire that it was also a very enjoyable journey

It was a tremendous honour for me to dance with American Ballet Theatre and I cherish those memories. I toured around the world with ABT in the three years that I danced for them. Circumstances led me to join BRB as a Soloist dancer in 1994 which proved to be a good career move but a difficult one for me personally. It was very hard to move away from my family and friends in America. It took some time for me to adapt to the ‘British’ style of ballet but BRB has such a rich and fantastic repertoire that it was also a very enjoyable journey.