Monday, May 16

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An interview with Derek Brockington of Dance Theatre of Harlem.

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In many ways, he said, he had lived a rather sheltered life before moving to New York. He was raised in the Lake Michigan resort town of Saugatuck and began his ballet studies at a small studio called Dance Asylum. From there, he went to Interlochen Arts Academy, a renowned arts academy noted for its extraordinary faculty and intensive training. But it was still “a bubble in the woods,” said Brockington.

 

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

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Ms. Tanowitz’s choreography feeds and challenges her nine dancers, who move with a mixture of playfulness and formality through choreographic excursions often suggesting strict, academic exercises. A smiling Miriam Miller establishes a sly presence as she employs recurring steps and hand gestures that suggest she’s sowing seeds. Both Russell Janzen and Ms. Mearns are prominently featured, with Mr. Janzen looking matter-of-factly princely and Ms. Mearns, eventually barefoot, intensely focused. And each of the less featured dancers performs eagerly and engagingly, treading the stage, sometimes working on its edges, with their individual samplings of classroom-style steps. Alternately rigorous and casual, “Law of Mosaics” reveals NYCB in both an experimental and keenly classical mode.

 

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Boston Ballet announces the schedule for its fifty-ninth season.

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“As Anticipated” (Nov. 3-13) will bring Forsythe’s “Artifact Suite” plus a world premiere. In 2017, Boston Ballet became the first North American company to perform Forsythe’s evening-length 1984 “Artifact.” “Artifact Suite,” which Forsythe created in 2004, is, Nissinen explains, “a distilled form of ‘Artifact.’ It’s like a punch to the face, it’s like a freight train. Any day I have a chance to see it anywhere is a good day in my life.” As for the Forsythe world premiere, Nissinen says he expects it to be set to John Cage’s compositions for prepared piano, “and that’s as much as I know.”

 

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Kansas City Ballet's Malerie Moore talks about "dancing" Toto in "The Wizard of Oz."

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With grandiose sets and eye-popping production values, the show was met with rave reviews when it debuted in 2018. Now Dorothy et al. are making a triumphant post-Covid return with Moore tapped to bring the frisky, ever-present Toto to life.

“It’s a pretty intricate puppet,” she says. “He’s really interesting with two different handles I use—one is the body, and one is the head. Lots of moving parts.”