Friday, June 24

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A review of Pacific Northwest Ballet by Siobhan Burke in The New York Times.

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While introducing New York audiences to some fabulous West Coast dancers, the two-and-a-half-hour evening (including two long intermissions) felt oddly anticlimactic. Maybe it had to do with the sparse crowd on Thursday. Or maybe it was just the choice of repertory, much of which seemed selected to lift or lighten our collective mood, but didn’t quite do the trick.

 

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A TV feature on Ashton Edwards and Zsilas Michael Hughes of Pacific Northwest Ballet.

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Edwards is living it, along with the support and like-mindedness of their friend and company member Zsilas Michael Hughes. 

"There definitely are moments where I feel like I have to withhold parts of myself in order to successfully execute whatever I'm doing. But in that challenge, I become stronger and greater," Hughes said. 

 

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A review of Birmingham Royal Ballet by Lyndsey Winship for The Guardian.

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As Birmingham Royal Ballet director Carlos Acosta works out his vision for a 21st-century ballet company, the premiere of Interlinked, by Brazilian choreographer Juliano Nunes offers an interesting blueprint. Balancing appeal to a mass-market audience with stretching ballet’s mould, Nunes gives us unarguably pretty choreography, presented by men and women wearing long romantic-style skirts in various shades of nude to match the multiracial cast. The steps are unisex, and two men dance together in a strong, expressive male pas de deux. It’s technically conservative but socially progressive.