Monday, September 25

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A preview of Birmingham Royal Ballet's "Black Sabbath: the Ballet."

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In 2020, Birmingham Royal Ballet — based in England’s second most populous, but often overlooked, city — grabbed the British dance world’s attention when it appointed the Cuban ballet star Carlos Acosta as its artistic director. Now, Acosta said, he hoped that the Black Sabbath Ballet, which has its premiere Wednesday, would gain the company global attention, too, as well as help the company find a wider audience at home.

Tony Iommi shows up at the premiere.

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Iommi was involved in the creation of the ballet, working with Birmingham Royal Ballet director Carlos Acosta. The show will include eight of the band’s tracks plus new music inspired by them, all performed live by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia.

Related.

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From Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi to Geezer Butler and Ozzy Osbourne’s wife Sharon Osbourne -there were some famous faces of rock music at the opening night. Led Zeppelin founder Robert Plant and Bev Bevan of ELO also attended the incredible opening night of "Black Sabbath the Ballet” at Birmingham Hippodrome.

 

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A preview of the BalletBoyz's "England on Fire" to be presented at Sadler's Wells.

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Among the choreographers taking part are former BalletBoyz collaborators, such as Russell Maliphant, alongside punk dancemaker Holly Blakey, Vidya Patel and the ever exciting Thick and Tight, to mention but a few.

 

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A TV news segment on Philadelphia Ballet's sixtieth anniversary season.

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The Philadelphia Ballet is celebrating its 60th anniversary with a special presentation of Carmen, choreographed by the ballet’s artistic director, Angel Corella.

 

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

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After a season where she seemed physically out of sorts, Tiler Peck looks fabulous – in fighting form. Form isn’t a question of weight, though Peck did lose weight. It’s the abandon and generous scale of her movement. She looks once again as if she’s not holding back. If you look, you can still see her arabesque isn’t sky high – but it never was, and realistically, that may be what it is after a serious injury. But because everything else is in better shape, it’s easy to look past it.

This part has Roman Mejia’s name on it – his last name especially. His Dad did it half a century ago. But this wasn’t nepotism. The younger Mejia’s tone is perfect. Force should come before line in “Rubies,” and he struck the right balance of brash classicism: a street kid in a tunic.

 

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Photo gallery of kids trying out for Connecticut Ballet's Nutcracker.

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The Connecticut Ballet hosted its annual children’s audition for "The Nutcracker" on Sunday. Dancers aged 7 to 15 throughout the region were invited to try out for the famed ballet.

 

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Misty Copeland lobbies Apple to offer a pointe shoe emoji reflective of diversity.

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The American Ballet Theatre principal dancer called on Apple to expand its emoji keyboard to better represent Black ballet dancers and dancers of color. In a video shared on TikTok and Instagram last week, Copeland told viewers that Apple has only a pink pointe-shoe emoji and encouraged them to sign her change.org petition asking for more color options.

 

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New York City Ballet releases a new book, "New York City Ballet: Choreography & Couture.”

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NYCB’s director of costumes Marc Happel has written the book to help shed some light on how designers’ ideas for costumes come to fruition through original drawings and technical tweaks, as well as dancers’ memories about performing in the creations.

 

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A review of Pacific Northwest Ballet's season opener by Moira Macdonald in The Seattle Times.

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A little Mozart, a little fencing, a little ballet — what more could one want on a fall evening? Pacific Northwest Ballet’s season-opening repertory, called “Petite Mort” after the first dance on the program, may have on paper looked a bit underwhelming for the company’s 2023-2024 kickoff: three contemporary works, all of them previously presented; no big-story ballet or showy new work. But a good-sized opening night crowd gathered, rewarded by two sublime Jiří Kylián works and a third ballet that … well, did I mention Kylián?

 

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A review of New York City Ballet in "Jewels" by Mary Cargill for danceviewtimes.com.

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New York City Ballet’s all-Balanchine fall season opened with a week of the ever-popular “Jewels”, Balanchine’s salute to mood and style.  The lush romanticism of “Emeralds”, the American cockiness of “Rubies”, and the Russian grandeur of “Diamonds” call for much more than accurate steps, as the dancers need to convey an inner life; these works may be plotless but they are not pointless.  The September 21st performance had a number of impressive and accomplished debuts, and one disappointment, when Aaron Sanz, who was to debut as the second male lead in “Emeralds”, was replaced by Adrian Danchig-Waring.  Not that Danchig-Waring was in the least disappointing, but Sanz, which his romantic presence and dynamic imagination, would seem a natural for “Emeralds”.

 

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New York City Ballet keeps its orchestra below decks.

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The renowned ballet organization indefinitely cancelled special performances in which the orchestra is raised up for the audience to see before a show begins — as the musicians insisted on wearing T-shirts demanding higher pay, The Post has learned.

 

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A review of Pacific Northwest Ballet by Rich Smith for The Stranger.

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Jaw-dropping duets on opening night came courtesy of soloist Dammiel Cruz-Garrido and corps de ballet dancer Clara Ruf Maldonado, who seems due for a promotion!!! Corps dancers Mark Cuddihee and Ashton Edwards also wowed me, with Edwards displaying unmatched speed and alacrity; it's impossible not to watch them. Principals Angelica Generosa and Lucien Postlewaite also paired well, with Postlewaite doing his princely thing and Generosa elegantly exploding all over the stage. I let out an audible "damn" when principal Elizabeth Murphy put her hand on Dylan Wald's shoulder and just sort of casually did a backflip. Nutso stuff.