Thursday, October 19

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A review of American Ballet Theatre by Gia Kourlas in The New York Times.

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The program, part of the first New York season created by the company’s artistic director, Susan Jaffe, gradually lost steam. “Petite Mort” (1991) is flimsier than ever. “Études” inches along its unmusical path, weighed down by inertia until the last few minutes, in which the stage displays fireworks in the form of pyrotechnic tricks. (By this point, it feels like you’ve been tricked into caring.) Devon Teuscher’s clean, classical elegance lent the overlong work a boost of grace and energy, but the ballet, created in 1948, is hardly a good time capsule. It’s more like walking backward — in slow motion.

 

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A review of the Birmingham Royal Ballet by Zoe Anderson in The Independent.

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The first act is all about heavy metal – recognising that, like ballet, it’s a heightened and highly theatrical style. Choreographer Raúl Reinoso brings dancers on in doomy procession for the song “War Pigs”, or sends them through whizzing spins for “Paranoid”. It can be overearnest, particularly when evoking song themes. But Reinoso has huge fun matching ballet virtuosity with this music.

 

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The Joffrey Ballet's Edson Barbosa talks about being diagnosed with atrial fibrillation.

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By late summer, class and rehearsals were back in full swing. One morning, after barre exercises and jumps for 90 minutes, Barbosa could feel his irregular heartbeat return.

He did what he always did and what, by then, his fellow dancers were accustomed to. He lay on his back and took deep breaths. But this time he stayed down longer than usual.

"Are you OK?" the rehearsal director asked. "Do we need to do something?"

 

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Retired dancers talk about returning to the stage.

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Rachael Walsh was principal dancer with Queensland Ballet until the age of 38, well exceeding the average six-year career span of a professional ballet dancer.

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"By the end, definitely my body was breaking down. I could feel my hips suffering," she said."I

Seven years after hanging up her pointe shoes, Ms Walsh recently starred in Queensland Ballet's Strictly Gershwin, after last year performing alongside a line-up of retired dancers in Encore.