Friday, November 10

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Smuin Contemporary Ballet presents "The Christmas Ballet."

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The 2023 edition of "The Christmas Ballet" features a cornucopia of short works including favorite pieces from founder Michael Smuin, fun and festive additions by local choreographic stars, and this year unveils two world premieres.

 

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A review of the BalletBoyz' "England on Fire" by Louise Levene in The Financial Times.

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Browsing the National Theatre’s bookshop last summer, Michael Nunn and William Trevitt, joint artistic directors of BalletBoyz, spotted England on Fire. Stephen Ellcock’s book, billed as a “visual journey through Albion’s psychic landscape”, is a magpie collection of classic images — Blake, Samuel Palmer, Arthur Rackham, John Martin — intermixed with 21st-century paintings and photographs. Its imagery became a touchstone for an ambitious dance project using six composers, eight choreographers and 13 dancers. The result premiered at a packed Sadler’s Wells on Wednesday. Intermittently beguiling, the chaotic 75-minute piece suffered from too many voices with not nearly enough to say.

 

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Q&A with the conductor David Briskin.

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What makes Onegin’s musical components so distinctive?

Kurt-Heinz Stolze arranged and orchestrated the score for Cranko’s Onegin based on a selection of Tchaikovsky’s piano works, the opera Cherevichki, as well as an excerpt from his tone poem, “Francesca da Rimini.” Stolze quite deliberately avoided using music from Tchaikovsky’s most celebrated opera, Eugene Onegin.

A stroke of genius and imagination, Stolze sets the climax of the ballet—the Act 3 pas de deux between Tatiana and Onegin—to an excerpted arrangement of “Francesca da Rimini,” based on a section of Dante’s “Inferno” in his epic, the Divine Comedy. In these passages, historical figures overcome by sexual desire come to an unhappy ending. In this climactic pas de deux, narrative, emotion, dance, and music are woven into an exquisite tapestry, which leaves the audience overwhelmed as the curtain drops. I can’t help but think that Stolze was aware of this connection when he chose this music to close the ballet.

 

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A preview of Nutcracker productions in the Boston area by Karen Campbell in The Boston Globe.

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NEWPORT NUTCRACKER AT ROSECLIFF Newport Contemporary Ballet’s interactive “Nutcracker” brings distinctive grandeur. Performances walk guests through Newport’s famed Rosecliff mansion as the young protagonist celebrates the holidays with her family and battles the Mouse Queen (there’s a twist) before encountering a winter wonderland and the magical Land of the Sweets. This one often sells out, so plan ahead.

 

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A review of "Modance," Svetlana Zakharova's Evening at the Bolshoi Ballet by Ilona Landgraf in her blog, "Landgraf on Dance."

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As a seasoned artist, Zakharova must have an instinct about what suits her on stage. Hence I’m flabbergasted that she has kept Mauro Bigonzetti’s “Come un respiro” (“Like a Breath”) in the program. The 2009 creation, of which Zakharova acquired a reworked version, is ill-suited to make her and her co-dancers (among them Anastasia Stashkevich, Ana Turazashvili, Mikhail Lobukhin, Vyacheslav Lopatin, and Denis Savin) look good. Moreover, its succession of bland solos, pas de deux, and group dances fails to excite.

 

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John Lam of the Boston Ballet talks about performing in "The Nutcracker."

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Q. How do you pace yourself for the long haul and keep it fresh?

A. It’s tough. The repetitiveness can really settle in and you get tired. You have to be very diligent and keep the engine going by taking company class, taking care of your body. There is not a lot of recovery time, so just being mindful, good time management, many naps. As we continue the run, I choose things that inspire me. For me, it’s always listening to the music differently, finding new ways to approach the role with nuance, finding a little bit of liberty within the context of the choreography. At end of day, who we are impacting and inspiring in the audience is mostly children coming with families cultivating a tradition, and it’s an honor for Boston Ballet to be part of that. We have a responsibility as artists. Being the father of two, I see through the lens of children seeing this production for the first time and how magical that is for them.

 

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

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Unity Phelan made her New York debut in “Serenade.” She was lush in the waltz, flicking her legs high and back when in Danchig-Waring’s arms. Her positions were beautiful and she was musical, intelligent, and technical. What felt missing was scale. You didn’t feel her presence for longer than she was there; she doesn’t yet leave a wake.

 

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Carina Roberts of the West Australian Ballet announces her retirement.

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“I have physically, mentally and emotionally put everything into this career and it takes a lot out of you. I always wanted to leave on a high because a lot of people get that choice taken away. Once you hit that 25-26 age, things start to kind of niggle a little bit more than you would hope."

 

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A new exhibition devoted to "The Red Shoes" opens at BFI Southbank.

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A new exhibition about ballet drama "The Red Shoes" opens at the BFI Southbank in London on Friday (November 10), as the film celebrates its 75th anniversary this year.