Friday, April 26

[dirac]

A review of the Joffrey Ballet in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by Kyle MacMillan in The Chicago Sun-Times.

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But what to call the two-hour work? A happening? A performance piece? Dance theater might be the best characterization. Sometimes quiet and static, sometimes loud and intense, it combines a simple episodic narrative with all manner of movement, some of it even balletic with toe shoes.

Hedy Weiss' review for WTTW.

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This work is no “Swan Lake” or “Sleeping Beauty.” Nor is it Shakespeare’s play. Rather, it is a wild and crazy dream-come-to-life that is brilliantly performed by a cast of nearly 50 dancers who also happen to be extraordinary actors. Adding to the production is a guest singer — the Swedish indie rock star Anna von Hausswolff — who serves as a sort of narrator, and members of the superb Lyric Opera Orchestra playing Mikael Karlsson’s wild and wonderful score. Despite all that can be written about this work, the only true way to fully believe its fantastical, ground-breaking, playfully sexy, grand-scale, one-of-a-kind quality is to see it.

 

[dirac]

A TV news reporter takes a few lessons at the Portland Ballet.

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The Portland Ballet is gearing up for its rendition of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” next month, so KOIN 6 News’ Travis Teich visited to learn a little ballet.

 

[dirac]

 Orlando Ballet extends the contract of artistic director Jorden Morris.

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Morris became artistic director in December 2021 after Robert Hall stepped down in August of that year. He created a new production of “The Nutcracker” for Orlando Ballet in 2023, which will return in the upcoming season alongside an encore of his version of “Peter Pan.”

 

[dirac]

A review of Boston Ballet in "The Kingdom of the Shades" and "Carmen" by Jeffrey Gantz in The Boston Globe.

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There’s a certain independence about Nikiya’s dancing in this scene; she’s not pleased that Solor was going to wed Gamzatti. On Thursday, however, Ji Young Chae’s Nikiya was inclined to forgive Jeffrey Cirio’s repentant Solor, and they made a warmly chaste couple, especially in their set of easy sissonne lifts. Chae was pristine and light, with gazelle-like grands jetés, a gratifying manège of tours jetés, and a fabulous concluding sequence of soutenu and piqué diagonals flanking an arabesque voyagée scamper that zoomed backward at Formula One speed. Cirio opened with a neat 45-degree revoltade and was heroic in his closing manège of double assemblé turns.

 

[dirac]

A joint interview with the Hernández brothers.

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The experience of learning dance steps under Héctor’s tutelage proved formative for Isaac and Esteban, who were two of 11 homeschooled siblings. “When my father set up the barre in the backyard, the natural thing was that we would all be involved in it,” says Isaac, who turned 34 in April. Early on, Isaac displayed a strong aptitude for dance, which his father encouraged and honed, a development that was not lost on Esteban. “I would watch my dad and him work together on the patio for hours,” says Esteban, who is four years younger than Isaac. He recalls that at the age of 7 he had a conversation with his father asking him to give him dance lessons. When Héctor warned his son how demanding a career in dance would be for him and asked him if that was what he really wanted, Esteban wasn’t dissuaded. “I right away said yes because even at that point in my life I felt so strongly about pursuing dance as my life’s work,” Esteban recounts. “I clearly remember this moment in my life because it really was the beginning of what my life has become now.”