Tuesday, August 27

[dirac]

The Australian Ballet announces its 2025 season.

Limelight

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The Kenneth MacMillan classic Manon is another reach into TAB’s past. Last performed in 2014 (and first in 1994), the tale untangles the life of a young Parisian peasant girl, torn between her love for a poor man and the unreturned affections of a richer one. It’s set to the music of Massanet (though takes nothing from his opera of the same name) and is performed in Sydney from 30 April – 17 May, and Melbourne from 10–22 October.

Australian Arts Review

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The season opens at Melbourne’s Regent Theatre with the long-awaited return of Nijinsky, John Neumeier’s moving tribute to the legendary dancer and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky, before taking to the stage at the Sydney Opera House.

The Sydney Morning Herald

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Last performed by the company in 2016, Nijinsky will be performed in February at Melbourne’s Regent Theatre before heading to the Sydney Opera House in April. Casting has yet to be done for the 2025 production, but principal artist Callum Linnane, who shared the title role in the 2016 production, will take part.

 

[dirac]

 An interview with Tirion Law.

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The promotion was unexpected since at the National Ballet of Canada, only promotions to principal – the top tier – are announced on stage. Dancers normally move up the ranks one step at a time, and at the time Law was second soloist, two ranks below the top.

“I never thought they would skip a stage and promote me to principal,” she says, adding that becoming a principal dancer was always “a dream and a goal”.

 

[dirac]

An interview with Lauren Lovette and her husband Daniel Flynn.

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Lovette had a story, though, that Daniel initially knew nothing about, a background so fabulous that an aspiring Hollywood screenwriter would have been told that the whole tale was too improbable to include in a script. Lovette, 32, had a star career as a principal dancer at the New York City Ballet before leaving the stage for the Paul Taylor modern dance company, where she is resident choreographer.

 

[dirac]

San Francisco Ballet offers a new professional development program for dancers.

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For principal ballerina Sasha De Sola, getting a bachelor’s degree in performing arts was no small feat. 

The dancer joined the San Francisco Ballet as an apprentice at the age of 16 and has worked for the company for almost 18 years. Amid the demand of rehearsals and performances, pursuing an outside education required more than a decade of sacrifice and self-motivation.

 

[dirac]

 American Midwest Ballet celebrates its fifteenth season.

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The company’s 27 resident dancers hail from 20 different states around the country, Overturff said, making the Midwest their home to share the art of dance with our community. She noted these dancer updates for Season 15:

 

[dirac]

An interview with John Clifford, currently artist-in-residence at the Portland Ballet.

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Clifford has always enjoyed his time with TPB.

 

“Up here they have a really strong work ethic,” he said. “Like any school company, (participation) ebbs and flows, it’s very fluid. They’ve always maintained a really high level. They had an audition recently and got a lot of good dancers for their Career Track. Really enthusiastic new kids.”

 

[dirac]

Ballet BC has a new executive director.

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Following an extensive search, Ballet BC announced this morning that [Kathy] MacKenzie would join artistic director Medhi Walerski to form “a new, visionary leadership team for the company moving forward”. 

 

[dirac]

 An interview with three new arrivals to Richmond Ballet.

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Ironically, it was an unexpected compulsion to sit still that made Alejandro Mariño Hechavarria realize he loved dance.

“When I was a child, I did a lot of projects about dance in school. But one day, I was watching TV in my house and I saw the National Ballet of Cuba dancing,” remembers Hechavarria, who was born in Cuba and lived there until 2022.