Creative Risk
If the ballet world now seems inundated with Dracula productions, Frankenstein adaptations are a rarer sight.
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This is historical,” Ballet22 co-founder Theresa Knudson told the audience between works on the company’s latest program, “Momentum.” It may seem a big claim for a small company, but as the young people like to say these days, she’s not wrong. Launched in 2020, Oakland-based Ballet22 is the only company in the world with a mission to present men and non-binary dancers en pointe, not as a drag joke (as in Les Ballets Trockadero), but in earnest. And it’s doing so at a time when the rights of transgender and non-binary people are under unprecedented political attack in the United States. As “Momentum” co-artistic director Lorris Eichinger added in his plea for support, “It’s really bad out there.”
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If the ballet world now seems inundated with Dracula productions, Frankenstein adaptations are a rarer sight.
Continue ReadingIt’s amusing to read in Pacific Northwest Ballet’s generally exceptional program notes that George Balanchine choreographed the triptych we now know as “Jewels” because he visited Van Cleef & Arpels and was struck by inspiration. I mean, perhaps visiting the jeweler did further tickle his imagination, but—PR stunt, anyone?
Continue ReadingAs I watch one after another pastel tutu clad ballerina bourrée into the arms of a white-tighted danseur, a melody not credited on the program floats through my brain. You know the one.
Continue ReadingMisty Copeland’s upcoming retirement from American Ballet Theatre—where she made history as the first Black female principal dancer and subsequently shot to fame in the ballet world and beyond—means many things.
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