World-class review of ballet and dance.
Although still in his teens, Shale Wagman’s career in dance has been well-documented, thrilling Canada’s Got Talent audiences with dance routines when he was just eleven years old. The Toronto-born dancer graduated from the Princess Grace Academy in Monaco and danced with English National Ballet after winning the prestigious Prix de Lausanne. He has most recently performed with the Mariinsky Ballet in a principal role.
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A Toronto-native, Tom Leprohon started dancing when he was four years old. He trained at Canada’s National Ballet School and the European School of Ballet in Amsterdam. Tom joined the National Ballet of Canada’s apprentice program in 2018 and will dance with Sarasota Ballet for the coming season.
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Born in St. Tropez, Lucy Elliott grew up in the south of France where she started dance classes at four years of age. By age 7, she knew wanted to dance professionally. She trained in Cannes, Paris Opera Ballet School, and Canada’s National Ballet School. Last September she went the European Ballet School in Amsterdam, before joining the Paris Opera Ballet in January of this year, and before the lockdown, she was preparing to dance in George Balanchine’s iconic ballet, “Serenade.”
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Hannah Galway grew up in Comox, Vancouver Island and has been dancing since she was four. She graduated from Canada’s National Ballet School and joined the National Ballet of Canada’s apprentice program in 2017. Hannah now dances in the corps de ballet with the National Ballet of Canada, and recently originated a lead role in Crystal Pite’s new ballet, “Angels’ Atlas.”
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Inspired by a video of Mikhail Baryshnikov, Godwin Merano started his professional ballet training at Canada’s National Ballet School aged 12. Godwin joined Ballet Manila after graduation and has also performed with the Canadian Opera Company in “Rusalka.”
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March 6, 2020 was not an ordinary opening night at San Francisco Ballet. Some patrons inside the War Memorial Opera House wore hospital masks; others counseled fellow audience members to wash their hands a full 20 seconds in the bathroom at intermission. Onstage, the performers in Balanchine’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”—not staged at SFB in 34 years—danced as though this were their last night before lockdown, and in the velvet seats, the audience applauded as though we would never see these dancers again. We headed home with our memories of an exquisite performance. And as we slept, the order came:...
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There is a striking clarity and intelligence with which Crystal Pite and Jonathon Young approach narrative. Their combination of choreographer and actor/writer/director is not only dance-theatre gold, but allows for an incredibly rich interplay between words and movement.
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We enter DNK: Space for contemporary dance and performance, and right at the door we are greeted by the three co-creators and performers Aleksandar Georgiev, Zhana Pencheva and Darío Barreto Damas. Smiling and warming up, the dancers thank us for attending the Sofia premiere of their new piece, “dragON aka PONY.”
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Based in London's South Bank, Rambert is one of the world's most celebrated dance companies, creating extraordinary work which finds the sweet spot between iconoclastic and classic. Edinburgh dancer Daniel Davidson joined Rambert in 2013, having previously performed with Scottish Ballet. More recently, Davidson has emerged as a brilliant choreographer in his own right. On stage he is a mesmerising dancer, and with his elegant and statuesque presence, he has a rock star energy, seeming at times to emulate the glamour, rebellion and poise of a young David Bowie. I caught up with Davidson during a break from making creative...
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I am in a dance studio I have danced in for nearly 12 years. I am watching Errol White and Davina Givan show an excerpt from their upcoming work, “Worn.” The studio lights are up. Errol and Davina are wearing their practice clothes, recognisable from the classes they teach. A married couple, they perform an intense duet born from a close embrace that morphs into weaving, fiercely connected patterns.
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Watching Richard Alston Dance Company perform is like visiting a Rothko exhibition. It’s tidy, bright and expressive, confident in what it is and isn’t. And it’s vividly abstract; you can drink in its colour and energy without the heft of narrative interpretation. With an Alston production you have the bonus of musicality, which the dancemaker excels at. On the other hand, ephemerality is part and parcel of the experience. The fleeting nature of dance takes on an outsized presence in this particular programme, the company’s farewell show after 25 years at the forefront of the UK’s contemporary scene.
Continue ReadingWatching Matthew Bourne's reworked version of the “star-cross'd lovers,” I was briefly reminded of Veronica, played by Winona Ryder, in the dark 1988 comedy by Daniel Waters and Michael Lehmann, Heathers, and her line, “my teen angst bullshit has a body count.” Yes, this is the darker side of Bourne's repertoire,...
Continue ReadingThe choreographer Alexei Ratmansky reflects on the war in Ukraine, the connection between geopolitics and ballet, and joining the house of Balanchine.
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Beneath blue California skies, manicured trees, and the occasional hum of an overhead airplane, Tamara Rojo took the Frost Amphitheater stage at Stanford University to introduce herself as the new artistic director of San Francisco Ballet.
Continue ReadingAfter a week of the well-balanced meal that is “Jewels”—the nutritive, potentially tedious, leafy greens of “Emeralds,” the gamy, carnivorous “Rubies,” and the decadent, shiny white mountains of meringue in “Diamonds”—the New York City Ballet continued its 75th Anniversary All-Balanchine Fall Season with rather more dyspeptic fare.
Continue ReadingAn “Ajiaco” is a type of soup common to Colombia, Cuba, and Peru that combines a variety of different vegetables, spices, and meats.
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