World-class review of ballet and dance.
Jake Mangakahia, soloist with the Australian Ballet, embodies the one who dared fly too near the sun in the award-winning dance film, Icarus. Inspired by the Greek myth, Icarus is the first film project from Australian multi-media arts group Lumyth. The film, which was released online on May 30, has been officially selected for the 2020 Phoenix Dance Film Festival. I spoke with Lumyth co-founders, Candice MacAllister and Sage Fuller, about the creation of Icarus.
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Benedicte Bemet is one of those dancers you never forget. From even the junior ranks, she has been a crowd favourite, combining technical prowess while radiating her sheer love of dance from the stage. Her trajectory to principal dancer at the Australian Ballet seemed guaranteed. However, it hasn’t been all smooth sailing.
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2020 was to be David McAllister's swan song with the Australian Ballet. After an epic 20 years at the helm, on March 3rd, McAllister announced that David Hallberg would take over as artistic director of the Australian Ballet in 2021. Within 10 days of the announcement, the Covid-19 pandemic forced theatres around the world to close, the Australian Ballet’s forthcoming seasons in Melbourne and Sydney were cancelled, and dancers were using kitchen benches as barres for daily class.
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Yin Yue is a dancer and choreographer based in New York. She is the artistic director of YY Dance Company, and has developed a signature training method and approach to movement called FoCo technique. FoCo (folk-contemporary) incorporates five elements (root/ground, wood/axis, water/surrounding, metal/tension and fire/kinesphere) and three rhythmic stages (pulse, drop, flow) across three training segments for dancers (triggering, rooting, mapping). The FoCo technique requires the dancer to masterfully integrate all elements, resulting in finessed texture and well-rounded movement quality.
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Like dance companies the world over, and just days out from opening night, Sydney Dance Company was placed on pause. Not paused indefinitely, but on hold until the threat of Covid-19 passes. What follows is a condensed version of my phone conversation with the company’s artistic director Rafael Bonachela, who spoke candidly about his family in Spain, how the dancers are keeping fit, SDC’s new virtual studios, and the importance of the arts in a time of crisis.
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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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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.
PlusWatching 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,...
PlusThe 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.
PlusAfter 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.
PlusAn “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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