World-class review of ballet and dance.
“I’m a choreographer because I’m interested in connecting with people, in connecting to audiences, and in connecting with people I’ve worked with—performers—as a way of finding common ground. There’s something about the presence of story,” said internationally acclaimed choreographer, Crystal Pite.
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In an essay, “Grandmother Spider,” writer Rebecca Solnit describes a painting by Ana Teresa Fernandez. The painting shows an image of a woman, hanging out laundry, entirely covered by the sheet she's pinning to the line; only visible her fingertips and below the ankle. She's wearing heels, “as if to go dancing,” Solnit suggests. I was reminded of the photograph Elena Lobsanova, principal dancer of the National Ballet of Canada, taken by Karolina Kuras, where Lobsanova is similarly concealed, and revealed by fabric; revealed in outline, as woman, as artist. Yet, this woman wears pointe shoes; she is dancing.
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“When they said glitter, I immediately thought—no,” photographer Karolina Kuras was somewhat wary of truckloads of glitter entering her Toronto studio for a photoshoot with Brent Parolin, second soloist of the National Ballet of Canada. And yet, the results are nothing less than, well, sparkling. Makeup and styling by Ashley Readings.
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It was my first visit to the Dance Commons, home of ODC/Dance nestled in San Francisco’s Mission District. Brenda Way, artistic director of ODC, looking summery on this Friday morning despite a bandaged ankle (nothing serious, routine dancer injury), met me in the foyer and took me on a tour.
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“I am the daughter of two immigrant parents from Venezuela and I was born in the United States. I happen to be very fair, blonde, blue eyes but I just got all the recessive genes in the family, basically,” Sasha De Sola beams.
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“I grew up in a rural area of South Central Pennsylvania. The arts aren’t a big thing there but my parents are actually both in the arts. My father plays the oboe in the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra in Pennsylvania.” For Julia Rowe, soloist with San Francisco Ballet, it's all about the music.
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Sarah Hay, dancer-turned-actor and star of Starz channel 2015 TV drama, “Flesh and Bone,” recently moved to Los Angeles to pursue her acting career. We took a walk with her on the beach as she talked us through her transition from stage to studio. Photographs by Karolina Kuras, dresses by Louiza Babouryan.
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Of dancing in the premiere of Liam Scarlett's“Frankenstein,” San Francisco Ballet dancer Isabella Walsh notes, “it's kind of a sad ballet, but really interesting. It's like nothing I’ve done before.” Walsh, who joined the company in 2016 as an apprentice and is newly promoted to corps de ballet, is getting used to traversing new ground.
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One of the “little upgrades” of having been knighted, said renowned director and choreographer Matthew Bourne, was being able to score tickets to “Hamilton.” And while Sir Matthew received one of the United Kingdom’s highest honors last year for services to dance from the Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace, he seems even more excited and—yes—astonished at the 30th anniversary of his troupe, New Adventures. Founded in 1987 and formerly called Adventures in Motion Pictures, it is a resident company at Sadler’s Wells.
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Frances Chung, principal dancer at San Francisco Ballet, is seated in a flat side split, bendily warming up. Her beloved chihuahua, Iggy, finds a place to rest on the nearest tutu. “He's very comfortable in the studio,” Chung laughs.
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“When I began this company 34 years ago, education was crucial. So many people, they teach steps, but if you don’t know what the steps mean or what they are relating to, what is it?”
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Originally from Anshan, China, WanTing Zhao joined the San Francisco Ballet as a corps de ballet dancer in 2011. She has danced numerous principal and featured roles in Helgi Tomasson’s classical productions, and in Balanchine repertoire including “The Four Temperaments” (3rd Theme), and “Rubies” (principal). Recently Zhao danced in Benjamin Millepied's “The Chairman Dances,” which will return as an extended ballet in the company's 2018 season. In 2016 Zhao represented SFB with Carlo Di Lanno at the Eleventh International Competition for the Erik Bruhn Prize in Toronto, Canada, and she was awarded a silver medal at the 2010 Youth America Grand Prix. She was...
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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