World-class review of ballet and dance.
A ballet career necessitates lifelong scholarship. Professionals take a daily technique class that begins with the same pliés at the barre as absolute beginners. Most days at the School of American Ballet, New York City Ballet members are tucked into in a corner of the studio, honing their tendus alongside the top divisions.
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Jessica Lang is smack in the middle of a three-year stint as resident choreographer at Seattle’s Pacific Northwest Ballet. It’s an excellent artistic match that deserves to be followed closely, because both Lang and PNB merit a higher national profile.
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The close-knit ballet scene in San Diego was dealt a blow when California Ballet, the company Maxine Mahon founded in 1968, folded in 2020. Insiders tell me the pandemic wasn’t entirely to blame, but since then, Golden State Ballet, still wet behind the ears, has risen in its place.
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Now in its fifth year, Lincoln Center's “Summer for the City” festival is going all out for dance. This year, the festival will inaugurate the much-anticipated Lincoln Center Contemporary Dance Festival in Alice Tully Hall, featuring five international companies, as well as a new outdoor contemporary dance series called Dance Encounters, presented outside on Hearst Plaza.
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In defiance of the stars overhead, and destiny foretold, Joseph Caley’s Romeo falls, and utterly so, for Grace Carroll’s Juliet, on the opening night of the Australian Ballet’s Melbourne season of John Cranko’s “Romeo and Juliet.”
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It’s hard to think of a company as fresh as Rambert at one hundred years old. The company, founded by icon of British dance Marie Rambert, has prided itself on being the leading contemporary voice within the UK.
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The void will appear soon, we are told, to invite us into an hour-long escape. The pre-show announcement is more poetic than prescriptive: “We are not islands scattered in a melancholy dark sea,” the voice of god adds, and shortly thereafter, the curtain rises on BalletCollective’s latest work, “Translation,” choreographed by founder Troy Schumacher.
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A dancer’s lineage can tell you a lot. The places they’ve trained, the mentors they’ve had, the repertoire they’ve inscribed into their long-term memory all have an impact on the ways that they move, attack a set of steps, strategize a quick petit allegro or a dreamy adagio. So, too, is this true for choreographers.
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“So Are We,” from Sol León and Paul Lightfoot—former spouses who share a long-running creative career—is something of a full-circle event.
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OG Anunoby’s fingertip putback of Jalen Brunson’s Hail Mary three-pointer. Jordan Staal’s diving sniper goal. It’s playoff season, a time of year dominated by unbelievable, high-stakes athleticism across several sports (see also the French Open, the FIFA World Cup).
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To launch her tenure as artistic director for the National Ballet of Japan, Miyako Yoshida added Sir Peter Wright’s “Swan Lake” (with Galina Samsova) to the repertoire, explaining the choice as a “new step forward” for the company.
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In the forest, it is never silent. Everything is in transmission with something else, be it tree roots to soil, plants to animals and insects, or warning cries that ripple through the forest when predators approach.
PlusLong before the dancers take the stage, Dance Theatre of Harlem’s season at New York City Center feels like one of the most energizing cultural events of the spring.
PlusIt is rare for George Balanchine’s grand, bedazzled “Symphony in C” to open a program. Its champagne-popping finale for 52 dancers tends to be a nightcap.
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The Spring is Blooming festival, by Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels, now in its fifth year, has become a highlight of the spring dance circuit.
PlusAs the audience come to their feet at the end of this ballet there is a noted difference to be seen on stage. Three women stand with joined hands, taking their call as the romantic leads of a loud and proud lesbian ballet.
PlusOne of San Francisco Ballet’s greatest assets is its home venue, the Beaux-Arts style War Memorial Opera House, with four rings of seating that require performers to project their energies practically to the exosphere.
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