World-class review of ballet and dance.
“Manon” is perhaps one of Kenneth MacMillan's most celebrated works, so it is fitting that it draws to a close a Royal Ballet season that has seen a number of performances in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the choreographer's death.
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Aaron Robison's dancing has taken him around the world and back again. The former principal at San Francisco Ballet and Houston Ballet soloist returned last year to his native UK to join Tamara Rojo's English National Ballet at the highest rank. He danced in the recent world premiere of William Forsythe's “Playlist (Track 1, 2)”—the first new Forsythe work mounted on a British company in more than two decades, and was the poster-child for the bill, “Voices of America.”
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There was much to admire about the Washington Ballet’s program titled “Mixed Masters” which the company brought to the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater in April. This sophisticated, ambitious and highly enjoyable triple bill included signature ballets by the 20th century great choreographers: George Balanchine, Frederick Ashton, and Jerome Robbins—the masters “whose genius has shaped our art form immeasurably,” artistic director of the Washington Ballet Julie Kent wrote in the program notes.
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English National Ballet has spent recent months fighting off rumours about its cohesion, or purported lack thereof, under Tamara Rojo’s leadership; whispers have abounded alleging a hostile environment and a worrying degree of turnover, with around a third of ENB’s dancers having left the company in the last two years. That said, the company’s latest bill betrays no signs of such disquiet, presenting a troupe that looks assured, energetic and game to try its hand at a an increasingly diverse array of styles.
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Men. You can’t live with ’em and you can’t let ’em die. At least that’s the thinking in “Giselle,” the Romantic gold standard of any traditional ballet company in which the heroine falls for the wrong man, goes insane, perishes and is reborn as a Wili, a vampire-like creature that takes revenge on her fraudulent beau, only to let him live in the end.
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The Royal Ballet’s centenary celebration of composer Leonard Bernstein’s birth has resulted in a compelling triple bill that features premieres by Wayne McGregor and Christopher Wheeldon, alongside a revival of Liam Scarlett’s “Age of Anxiety.”
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In less than a month, New York City Ballet will unveil its “Robbins 100” festival at David H. Koch Theater in New York to commemorate the centennial of Jerome Robbins’ birth. In the course of a three-week period, the company will present six distinctive programs, featuring 19 ballets by Robbins, plus two world premieres, including a new ballet by Justin Peck choreographed to the music by Leonard Bernstein.
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Three young dancer/choreographers debuted new ballets in Washington, D.C., last month, each with distinct strengths: Clifton Brown is highly musical, Gemma Bond has a great sense of structure and Marcelo Gomes excels at developing character.
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Born in Cherbourg, northern France, Sophie Martin is one of Scottish Ballet's best-loved dancers and a real secret weapon, having been a principal dancer with the company since 2008. A rare and highly intuitive talent, she combines rich, graceful movement with expressive and versatile acting skills—from Vaudeville-infused choreography to classical, through to more contemporary lines.
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The first of two programs New York City Ballet brought to the Kennedy Center in March featured five ballets, including three works by George Balanchine: “Divertimento No. 15,” “Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux,” and “Symphony in Three Movements.”
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I can’t remember the first time I saw “Swan Lake” or “Serenade,” but I will never forget the first time I saw Jerome Robbins’s “Dances at a Gathering.” I was twenty-six and had just flown from California to New York City for the first time in my life. Equally frightening: I had just received a marriage proposal from the man I’d begged, for years, to marry me—and suddenly I wasn’t sure whether I should marry him. I sat smack in the middle of the orchestra section for a New York City Ballet matinee and up went the curtain and out...
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Many balletomanes (rightly) worship “Onegin” but few of them have read the eponymous novel by Pushkin, a founding father of modern literature in Russia. Yet, the book and ballet are closely intertwined, both in text and steps. Prey to mal du siècle, Onegin is said to cast “a mournful gaze” on the “dreary stage” at a ballet performance. He yawns and leaves. In hindsight, isn’t it ironic, given that Cranko’s masterpiece has the opposite effect on the audience? The ballet arouses passions, whether positive or negative. Some dismiss it as an offence to the inner realm of Pushkin and Tchaikovsky—Balanchine...
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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