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FEATURES | By Josephine Minhinnett

Living Sculptures

On Thursday, December 3, in honour of the United Nations’ International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the New York City-based, physically integrated dance company Heidi Latsky Dance (HLD) will host an immersive durational performance and living installation “On Display Global” (ODG), in partnership with the NYU Tisch School of the Arts and United Nations. For 24 hours, from midnight to midnight Eastern Standard Time, audiences can tune into Zoom to watch participants from over 100 cities take part in the performance.

REVIEWS | By Rachel Howard

Nutcracker-on-Demand

Let’s be blunt: This is a year of desperation “Nutcrackers.” To deliver even one-fifth the joy of a live “Nutcracker” during these darkest pandemic days (and, I fear, to attract an even smaller share of the usual audience)—this must be counted a triumph.

REVIEWS | By Faye Arthurs

Balanchine in Sarasota

Covid-19 has been devastating to the performing arts. However, over the weekend I watched a performance by the Sarasota Ballet that reminded me of a pandemic silver lining: expanded accessibility. From my apartment in Brooklyn I’ve been able to see performances streamed from all over the world. These digital shows are a little surreal, and they cannot compete with live ones, but they do offer a glimpse of companies I usually don’t have the ability to see. In a normal year, I would not have had the opportunity to review this small Gulf Coast troupe, but this year I was...

DANCE FILM | REVIEWS | By Merilyn Jackson

Beyond Ballet

In the last three decades, the term Dance and Technology became a thing, a niche where choreographers strove to enhance and marry kinetic movement with digital, animation, film and video. Brilliant failures and successes ensued, depending on how the collaborators gelled with each other. One of the great triumphs was “BIPED,” (1999) where Merce Cunningham partnered with Paul Kaiser and Shelley Eshkar's dazzling projected animation imagery and the murky, sonar-like thuds of Gavin Bryars' score. The dancers' shimmering tourmaline costumes furthered the underwater impression and the choreography swam, receding, wavery, elusive.

INTERVIEWS | By Penelope Ford

Flying Fish

Designed by Alice has been a go-to for dancers for whimsical ballet skirts, and luxurious handmade accessories such as silk scarves and scrunchies. DBA has just released a bodysuit in the signature Somefish design, a jewel-toned watercolour reminiscent of the sea. We caught up with Alice Williamson, the talent behind the label, to chat about the new line, running a business during the pandemic, and her creative projects.

INTERVIEWS | By Claudia Lawson

New Breed

From the moment Chloe Leong joined Sydney Dance Company she was a star on the rise. In her first season with the company, she won the Helpmann Award for Best Female Performance after captivating audiences in William Forsythe’s “Quintett.” In 2020, for the first time, she has turned her hand to choreography for Sydney Dance Company’s only performance to make the stage this year: New Breed. Claudia Lawson spoke to Chloe about her journey from Sydney to Barcelona to joining Sydney Dance Company, overcoming insecurities, her thoughts on choreography, and her hopes for 2021.

DANCE FILM | REVIEWS | By Lorna Irvine

Dusk Chorus

The Swan, with choreography from David Dawson and written and filmed by Eve McConnachie, is of course inspired by “Swan Lake,” and focuses on the first six minutes of Act 4. It acts as (all being well next year) a wonderful taste of Scottish Ballet's forthcoming full adaptation and tour.

INTERVIEWS | By Victoria Looseleaf

Revelations with Robert Battle

To direct Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT), one of the preeminent companies in the world that was founded by choreographer, dancer, and visionary Alvin Ailey in 1958, is no easy feat. But to helm the troupe that has been hailed as “ambassador to the entire world for American culture and art” during a global pandemic, would seem like a daunting task. For artistic director Robert Battle, who took the reins in 2011 and is only the third person to lead the company after Ailey and Judith Jamison, he was more than up to the challenge.

REVIEWS | By Rachel Howard

Pacific Delights

According to his note accompanying Pacific Northwest Ballet’s latest digital stream, twice a week, artistic director Peter Boal attends a pandemic-strategizing Zoom meeting with the world’s leading companies—American Ballet Theatre, the Royal Ballet, the National Ballet of Canada, and many more. Let’s hope other ballet leaders are listening keenly to his contributions, because this second repertory program shows PNB stepping up to our moment with encouraging grace and boldness.

REVIEWS | By Róisín O'Brien

Human Movement

From mimicking the swarming of bees in “Emergence,” to grappling with forces of nature in “The Seasons’ Canon:” Crystal Pite often eagerly looks to complex configurations and omnipotent powers when working with a corps de ballet.

REVIEWS | By Josephine Minhinnett

The Flip Side

This year, Fall for Dance North not only showcased a diverse range of dance forms with real emotional depth, but delivered an ample dose of humour and levity in the midst of a pandemic. The relaunched interview series set in a bathtub, “Bathtub Bran” was a brilliant way to keep people entertained and, in true FFDN style, highlighted the fact that dance is not an exclusive art form or language, but an everyday one: if you can get bath ducks and miniature unicorns, you can get dance.

REVIEWS | By Faye Arthurs

Fall for Dance: Take 2

The second and final 2020 Fall for Dance program was not as somber as the first, though it still felt far removed from the ebullient live festivals of years past. Again, four pieces and seven dancers comprised the evening. Once again David Hallberg and Alicia Graf Mack co-hosted the event. And yet again there were two world premiere commissions and two classics on the bill. But this time around I tallied the scorecard at three hits and one miss.

Featured Reads

REVIEWS | Lorna Irvine

Teenage Angst and Institutions

Watching 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,...

INTERVIEWS | Marina Harss

The Me of Today

The choreographer Alexei Ratmansky reflects on the war in Ukraine, the connection between geopolitics and ballet, and joining the house of Balanchine.

REVIEWS | Rachel Howard

Starry Nights

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.

REVIEWS | Faye Arthurs

America, F**K Yeah

After 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.

REVIEWS | Emily May

Acosta Danza’s Choreographic Soup

An “Ajiaco” is a type of soup common to Colombia, Cuba, and Peru that combines a variety of different vegetables, spices, and meats.