World-class review of ballet and dance.
The Telstra Ballet Dancer Award is an annual competition that recognises rising talent within the Australian Ballet. Each year, a handful of nominees have the chance to win the Rising Star, or People's Choice Award, accolades respectively accompanied by a purse of $25,000 and $15,000. Telstra has been a longtime partner of the Australian Ballet and has sponsored the award for two decades, seeing many a prizewinner and nominee rise to principal rank.
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Hovering over her on all fours, the man looks into the woman as if he's caught his own reflection. Cradled on the floor, she has nestled her feet into his chest. Slowly, without breaking eye contact, the man begins an ascension to standing. The woman extends her legs, and it looks like he is floating, drawn upward by some mystery in the clouds. This striking scene comes from emerging choreographer Annie Rigney's “Galithea,” which was selected for presentation at the Joyce Theater in 2021 as part of the 92NY Harkness Dance Center's Future Dance Festival.
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“It’s amazing!” she gushed. “I’m loving every minute. It’s been busy, exciting and there’s a lot of momentum.”
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The genre of Noh theater and dance exists in our time thanks to important contributions by two nineteenth-century Americans. The first you’ll know. The story goes that when President and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant toured the world after Grant had left office, they visited Japan, where, as the former American head of state and a famous military man, Grant was treated to a performance of a Noh play. Some treasured plays in that genre feature tragic laments for a lord felled in battle by warriors whose essential message is, as the Wanderers and Seafarers of Old English poetry—so similar to...
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Broadway Bodies is dedicated to “anyone who has ever been told they were too fat, too short, too gay, too disabled, and otherwise too much or not enough to be in a musical.” The book, written by musical theater scholar Ryan Donovan, examines the ways different aspects of identity have historically affected casting on the Great White Way, using shows like A Chorus Line, Dreamgirls, and La Cage aux Folles as case studies to illustrate the issues that arise when bodies are used as an artistic medium.
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It’s been a good year for women leading ballet companies: In the recent past, Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell took the reins at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago; Tamara Rojo became the first female artistic director of San Francisco Ballet in the troupe’s 89-year history; and Jodie Gates is leading Cincinnati Ballet into a new era.
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When Jared Angle retired from New York City Ballet this past January after a twenty-five year career with the company, he did so in a characteristically understated manner. He danced in only one of the three ballets on the program, playing Prince Ivan in Balanchine’s “Firebird.” Afterward, he received only a modest number of bouquets, having requested that the money be spent, instead, on New York City Ballet’s Education and Public Programs. He then said a few words, thanking the audience for coming to the ballet, his colleagues for their years of friendship, and the orchestra for their music. There...
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In an extended phone interview, I had the pleasure of posing question after question to Boris Charmatz. He told me about his various projects as dancer and choreographer, starting with association EDNA, the Musée de la Danse and finishing with his artistic direction, as of September 2022, of the world-renowned Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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In her latest book, Don’t Think, Dear: On Loving and Leaving Ballet author Alice Robb calls New York City Ballet co-founder George Balanchine her “problematic fave.” Especially as the dance world continues to examine many of the darker aspects of the famed choreographer’s influence on ballet culture, this is a sentiment that many of us—myself included—seem to be echoing.
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New York City Ballet principal dancer Tiler Peck is many things beyond ballerina. Although it’s a role she excels in—she is widely acclaimed for her immaculate technique, speed, and musicality —Peck has always sought more from her career in dance. Schooled from an early age in various genres, including jazz, she made her Broadway debut at age 11, appearing as Gracie Shinn in “The Music Man.” Other musical theatre roles followed, but after seeing a performance of “The Nutcracker” in New York, Peck set her heart on pursuing her ballet training. She entered the School of American Ballet when she...
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She’s been a principal ballerina in companies that include the Joffrey Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet and Complexions Contemporary Ballet, as well as a principal guest artist with companies around the world such as the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. From 2006-2013, she was a tenured professor of dance at UC Irvine, and in 2013 she was named the first Vice Dean and Director of the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. In addition, in 2006, she was the founder and artistic director of the Laguna Dance Festival. But Jodie Gates has never been an artistic director of a dance troupe—until...
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Phil Chan wants to get one thing straight: his work is the opposite of cancel culture. As co-founder of the organization Final Bow for Yellowface, Chan has long called for updating the obsolete stage representations of Asians and has even encouraged arts leaders to sign a pledge committing to the elimination of these damaging stereotypes. It is an advocacy he pursues in writing, teaching, consulting, directing, and choreographing.
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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