World-class review of ballet and dance.
At the Roman Amphitheatre in Fiesole, a town on a hill that dominates Florence from above, the sidereal luminosity of a cloudless night, married with the soft (for once) hum of the cicadas and the breathtaking roman and etruscan stones reminiscent of classical artistic glory, provide the ideal setting for a dance gala.
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When the French-born but American at heart Benjamin Millepied took over the Paris Opera Ballet in 2014, he stated that the tri-centenarian company was aging in every way. Even though the troupe’s repertoire offered one of the world's widest ranges of ballets, from Nureyev’s masterpieces and Lacotte’s reconstructions to Preljocaj, Teshigawara or Bausch's iconoclastic works, the departing artistic director intended to dust off the supposedly stiff institution. Loudly and clearly. To start with, he nurtured a brand new generation of soloists in their early twenties, whom he brought into the spotlight: Léonore Baulac, Hannah O'Neill and Hugo Marchand. Then he...
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Some things are eternal, such as the music of Stravinsky, Shostakovich, and Bernstein. Alexei Ratmansky, one of the world’s greatest living choreographers, has made mostly astute and fascinating use of works by these composers in a program that also showed off the formidable talents of dancers from American Ballet Theatre as the troupe, in full-throttle dazzle mode, charmed Los Angeles audiences last weekend.
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“Two households, both alike in dignity,In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.From forth the fatal loins of these two foesA pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;Whose misadventured piteous overthrowsDo with their death bury their parents' strife.”
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Baltic Dance Theatre, the resident company of the Baltic Opera, Gdansk, is one of the largest contemporary dance companies in Europe with an internationally diverse body of 24 dancers. Despite being a relatively young company (BDT was established in 2010), they have already built a substantial repertoire of work, the majority of which is created by BDT's Artistic Director, Izadora Weiss. A former dancer, Weiss choreographed extensively for opera prior to her appointment as director of the Gdansk Ballet at the Baltic Opera. Under Weiss' direction the company moved towards a more contemporary style, and in 2010 BDT was formed....
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A full house turned out for the opening night of Natalia Osipova’s new contemporary programme at Sadler’s Wells, a tingle of excitement sweeping the packed audience in the moments before the curtain rise. Little surprise there, given the star power on show—Osipova is one of classical ballet’s It Girls, known world-round for a giant stage presence that defies her petite stature. The Russian powerhouse is neat, nimble and searing in her intensity, a combo she continues to refine as a principal with the Royal Ballet.
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Tonight as it gets coldtell yourselfwhat you know which is nothingbut the tune your bones playas you keep going. And you will be ablefor once to lie down under the small fireof winter stars.[note]Mark Strand, “Lines for Winter” from Selected Poems (1979) accessed on Poetry Foundation: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/50977[/note]
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Benjamin Millepied—known in the ballet world for his 16 years at New York City Ballet and recent tenure as director of the Paris Opera Ballet, and beyond it for his choreographic turn in Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan and subsequent marriage to Natalie Portman—co-founded LA Dance Project in 2012 with four other creatives. In its four years, the collective has struck up some powerful relationships, including one with Van Cleef & Arpels, the jewellery brand associated with Balanchine’s legendary “Jewels.” Van Cleef & Arpels is now LADP’s principal sponsor, and the influence behind two of three pieces recently shown in London:...
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Although it was born in Paris (Vernoy de Saint-Georges/Mazilier, 1856), “Le Corsaire” is no prophet in its own land. Its lascivious oriental patterns could have been fashioned out by Nerval, Chateaubriand or Dumas' literary orientalism. Yet “Le Corsaire” was based on an eponymous poem by a hereditary frenemy's icon: the Englishman Lord Byron. In spite of its roaring success, in the upper spheres of the Second Empire, the exotic ballet soon started to sail away “over the glad waters of the dark blue sea,” thus falling into disuse at the Paris Opera.
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The Royal Ballet's mixed programme for the 2015/16 season combines a selection of three very different works. Resident choreographer Wayne McGregor's new one-act ballet, “Obsidian Tear,” sits alongside a revival of Kenneth MacMillan's “The Invitation” and the return of Associate Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon's “Within The Golden Hour.”
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In Jennifer Hart’s sensitive and contemporary “Camille: A Story of Art and Love,” narrative, chorus, and drama resurfaced like friends lost long ago to the seas of neoclassicism. The forty-minute ballet, the final work on the program of four presented by Hart’s pickup company Performa/Dance, was like a polished stone: a composition of epochs, worn smooth.
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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