Category: dance

Stella Abrera has played a townswoman, a harlot, Rosaline, and Lady Capulet in American Ballet Theatre’s productions of Romeo and Juliet. Now, she is finally getting to play the titular role. Her Romeo says, “She has an ability to show that arc that I have rarely seen.”

For the first time in modern ballet history, a male dancer is performing as part of the female ensemble at an international ballet company, signaling an important moment in an art form that often celebrates a particular ideal of femininity. Or, as the great choreographer George Balanchine said, “ballet is woman.” But in a world with a heightened awareness of gender fluidity, and with transgender people increasingly accepted in a variety of professions, including acting and modeling, ballet is taking its own brave leap.

Why does de Mille’s choreography seem so dated now, while Fosse’s still looks as fresh and provocative as ever? It’s particularly puzzling considering that de Mille was the more revolutionary of the two. She created a startling new approach to integrating dance into the musical via character development, and established the standard for the widely imitated (and later much-parodied) “dream ballet,” an expressionistic choreographic sequence probing deep into characters’ psyches. Fosse’s great contribution to Broadway dance, on the other hand, is largely limited to his creation of a compelling physical vocabulary,

“For the first time in modern ballet history, a male dancer is performing as part of the female ensemble at an international ballet company, signaling an important moment in an art form that often celebrates a particular ideal of femininity. … ‘I want to be seen as a ballerina,’ said Mr. Johnsey, who identifies as gender fluid but uses male pronouns. ‘My hair is up, I wear makeup, female attire. I am able to do female roles and look the part, so that is artistically what I do.'” In January, he left Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo after 14 years, claiming that the famous drag company had been harassing him for being too feminine.

“Rising star Velicu, who was born in Bucharest, is certainly one to keep your eye on. Earlier this year, she picked up an Olivier Award, named the winner of Outstanding Achievement in Dance for her performance in Pina Bausch’s Le Sacre du Printemps. She joined the English National Ballet in 2016 and was quickly promoted to First Artist the following year. … We caught up with her in rehearsals to find out more about what it takes to become a ballet dancer, and how she spends each day.” (video)

“Among the award winners at the Prix Benois ceremony in Moscow was the ballet’s original choreographer Kirill Serebrennikov, who is awaiting trial on what his supporters say are charges trumped up to punish him for challenging the Russian establishment. The Nureyev ballet – which was completed by a stand-in choreographer because Serebrennikov was under house arrest – won in the best male dancer, best composer, and best choreographer categories, in addition to Serebrennikov’s gong for best production design.”

Many of the winners have gone on to good careers, but even more than dancers, the show has changed the discussion for choreographers. “‘Unless you were in the dance world, you didn’t even know the word ‘choreography,’’ said Mia Michaels, a three-time Emmy winner for her work on the show. ‘Choreographers became household names, which was incredible for our industry.'”

This is real: “Hot-Blood Dance Crew was created with help from iQIYI’s AI Brain, a system that uses machine learning algorithms to analyze video and search data and predict audiences’ likes and dislikes. iQIYI previously used the in-house AI to help create the rap reality show Rap of China, which debuted last June and became immensely popular; it had nearly 3 billion views during its initial run.”

City Ballet — still the world’s most valuable company for the excellence of its classical-modernist repertory — is in remarkably good shape. Had Mr. Martins resigned a decade or two earlier, the same could not have been said. Just what happened to make the difference in the years 2008-18? There are multiple answers. Dancers have learned again to step off balance into space and to embody their music rather than merely to follow it; and a number of excellent new ballets have revitalized the company’s sense of mission.