Category: dance

ABT principal dancer Isabella Boylston, who does the dancing body double work for the star in the new movie Red Sparrow, says the adjustment from stage to screen wasn’t big – it was small: “When I performed in the Met in front of 4,000 people, everything had to translate to the back row, so you had to do things really big, dance big, with acting and gestures. Everything has to be magnified to carry through the theater, and for film it’s the opposite; everything has to be subtle because you can read every little detail.”

As City Ballet is run by a team of four (three ballet masters and a choreographer), Alistair Macauley sums up a few recent changes: “Whoever takes over City Ballet long-term must address not just the legacy of Mr. Martins but also the achievements of this interregnum, too. A controversial slap in Mr. Martins’s Romeo + Juliet has been deleted; the ballerina Patricia McBride has coached a role she created. There have been impressive debuts in individual roles.”

Here, white administrators can experience what it feels like to be one of a few, to stick out, to not know if you are authentically welcome or just being tolerated. I had conversations with some who were uncertain if their voices would be welcomed. Welcome to the African American experience.

“I’d like to see politicians dancing. I’d like to see the world practicing art. Because the introspection from true art practice can’t lie.” (video)

Copeland said that ABT and ballet in general are naturally moving in a direction that favors gender equality and more diversity on stage, but key to ballet’s survival is the diversification of its patrons, too. “Bringing diversity into the theater is going to keep ballet thriving and relevant and alive. To me, that’s so critical and so important,” she said.

“The internet sank its teeth into a now-defunct Winter Olympics event this week: ski ballet. And it makes sense. When you see footage of actual ski ballet competitions from years past it’s hard to deny the novelty of it all, while simultaneously taking in the raw athleticism and artistry of the event. There’s also an extremely ‘What the hell am I watching?’ quality to ski ballet. … But really, no words can truly do it justice.” (includes video)

Gia Kourlas: “To me, no team, gold medal or not, matches the artistry of Ms. Papadakis and Mr. Cizeron. … Suddenly, a competition is a conduit for more than skating. It’s a window into another space and time: eerie, quiet, floating.”

“Dance for PD is a program developed by [Mark Morris Dance Group] that gives people with Parkinson’s an opportunity to experience the joy of dance while creatively addressing symptoms of the degenerative neurological disorder that affects one in 100 people over the age 60.” Reporter Jane Fries sits in on a class taught by MMDG members David Leventhal and Lesley Garrison.

“Anderson may be a familiar face to Boise dance devotees, having performed in the past with the Trey McIntyre Project and local dance nonprofit LED. In addition … [he has] chaired the Dance Department at New Mexico School for the Arts and has danced with the Pacific Northwest Ballet, Ballet Chicago and the Belgium-based Royal Ballet of Flanders, among others. He will take up the post of artistic director in July.”

“Eventually, around the beginning of the 19th century, ballet class took the form and structure of what professional ballet dancers now do every day, beginning at the barre with pliés and ending in the center with allégro. … Yet today’s ballet dancers need to be much more versatile.” Emma Sandall talks with dancers, artistic directors, pedagogues, and researchers about what in ballet training could change for the better.