Category: dance

Isaac Hernández, now a principal at English National Ballet after stints with ABT II, San Francisco Ballet, and Dutch National Ballet, grew up taking classes from his father with his 10 siblings in a studio in their house in Guadalajara. Now, in between his company work in London and on tour, he flies home to Mexico and organizes both professional ballet performances and a pair of dance schools in poor barrios.

“The ballet world took notice on Monday when Estée Lauder announced that the public face of one of its fragrances would be Misty Copeland, the American Ballet Theater star. … [And] just last week Tiffany & Co. announced that it would feature another Ballet Theater star, David Hallberg, in its fall advertising campaign.”

Polunin, one of the art’s bigger (and certainly one of the more controversial) stars, thinks that dancers can be like soccer players or actors if they just have agents, and if the art can open itself up to top theatre and film directors.

“The Brooklyn Academy of Music, in what it says is its first formal relationship with a residency partner, will join forces with the budding Lumberyard Contemporary Performing Arts organization in upstate New York to commission and nurture three new dance works.”

The 31-year-old Briton “was confirmed last night as only the second foreigner [ever] to be promoted to the top tier of the company, which was previously known as the Kirov.”

Although schools like Juilliard and Bennington College have made degrees acceptable for modern dancers for decades, the competitive ballet world (which often follows a philosophy of “the younger the better”) tends to discourage higher education.

“At the time, it was the case in the Royal Ballet that there was a mindset of leaving dancers to develop, like a good wine or something, to gain strength in their own time. Whereas, in Russia, they have an idea of taking raw talent, maybe not ready for the big roles, and working on it until it’s ready to be set before the audience.”

The festival will highlight commonalities, as well as differences, across geographically or politically separated Indigenous cultures. National borders are of scant relevance to the peoples whose ancestors inhabited Turtle Island long before Europeans “discovered” North America. Santee Smith emphasizes that today’s Indigenous artists are highly individual. “We’re all rooted in our world views — societal, spiritual, philosophical — and share a belief that art and performance are an integral part our daily lives, but we’re far from being homogenous.”

Gia Kourlas: “Double Dutch has been a competitive sport since the 1970s, its popularity in cities intertwined with the birth of hip-hop. While just about anyone can do it, the best practitioners use athleticism, finesse and musicality to transform it from a game into a choreographic feat. Yes, double Dutch is very much an art form. And who knew? It even has roots at Lincoln Center.”

Meghan McFerran gives a rundown of the pluses (free travel, free room and board, extra strength) and minuses (isolation, seasickness, the stage moving under you).