Category: dance

“It’s extremely exciting. This is really big for us. Really big. And fantastic for the company to be recognised as a company that is able to stand up next to the artists that are performing.”

“In ballet, exaggeration exceeds itself; close-up, the makeup looks grotesque; the plots are melodramatic, the gestures heightened. It is both vibrantly physical and oddly unreal, allowing us to imagine an unlimited freedom for the limited body.”

Acosta: “In the beginning when you see Romeo and the other kids they just want to fight and joke around with harlots. … But then you witness a transformation inspired by powerful love. When I first played this role I was too young to understand that complexity.” Rojo: “I think life experience gives you things but it also takes away. It takes away naiveté. And it takes away belief.”

Passe-Partout “presents a new stage for dance that allows a user to overlay a series of one-minute pieces onto one another – there are eight solos or duets in total, though only five can be seen simultaneously – choreographed by Justin Peck for Mr. Ulbricht and himself. These layers allow for more than 40,000 permutations of dances. That’s a lot of bang for 99 cents.”

The choreographer, rehearsing a 1991work of his with the Boston Ballet, talks about the stress that led him to move away from the troupe he created in Germany after leaving Frankfurt Ballet, what will happen to the work he made for his dancers in the past decade (oblivion), and whether he will choreograph more (not yet).

“You can’t dance on a full stomach. There are always Maltesers around backstage – yes, we really do eat them – and there’s a guy called Rob who is in charge of the armoury, and is a real feeder. You’ll walk down the corridor and he’ll be there, handing out bars of chocolate or sweets.”

Leigh Thomas: “If you start every day with a class, followed by rehearsals, then performances evenings and weekends, you know what work is.”

“How do you decide how to choreograph a performance?
CN: George Balanchine choreographed it 80 years ago.”

How could a choreographer and artistic director in his prime walk away from such uncommon success?

“Art and dance have had a close relationship, from the Modernist flowerings of the Ballet Russes to the downtown scene in 1970s New York. … However, choreographers’ work is increasingly being incorporated into museum and gallery programmes, and as integral works rather than interruptions from a distinct artform.”