Between Two Continents

Wonder what life is like these days for David Hallberg? The Chicago Sun Times’ Hedy Weiss checks in with the Bolshoi and ABT star one year after he became the first American to join Moscow’s beloved ballet company. He perform Giselle on Saturday night with ABT at Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre. His partner for the performance is the recent Bolshoi defector Natalia Osipova, who’s now with the Mikhailovsky. Although the disjointed timing of their Bolshoi careers meant the two dancers were unable to nurture their partnership at that company, their appearances together with ABT are simply electric—each seems to bring out new qualities in the other. Says Hallberg to Weiss: “I think there is something electric in out rapport onstage. Neither of us speak the other’s language verbally, but we communicate emotionally.”