Defining "Ballerina"

Defining "Ballerina"

The word “ballerina,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary, originated in the late 1700s and was the feminine of ballerino, Italian for “dancing master,” which descended from the Latin ballare, “to dance.” More recent...
Defining "Ballerina"

A "Ballerina" Is…

In a recent editorial in The New York Times, dance critic Alastair Macaulay wrote that “the lesson of history is that ballerinadom has been continually redefined.” I believe it is time for a new definition, one that does not hold up Old World glamour or a...
Defining "Ballerina"

A New Passion

Photography by Kyle Froman   It’s rare to see celebrated ballet dancers outside of the grand opera houses that form their natural habitat. But Martha Clarke’s Chéri, which runs through December 22 at New York’s 294-seat Signature Theatre,...
Defining "Ballerina"

And Now From the Men…

Cory Stearns , American Ballet Theatre Why partnering couldn’t start soon enough: I had a crush on this girl at my school. Did anything happen? [Laughs] No. I had no confidence, so I never told her. She probably knew. Top mentors: My first partnering teacher,...
Defining "Ballerina"

The Standouts

Olga Smirnova Expectations can be a heavy burden to bear for a young dancer on the fast track to stardom. Few have justified the hype like the Bolshoi Ballet’s 21-year-old Olga Smirnova. The Vaganova-trained first soloist had an international coming out party to...
Defining "Ballerina"

Classic Caliber

Agon. The Goldberg Variations. In the Upper Room . We hear these titles today and think, “Classics.” But at what point does a ballet achieve that status? For Peter Boal, when the ballet was Alexei Ratmansky’s Concerto DSCH, almost instantly. “I...