It’s not every day that you get to see two living legends share the same stage. In 2007, Carmen de Lavallade and Desmond Richardson, trailblazers generations apart, premiered Dwight Rhoden’s Precious Blood at The Joyce Theater in New York. In this clip, the then 76-year-old de Lavallade gives a stunningly elegant performance alongside Richardson, who […]
If you’re a dancer about to graduate high school, you don’t need to be told just how much COVID-19 has taken away from you. You deserve to be celebrated for your accomplishments. And you also deserve a leg up (pun most definitely intended) when it comes to your dance career, since the pandemic has put […]
Proceed with caution: This emotionally charged death scene is balletic but brutal. San Francisco Ballet principal Yuan Yuan Tan and former American Ballet Theatre principal Desmond Richardson perform in this excerpt of Lar Lubovitch’s Othello. The ballet, based on Shakespeare’s play of the same name, was jointly produced by SFB and ABT in 1997, and […]
Ballet superstars don’t get much bigger than Wendy Whelan and Desmond Richardson. This winter, the two inimitable dancers teamed up for a one-night-only performance in New Orleans to commemorate Richardson’s last season as a performer with Complexions. If you haven’t seen Jim Lafferty’s gorgeous shots of their rehearsals in our April/May issue, you’re missing out. […]
The year was 2000. Dancers were listening to music on MP3 players on their way to class, Center Stage was gearing up for its cinematic release, and American Ballet Theatre was about to debut a new Swan Lake. What else was going on in the ballet world? As we continue to celebrate Pointe’s 25th anniversary, […]
When Dwight Rhoden, co-artistic director of Complexions Contemporary Ballet, first saw April Watson at a company audition, “gravity” was the word that came to his mind. “She has a power and depth that she brings to her dancing,” says Rhoden, who also serves as resident choreographer of the company he co-founded and directs with Desmond […]
A dancer’s long leg reaches skyward as she tilts daringly far off pointe, before launching into a rapid-fire string of intricate steps. Her slinky upper body contrasts with the highly technical classicism of her legs. Her movement has a sense of expansive freedom that’s at once gutsy and elegant. If this aesthetic sounds familiar, that’s […]
Dance and poetry have long enjoyed a fruitful partnership. Across genres, hundreds of choreographed works have integrated elements of spoken word. Now, Complexions Contemporary Ballet has benefited from the two art forms’ compatibility with a new artistic position. On November 14, renowned writer and poet Aaron Dworkin will debut as Complexions’ poetjournalist-in-residence in the company’s […]