For Alessandra Ferri, the greatest dramatic ballerina of her generation and possibly the most famous Juliet of today, parting is not going to be “such sweet sorrow.” On the contrary, Ferri, who is retiring this year after more than 20 years on the world’s stages, is going out with a bang. At the height of […]
Sixteen-year-old Daisy Long takes the stage during the quarter-finals at Switzerland’s Prix de Lausanne, dancing the contemporary variation she’s selected—Jirí Kylián’s One of a Kind, a somber solo, set to a melancholy cello, in which she wears all black. Although Long is number 15, she’s the eighth girl to dance this piece in front of […]
Gillian Murphy is on the threshold of something big. A principal at American Ballet Theatre, she’s already reached the top. But now she’s about to be catapulted into the spotlight even more. You may already know Murphy from her pointe shoe ads, as one of the odalisques in ABT’s 1999 video of Le Corsaire or […]
Whether you’re training in an elite academy, a wealthy suburban conservatory or a studio in the middle of Rio de Janiero’s dirt poor favelas, the path to becoming a professional dancer is never easy. A new ballet documentary, Only When I Dance, presented by Film Movement, follows Isobela and Irlan, two talented teenage ballet […]
Prix de Lausanne is one of ballet’s most powerful professional springboards. Think you might have what it takes to go up against some of the top students in the world? Take class with a Prix de Lausanne winner and learn what the prestigious competition is all about. Special master classes are being offered in the […]
Earlier this month, American dancer Katherine Higgins took third place in the junior ladies division at the Helsinki International Ballet Competition. The prize comes with 1,500 euros and a hefty dose of prestige. Now training at the Royal Ballet School of Antwerp in Belgium, Higgins, 15, will soon head off to her next big challenge: […]
BRITTANY STONE Boston Ballet Everything about Brittany Stone says “ballerina”: Her fluid port de bras, her lithe frame, her long legs. But until seven years ago she was a bona fide comp kid, performing jazz and tap and having, she insists, “no real ballet technique at all.” When Stone was 13, ABT’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis […]
When you get sidelined by an injury, you try physical therapy, Pilates, swimming—anything that might get you back onstage ASAP. But when you return, something always seems a little different. Maybe that right knee doesn’t feel as secure when you’re jumping, or your left hip grips a little more during développé. It’s hard not to […]