This summer, Pointe is taking a peek inside the Joffrey Ballet’s International Summer Intensive with guest blogs from dancer Rachel Davis of New Jersey. Last week, my level had Alexi Kremnev for the first four days of ballet class. His is, most likely, one of my favorite classes I’ve ever experienced. Although my level […]
After making a splash in Chicago and DC, Paris Opéra Ballet has set up camp in New York’s Lincoln Center for the next two weekends. Tonight, étoile Marie-Agnès Gillot performs the lead in Maurice Béjart’s Bolero. In Pointe‘s April/May 2010 issue, we asked Gillot what skill she would most like to have. Her response? […]
The Paris Opéra Ballet’s American tour might be over, but they haven’t completely abandoned us. On Sunday, August 5, movie theaters across the country will be showing POB’s La Bayadère. This is no ordinary performance; it’s Pointe cover girl Ludmila Pagliero‘s breakout as Gamzatti. After a streak of last-minute injuries, Pagliero stepped into the role […]
Sleeping Beauty includes some of ballet’s most cherished variations. (Hands up if you learned “Bluebird” as your first variation ever!) This month in 1890, Petipa’s ballet premiered at the Imperial Theatre, and it became a favorite first in Russia and eventually around the world. Let’s celebrate with this video of the incomparable Sylvie Guillem dancing […]
All the ballerinas of the Paris Opéra Ballet are renowned for their crystalline precision, honed in the company’s notoriously rigorous school. But Isabelle Guérin, an étoile with POB from 1983 to 2001, set an especially high standard for technical purity. The slow, mournful pace of Nikiya’s death scene from La Bayadère lets us luxuriate in […]
The endless love affair between dance and fashion will never get old. Especially when photographic geniuses like Annie Leibovitz compose moments like this one: Leibovitz’s photographs for Vogue are usually whimsical, romantic and downright inspired. In these, she’s succeeded again, capturing the magic of the Palais Garnier—home of the Paris Opera Ballet. Hamish Bowles wrote the magazine’s […]
One could argue that Natalia Makarova’s career never ceased to flourish—from joining the Kirov Ballet in 1959, to winning a Tony award in the Broadway performance of On Your Toes in 1983. She never left audiences unsatisfied, traveling as a guest artist around the world for American Ballet Theatre, Paris Opera Ballet and The Royal […]
In what’s proving to be a year of many ballerina retirements, Paris Ópera Ballet star Aurélie Dupont has announced that she will step down from the company next month. The 42-year-old dancer has been with the Ópera for 32 years, and has been an étoile for 17 of them. Her final performance on May 18, […]