Wonder what’s going on in ballet this week? We’ve rounded up some highlights. Premieres and Cross-Genre Collabs at Fall for Dance Festival The annual Fall for Dance Festival at New York City Center kicks off on October 1. Now in its 16th year, the two-week fest will bring together 20 companies from every corner of […]
Literary Roots E.T.A. Hoffmann, a German writer, penned the eerie and dark tale “Nutcracker and Mouse King” in 1816. About 30 years later, the French writer Alexandre Dumas took the Nutcracker story into his own hands, lightening things up and softening the character descriptions. Dumas even cheered up the name of the protagonist. “Marie Stahlbaum” […]
I am a self-confessed costume nerd who really needs little persuasion to travel nearly 3,000 miles to see a costume exhibition—which is what I did when I set off for California for the new exhibition at Los Angeles County Museum of Art: Chagall: Fantasies for the Stage. I knew Marc Chagall primarily for his sumptuous […]
Six Bolshoi Ballerinas Take California Six Bolshoi-trained primas perform new works by Mauro Bigonzetti and six other choreographers in “Reflections” at OCPAC. Picture this: You’re standing in a studio with world-famous ballerinas Maria Kochetkova, Yekaterina Krysanova, Natalia Osipova, Polina Semionova and Yekaterina Shipulina, and they’re all waiting for you to make a dance for them. […]
Whatever preconceived notions you may have about Russian ballet and Russian ballet dancers, Boris Eifman will simultaneously confirm and shatter them. As the founder and artistic director of the Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg, Eifman draws on the rich Russian ballet tradition, while creating a style that is all his own. His dancers have the […]
Last April when Staatsballett Berlin principal Polina Semionova made her NYC debut performing in the Youth America Grand Prix gala, her mere appearance on the stage elicited screams of delight from the aspiring dancers in the audience. They knew the young star from a video, “Demo (Letzter Tag),” in which she dances a sweet and […]