Bunheads, clear your calendars! As many of you already know, Center Stage is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. The 2000 teen dance drama, which follows Jodie Sawyer and her friends at the fictional American Ballet Academy, has since become the quintessential ballet flick, for obvious reasons. It not only brought ballet—and lots of it—to […]
While American Ballet Theatre and Complexions Contemporary Ballet fall into very different size and repertoire categories, both institutions’ dancers start their day with pliés and tendus—even in quarantine. A ballet class seemed like a natural connection point for a recent teacher swap initiative between the two organizations. Sascha Radetsky, artistic director of ABT Studio Company, […]
Stella Abrera’s name (“stella” means “star” in Latin) proved prophetic in the final stretch of her 24-year career at American Ballet Theatre. Abrera joined ABT’s corps de ballet in 1996, was promoted to soloist in 2001 and, finally, after an uncommonly lengthy stretch, principal in 2015, making her the first Filipina American to reach the […]
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 […]
Where were you when you first watched Center Stage? Were you team Charlie or team Cooper? It’s hard to believe that the iconic ballet film just had its 20th anniversary on Tuesday, but Hollywood couldn’t have given fans a better way to celebrate. Deadline just announced that the hit movie will now be adapted into […]
Whether you first watched it in a theater two decades ago or on Netflix last week, odds are you feel a deep connection to Center Stage. The cult classic, which premiered May 12, 2000, is arguably the greatest dance film ever made. (Dance obsessives might take issue with the “cult” before “classic,” not to mention […]
Summer intensives aren’t just for teenagers anymore. Several companies and schools are now offering ballet programs tailored to the specific needs of young adults in their early career or in college. In addition to helping dancers stay in shape, these intensives and workshops give them a chance to receive coaching and career mentoring, practice the […]
The members of ABT Studio Company straddle two worlds: student and professional. On a March afternoon, as the dancers rehearse for a work choreographed by ABT dancer Gemma Bond, they appear more the former: Clean academic leotards and tights reveal coltish legs. But as soon as they launch into the piece (which later had its […]