by Meryl Cates | Jun 30, 2026 | Dance History, Pointe+, The Latest
In June 1941, after nearly two weeks at sea en route to Rio de Janeiro, George Balanchine and the dancers of the American Ballet Caravan barely had time to adjust their legs to solid ground before heading to the city’s lavish opera house. Balanchine waited for the 35...
by Doug Fullington | Nov 26, 2025 | Career, Dance History, Pointe+, Training
Many versions of The Sleeping Beauty are performed by companies all over the world. While each of these has its own artistic value, their source is nearly always Marius Petipa’s original choreography, made for the St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet in 1890. As a dance...
by Amy Brandt | Sep 30, 2024 | News, The Latest
Today, the Joffrey Ballet is among the 10 largest and most financially robust companies in the U.S., and very much associated with its home city of Chicago. But many young dancers may not know much about its founder, Robert Joffrey, the company’s long tenure in New...
by Sophie Bress | Sep 10, 2024 | News, The Latest
Royal Ballet School alum turned English teacher Lucy Ashe draws from both aspects of herself in her writing. Her love for ballet, as well as her command of the English language, shine in her latest novel, The Sleeping Beauties (Union Square & Co.). Set for a...
by Caedra Scott-Flaherty | Mar 11, 2024 | Career, Dance History, Pointe+, Profiles
If you were asked to name the influential ballet choreographers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, you’d probably list a lot of men: Marius Petipa, Michel Fokine, Vaslav Nijinsky, George Balanchine, Frederick Ashton. Maybe, if you really knew your stuff, you’d...
by Lydia Murray | Aug 16, 2022 | Black History Month, Dance History, Profiles
History’s rare gems often languish in the shadows of what might have been, and ballet is no exception. Those credited with shaping the artform—usually choreographers, principal dancers and impresarios—become legends, while corps de ballet members mostly go...
by Toba Singer | Jun 21, 2021 | Profiles
Last month, the legendary Italian ballerina Carla Fracci passed away at the age of 84. A star whose name was eponymous for La Scala Ballet in Milan, she went on to have an international career with companies including The Royal Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. Over...
by Zoe G. Phillips | Feb 8, 2021 | Dance History, Instagram, News, The Latest, Training
Last week, Memoirs of Blacks in Ballet celebrated the start of Black History Month with the launch of The Constellation Project, a star-studded online exhibition of dance history. The project maps the lives of six influential Black dancers—Arthur Mitchell, Mel...
