by Steve Sucato | Jan 17, 2019 | Career, Company Life
Victoria Morgan ‘s normally bright smile is even brighter entering her 22nd season as Cincinnati Ballet’s artistic director. That’s because the 55-year-old company is in the best shape it has ever been: Attendance, ticket sales and the...
by Steve Sucato | Oct 22, 2018 | Career, Company Life
Anonymity has its benefits, says Fort Wayne Ballet executive and artistic director Karen Gibbons-Brown: “We are tucked in the Midwest and one of the beauties is you get to fly under the radar and experiment in a way that you don’t get to in a larger...
by Lauren Warnecke | Jul 16, 2018 | Career, Company Life, Director's Notes
“You’ll find people say that we’re very demanding, but we’re not mean,” says Daniel Duell, co-founder of the Ballet Chicago Studio Company, a rigorous, Balanchine-based pre-professional training program located in the heart of downtown...
by Laura Cappelle | Feb 19, 2018 | Career, Company Life
Ella Persson remembers the rehearsals for her debut as Giselle. “I was in my first year with the company, and I started preparing with Mikhail Messerer during late evenings,” the Mikhailovsky Ballet’s Swedish-born coryphée says. “I was...
by Lauren Warnecke | Jan 8, 2018 | Career, Company Life
The first time Ashley Wheater was courted to be artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet, he said “Thanks, but no thanks”—he was very happy at San Francisco Ballet, where he’d spent eight years as a principal dancer and 10 more on the artistic...
by Justine Bayod Espoz | Apr 3, 2017 | Career, Company Life, Director's Notes
Unassuming audience members were in for a shock when 12 male dancers from Scottish Ballet performed Angelin Preljocaj’s MC 14/22 (Ceci est mon corps) at the 2016 Edinburgh International Festival. The work explores virility and violence through a series of...
by Joseph Carman | Feb 22, 2017 | Career, Company Life
After scouting for a ballet company to feature in the melodramatic reality show “Breaking Pointe,” the producers made a U-turn back to Adam Sklute, the CEO and artistic director of Ballet West in Salt Lake City. “They said, In our screen tests, your...
by Matthew J. Palm | Nov 21, 2016 | Career, Company Life, Director's Notes
As the dancers processed through downtown Orlando—smiling, laughing, heads held high—Orlando Ballet artistic director Robert Hill allowed himself to relax and take in the moment. It was 2013 and the company was headed toward its future. Rising from the...