by Margaret Fuhrer | Jul 11, 2011 | Company Life
Pacific Northwest Ballet corps member Abby Relic has never been your typical bunhead. At her Kansas high school, she was a member of the decidedly un-balletic drill team—which is where she first discovered hip hop. “The captain made up this sort of...
by Margaret Fuhrer | May 11, 2011 | Company Life
As a young ballet student in small-town Oklahoma, Emily Hunter thought she knew exactly what she wanted to be: a principal in a classical ballet company. But by the time she enrolled in the University of Iowa’s dance department, she’d begun to have doubts....
by Margaret Fuhrer | Feb 24, 2011 | Company Life
When New York City Ballet soloist Savannah Lowery was growing up, jazz class was playtime. “Ballet was always my thing, but as a kid, jazz was an opportunity to let loose and have a little fun,” she says. Though her jazz schedule slowed down a bit as her ballet career...
by Margaret Fuhrer | Jan 18, 2011 | Company Life
Ballet and tap seem like polar opposites: one preoccupied with line and form, the other with rhythm and sound. But the two styles have more in common, says The Royal Ballet principal Steven McRae, than you might think. “Actually, I think tap dance is an ideal...
by Margaret Fuhrer | Nov 17, 2010 | Company Life
Jacqui Guimond never dreamed she’d end up in a Cirque du Soleil production. After graduating from the University of Arizona’s ballet-oriented dance program, she performed with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal and contemporary ballet company David Taylor Dance...
by Margaret Fuhrer | Sep 26, 2010 | Company Life
Where can you find San Francisco Ballet corps member Quinn Wharton most Sunday evenings? Popping and locking with Funkanometry, a San Francisco-based hip-hop troupe. “Different company members teach Sunday night classes each week, and every one has his or her own...
by Margaret Fuhrer | Jul 28, 2010 | Company Life
As a student at The Harid Conservatory, Jeremy Kovitch liked his modern classes well enough. But what really grabbed the teenage dancer were online videos of work by Ohad Naharin, director of Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company. “He revolutionized modern dance,” Kovitch...
by Margaret Fuhrer | May 31, 2010 | Company Life
Pennsylvania Ballet soloist Barette Vance has been dancing since she was two and a half, but she didn’t start out on a ballet track. “For the first few years I was focused on jazz and gymnastics, like most of my friends,” she says. “Ballet was just an extra. But...