by Julia Guiheen | Mar 4, 2020 | TBT
Of all the tragic onstage deaths in ballet, Manon’s in Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s eponymous ballet may the most physically wrenching. The final pas de deux between Manon and Des Grieux is intricate and extreme, both technically and emotionally. Jonathan Cope...
by Anne McCarthy For Dance Magazine | Jan 20, 2020 | News, The Latest
When French President Emmanuel Macron proposed widespread pension reforms in December, the repercussions were felt almost immediately throughout France. In Paris, protests reverberated through the city. Metro trains halted, the Eiffel Tower was shut down, schools...
by Marisa C. Hayes | Nov 26, 2019 | Career, News
Dancing with the Paris Opéra Ballet normally entails performing to sold out crowds and admirers from around the world. But imagine dancers attempting to give their best performance in an opera house that’s eerily quiet and closed to the public....
by Marisa C. Hayes | Nov 20, 2019 | Instagram, Training, Trending
As a little girl, Hortense Millet-Maurin fell in love with the wide spiral staircase that dominates the center of the Paris Opéra Ballet School. Today, as a focused 15-year-old POB student, she and her classmate Vincent Vivet navigate the school’s...
by Julia Guiheen | Nov 6, 2019 | TBT
Noëlla Pontois, the striking, lithe and fiercely technical former étoile of the Paris Opera Ballet, was renown for her interpretation of aristocratic roles in 19th-century ballets. In this 1983 performance from Rudolf Nureyev’s production of Raymonda, Pontois is...
by Amy Brandt | Jul 10, 2019 | Dance Magazine, Dance Spirit, Dance Teacher, News, Trending, Viral Videos
Just imagine: you’re settling in for a long international flight, when suddenly Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake starts playing on the intercom—and a group of feather-clad ballerinas bourrée down the aisle. That’s exactly what happened last week to Air France...
by Julia Guiheen | Jun 5, 2019 | Profiles, TBT
Fairies crop up everywhere in classical ballet, from sylphs to dryads to, of course, the ranks of fairies who attend Aurora’s christening in The Sleeping Beauty. These delicate and mystical creatures stretch the reaches of ballet technique, forcing dancers to...
by Julia Guiheen | May 1, 2019 | Profiles, Viral Videos
From the outside, classical ballet can seem restrictive with its decorum, elaborate costumes and, of course, uncomfortable pointe shoes. Yet as ballet dancers we know that our technique actually allows our bodies to move with incredible freedom. That physical freedom...