by Amy Brandt | Mar 4, 2021 | Technique, The Latest, Training
Have you ever wondered what Daniil Simkin thinks about when he whips off a series of effortless pirouettes? Or how Polina Semionova initiates her “swan arms” when she dances Odette/Odile? Both dancers are now part of a new streaming platform called...
by Julia Guiheen | Aug 12, 2020 | TBT
Sylvie Guillem and Éric Vu-An, two former leading dancers with the Paris Opéra Ballet, were both muses to Maurice Béjart. The boundary-pushing choreographer created several roles for each of them throughout their careers, including the 1985 duet “Mouvement,...
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 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...
by Emma Sandall For Dance Magazine | Jan 6, 2019 | Training
Just before retiring in 2015, Sylvie Guillem appeared on “HARDtalk with Zeinab Badawi,” the BBC’s hard-hitting interview program. Badawi told Guillem, “Clement Crisp of the Financial Times, 14 years ago, described your dancing as vulgar.”...
by Julia Guiheen | Mar 28, 2018 | Profiles, TBT
The 1980s were an exciting time at the Paris Opéra Ballet, with Rudolf Nureyev as its director and virtuosic étoiles, like Sylvie Guillem and Patrick Dupond, onstage. These two young stars made a dream team. With raw energy and sublime technique, Guillem...
by Chava Pearl Lansky | Oct 31, 2017 | Career, Profiles, Trending
For dancers, every day is like Halloween. You don’t have to wait until October to try on new personas and elaborate costumes. But that certainly didn’t stop the ballet world from going full out yesterday. We rounded up some of our favorites across...
by Caroline Seymour | Jul 20, 2016 | Company Life
Sylvie Guillem in Raymonda. Photo via Pinterest. Every year, a select few dancers join the Paris Opera Ballet. An even smaller percentage make world headlines like former étoile Sylvie Guillem, who joined the company in 1981 at age 16. Three years later, after...