by Julia Guiheen | Feb 20, 2019 | Profiles, TBT
This week’s TBT is a three-for-one throwback special: A power trio of versatile American Ballet Theatre performers, Xiomara Reyes and siblings Erica and Herman Cornejo, dance the Act I pas de trois from Swan Lake in this 2005 video. Reyes, who now heads The...
by Julia Guiheen | Feb 13, 2019 | Profiles, TBT
The individual touches that ballerinas incorporate into well-known classical variations are a source of endless fascination for us bunheads. (The abundant “variation compilation” videos on YouTube is proof of our obsession!) Odette’s solo in Swan...
by Julia Guiheen | Jan 23, 2019 | Profiles, TBT
Irina Kolpakova, currently a ballet mistress at American Ballet Theatre at age 85, is a living dance legend. She studied under Agrippina Vaganova and went on to dance as prima ballerina at the Kirov Ballet (now the Mariinsky). In the ’60s, she astonished...
by Julia Guiheen | Jan 9, 2019 | Profiles, TBT
Updated 5/10/23. The ballet Don Quixote offers its principal ballerina the unique chance to play two different characters in one role: there’s Kitri herself, a vivacious village girl, and then Dulcinea, Don Quixote’s idealized love, who takes on the form...
by Rachel Hellwig | Dec 5, 2018 | Everything Nutcracker, Profiles
Oh, Nutcracker… It’s the ballet experience that unites us all, from young student to seasoned pro. Whether you made your entrance in a mouse costume or under Mother Ginger’s skirt, do you remember the choreography and costume of your very first role?...
by Julia Guiheen | Nov 14, 2018 | Profiles, TBT
Throughout the last quarter of the 20th century Cynthia Harvey was a force in the ballet world. She had the unique distinction of dancing as a principal ballerina on both sides of the Atlantic, with American Ballet Theatre and then at The Royal Ballet, where she was...
by Julia Guiheen | Oct 17, 2018 | Profiles, TBT
Elegant, enigmatic and versatile, Diana Adams was a muse to the choreographic visionaries of her day. She originated roles in works by Agnes de Mille, Antony Tudor, George Balanchine and Gene Kelly, most famously the edgy pas de deux in Balanchine’s Agon...
by Julia Guiheen | Oct 3, 2018 | Profiles, TBT
The Paris Opéra Ballet, Swan Lake and the dance of Les Petite Cygnets—could anything in ballet be more iconic? Factor in four beloved French ballerinas dancing as the four little swans and we think not. In this 2006 performance, Fanny Fiat, Myriam Ould-Braham,...