by Margaret Fuhrer | Dec 30, 2018 | Profiles
Alexei Ratmansky’s reconstruction of Marius Petipa’s Harlequinade, which debuted this spring at American Ballet Theatre, felt as fizzy and decadent as a glass of champagne. Though resplendently designed and lovingly assembled, the ballet relied on the...
by Chava Pearl Lansky | Dec 29, 2018 | Profiles
New York City Ballet’s Robbins 100 Festival last spring included 19 Jerome Robbins ballets performed over the course of two and a half weeks, requiring extreme stamina and versatility from the company’s dancers. No one rose higher to the occasion than...
by Courtney Escoyne | Dec 28, 2018 | Profiles
During Alexander Ekman’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, a singer croons: “By morning the dancers/Will start to wonder/Had it all been a dream?/Had it all been a blunder?” While The Joffrey Ballet’s performances of Ekman’s 2015 full-length...
by Lucy Van Cleef | Dec 27, 2018 | Profiles
It’s not every day that a company presents a work so original, both in concept and execution, with dancers so well suited to its unique strengths, as Stuttgart Ballet in Christian Spuck’s revival of Lulu. A Monstre Tragedy. Spuck, now artistic director at...
by Steve Sucato | Dec 26, 2018 | Profiles
While its minimalist costuming and sets gave Edwaard Liang’s new Giselle for BalletMet a nontraditional look last February, there was nothing spartan about Grace-Anne Powers’ performance in the title role. Powers’ radiant smile, warmth and happy...
by Claudia Bauer | Dec 25, 2018 | Profiles
If a dancer is very lucky, and very prepared, one performance can transform their career. Lonnie Weeks was that dancer on the opening night of San Francisco Ballet’s Unbound Festival in April. Chosen by Christopher Wheeldon for the emotionally wrenching final...
by Kathleen McGuire | Dec 24, 2018 | Profiles
When Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre corps de ballet dancer Corey Bourbonniere arrived onstage in the company’s production of Jerome Robbins’ West Side Story Suite last May, he wore the role of Bernardo like a custom-made leather jacket. Bourbonniere’s...
by Amy Brandt | Dec 23, 2018 | Profiles
During the Ballet Nacional de Cuba’s tour to Washington, DC’s Kennedy Center earlier this year, the company brought longtime artistic director Alicia Alonso’s Giselle. And while the production was admittedly well-worn and the style of dancing...