by Julia Guiheen | May 13, 2020 | TBT
Marcia Haydée and Richard Cragun, one of ballet’s storied partnerships, danced together from the mid-1960s through the early ’90s as leading dancers of Stuttgart Ballet. Their repertory included dozens of ballets, most famously John Cranko’s The...
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 | Jan 22, 2020 | TBT
At the end of Swan Lake’s Act I, Prince Siegfried finds himself alone after guests have departed from his birthday celebration, processing the news that he’ll soon need to choose a wife. The soul-searching prince dances an introspective, almost mournful...
by Julia Guiheen | Oct 16, 2019 | TBT
Sir Anthony Dowell dedicated four decades for his life to The Royal Ballet, first as a principal dancer, and then as the company’s artistic director. His monumental career is a testament to his love for the art form. That love can also be seen in this solo from...
by Julia Guiheen | Sep 18, 2019 | Profiles, TBT
What do Diana Vishneva, Olga Smirnova, Kristina Shapran and Maria Khoreva all have in common? These women, among the most impressive talents to graduate from the Vaganova Ballet Academy in recent years, all studied under legendary professor Lyudmila Kovaleva....
by Julia Guiheen | Aug 21, 2019 | TBT
Updated on 8/5/2020 French ballerina Zizi Jeanmaire first gained fame when she premiered the titular title role in Roland Petit’s Carmen in 1949, opposite Petit as Carmen’s lover Don José. With her famously cropped hair (and cropped tutu!),...
by Julia Guiheen | Jun 19, 2019 | TBT
Tetsuya Kumakawa, a former principal with The Royal Ballet and the founder and artistic director of K-Ballet in Tokyo, could make an audience gasp with his wildly powerful and inventive allegro. A boyish, dare-devil dancer, Kumakawa was a natural fit for roles like...
by Julia Guiheen | Apr 17, 2019 | Profiles, TBT
In the early years of professional ballet in the United States, influential American dancers played key roles in changing perspectives of ballet as a strictly European art form. Maria Tallchief and Royes Fernandez were among those dancers who helped establish and...