Friday, April 26, 2024
"What did you do on your summer vacation?" is a big conversation starter this time of year Dancers dance, whether on tour, as featured guests at festivals, or for members of American Ballet Theatre, exploring their art at Co•Lab Dance . Led by Founder-Director and ABT colleague Lauren Post, On September 6 and 7, Co•Lab showed two sold-out audiences at Manhattan Movement & Arts Center what they did between ABT's two seasons at Lincoln Center. The four engaging new works were created by female choreographers; something their home company is seriously trying to address. Here this was a matter-of-fact new normal. Forming Co•Lab''s sophomore company were ABT Soloists
Tag: ABT
Joyce Ballet Festival Program C, or The Art of the Arabesque
Arabesque: "One of the basic poses in ballet, arabesque takes its name from a form of Moorish ornament. In ballet it is a position of the body, in profile, supported on one leg, which can be straight or demi-plié, with the other leg extended behind and at right angles to it, and the arms held in various harmonious positions creating the longest possible line from the fingertips to the toes. The shoulders must be held square to the line of direction. The forms of arabesque are varied to infinity...Arabesques are generally used to conclude a phrase of steps, both in
A Positive Russian Influence: Ballet
As the Romanovs's bewilderingly indifference to the political and socioeconomic upheavals leading to the Russian Revolution worsened, ballet at home and abroad flourished. French-born Marius Petipa (1818–1910) was Chief Choreographer of Saint Petersburg's Mariinsky Theater where he set the premieres of Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker among others. Artists dissatisfied with his autocratic yet groundbreaking vision joined impresario Serge Diaghilev in his Paris-based Ballets Russes. The two aesthetics share a legacy of brilliant choreographers (Ballets Russes had Michael Fokine, Nijinsky, his sister Bronislava, Leonid Massine and George Balanchine) and enduring influence. New York had pleasing reminders of this lofty dance heritage when American Ballet Theatre opened their
BalletNext at New York Live Arts
If New York City is considered "The Dance Capital of the World," than Utah is "The United State of Dance". For 50+ years it's been home to Ballet West, who made a very strong impression on their last Fall 2016 visit to the Joyce. December 2018 saw the premiere at New York Live Arts of Bears Ears, a thoughtful collaboration between NYC's ZviDance and Repertory Dance Theater of Utah. From February 19-23, New York Live Arts hosted sold-out performances by BalletNext, a dynamic chamber company comprised of University of Utah School of Dance students led by former ABT Principal Michelle Wiles.
Dancing When Everyone’s Looking: Two Dance Celebrations
With Nutcrackers, Rockettes and Viennese waltzers, Thanksgiving to New Year's is the solitary time of the year when the general public shows an interest in dance. Before the holiday rush there were two dance celebrations - one marking an anniversary and the other a look into the beginnings of extraordinary career - with varying success. Balanchine: The City Center Years Starting on Halloween and ending on November 4, 2018, New York City Center jointly commemorated their 75th Anniversary and the prolific 15 years (1948-1963) George Balanchine and New York City Ballet were there. In 1943, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia created the New
Dance: The Sarasota Ballet at the Joyce
The Joyce's closed it's 2017-2018 season with the return of The Sarasota Ballet. With Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami visiting in June and Sarasota Ballet last week, New Yorkers and Tri-Staters got a good look at Florida's thriving dance scene. (Miami City Ballet comes to City Center in the fall.) The August 18 matinee exemplified the excitement with a ballet not seen locally in a decade, another glimpse at the company's enviable Frederick Ashton repertory, and a guest appearance by Marcelo Gomes. Program B opened with Christopher Wheeldon's There Where She Loved. Created for The Royal Ballet in 2000, it was last
Dance: Sarah Lane’s debuts her Kitri in ABT’s ‘Don Quixote’ at the Metropolitan Opera House
One way of defining a performance is that it is an experience of shared hopes between artists and their audience. Sometimes the final result exceeds the good wishes and anticipation. That's what happened during the Saturday, June 30 matinee of Don Quixote when American Ballet Theatre Principal Sarah Lane resoundingly danced her first Kitri, one of ballet's most difficult and fun roles. What made Lane's debut memorable has a great deal to do with Marius Petipa's boisterous 1869 ballet and Alexander Gorsky's 1902 dance-as-drama re-staging of it (ABT Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie and Ballet Mistress Susan Jones based their 1995 production