Blog Profile / The Ballet Bag
| URL : | http://theballetbag.wordpress.com/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Dance / Ballet | |
| Posts on Regator: | 352 | |
| Posts / Week: | 1.8 | |
| Archived Since: | August 9, 2009 | |
Blog Post Archive
Works & Process Series at the Guggenheim – Upcoming Programs
Via Press Release: Two upcoming programs in the Guggenheim’s Works and Process series, both to be streamed live via ustream. How Judges Judge – Youth America Grand Prix – 6 and 7 March at 7:30pm Join Youth America Grand Prix jury members Gailene Stock, Director of the Royal Ballet School; Franco de Vita, Director of [...]
#AliceinTwitterland: Live tweeting from the World Premiere
This evening we had the honour of taking over the @RoyalOperaHouse feed as their first ever Twitter guests. Early bird reviews for Wheeldon’s Alice in Wonderland are already starting to pop up while over here we have red carpet and backstage goodies from tonight’s gala coming up. While we work on the material we leave [...]
Swan Lake
Is this ballet for you? Go if: Swan Lake is a masterpiece of classical ballet and should be experienced at least once in one’s lifetime, preferably with a ballerina in full command of the technical and dramatic challenges of the central role and in a production that honours Tchaikovsky’s truly “epic” score. Skip if: You [...]
20 Questions With Ballet Black’s Damien Johnson
Here is an extract of our latest guest post for Dance Pulp, an interview with Ballet Black’s Damien Johnson. In case you didn’t know, Dance Pulp has just kicked off its Season 2 and the site is now updated with new video interviews and other dance goodies. We recommend you drop by for a visit. [...]
Pet Shop Boys & Javier De Frutos – The Most Incredible Thing
Via Press Release: NEW FULL-LENGTH DANCE WORK – WORLD PREMIERE For its next production, Sadler’s Wells has joined forces with electronic pop legends Pet Shop Boys (Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe) and radical choreographer Javier De Frutos to create a brand new full-length dance work based on Hans Christian Andersen’s story, The Most Incredible Thing. [...]
Hail to the Swan Queens – Odettes & Odiles Around the World
“Move over, Natalie Portman: You may be favored for the Oscar in Black Swan, but there’s a real-life, flesh-and-blood ballerina generating heat as the swan queen!” says Jocelyn Novek, one of the writers quoted by Milan-based arts blogger Graham Spicer in a roundup of praise for the remarkable Odette/Odile of Sara Mearns. NYCB’s Mearns is [...]
Rambert Dance Company in Rehearsal – Monolith
Monolith, Tim Rushton’s new piece for Rambert Dance Company, represents the first time the British choreographer has collaborated with a UK dance company. Tim is the Artistic Director of the award-winning Danish Dance Theatre. As a creator of modern dance, classical technique stands out as a big influence in Tim’s work, due to his ballet [...]
ABT in London Roundup
We wonder if ABT had heard our prayers when they decided to program a London season of mixed bills, leaving the full length classics they had brought last time at home. We had been craving variety in the aftermath of too many Cinderellas, Giselles and Swan Lakes at the Royal Ballet, so we grabbed the [...]
Mara Galeazzi’s Gala 2011 – Dancing For the Children
Via Press Release: On Sunday, 3 April 2011 Sadler’s Wells will host a special evening of dance, music and song featuring Royal Ballet Principal Mara Galeazzi and a star-studded line-up of guest performers including dancers with the Royal Ballet, the Balletboyz, the Trocks, 4 Poofs and a Piano as well as some surprise guests, all [...]
Ballet Black in Rehearsal – Part 2
Awesome neoclassical ensemble Ballet Black is premiering a new version of Orpheus by William Tuckett at the Linbury Studio Theatre this Wednesday. Having seen the first choreographic stages last November we had the opportunity to catch up with the company a few days ago and take some new shots of rehearsals, see costume fittings and [...]
American Ballet Theatre
New chapter in our ongoing series of Ballet History articles. This time we look at ABT, in light of its current London tour. American Ballet Theatre (ABT) has always been associated with blockbuster ballets, touring in large theatres and big ballet stars. The name immediately brings to mind legends of the past like Baryshnikov, Kirkland, [...]
New York Theatre Ballet Presents a Mixed Bill of Dance Rarities
Via Press Release: New York Theatre Ballet will revive Merce Cunningham’s Septet during Signatures 11 (11 & 12 February at Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th Street, NYC). Called a “rarity” in his canon by Cunningham Company archivist David Vaughan, this 1953 classic is more traditional than his later works. Carol Teitelbaum, a former Cunningham [...]
Black Swan Fan Art
Black Swan continues to give ballet a much needed boost, with reports of increased box office demand for Swan Lake performances around the globe (we can almost hear the sound of artistic directors who have not scheduled the ballet this season kicking themselves) and stories of audience members calling the Royal Opera House to see [...]
Maurice Béjart: Ballet for Life
With The Tokyo Ballet’s premiere of Dances in the Mirror next week (Béjart Ballet Lausanne AD Gil Roman is in town rehearsing the company) followed by Bolero at the Stuttgart Ballet (Cranko, Van Manen & Béjart triple bill) it is a good time to recap on the Béjart canon. From Tokyo, Kris Kosaka guest blogs: [...]
Bag of Steps: Connections
It has been over a year since we last added to our Bag of Steps library and we recently discovered -- via survey feedback -- that some readers missed this series. We now return with a post dedicated to “connecting steps”. These are employed by a dancer much in the same way as we would [...]
TenduTV Delivers Programming from Dutch National Ballet & Wayne McGregor | Random Dance on Itunes
TenduTV released earlier this week the first-ever concert dance performances on iTunes. Critically acclaimed programs like Entity from Wayne McGregor|Random Dance and the Hans van Manen Festival from Dutch National Ballet are now available for download to own and rent on iTunes in the United States and Canada. Also available is the award-winning documentary 40 [...]
#Lessambitiousballets
Hot on the heels of recent Twitter memes like #lessambitiousfilms and #lessambitiousoperas, members of the online dance community revealed their inner ballet nerds earlier this month, joining in the meme fun. Many of us spent hours not doing any work and thinking instead of #lessambitiousballets. Someone asked us to collate these tweets for posterity, so [...]
The Hazards of Love – Giselle Review
Giselle is a ballet that perfectly balances dance and narrative. Audiences are captivated in particular by its timeless second act, a living and breathing example of the Romantic ideal: on one side the revengeful, supernatural Wilis and on the other the ethereal Giselle whose love for Albrecht transcends heartbreak and death. The leading role has [...]
Giselle
Is this ballet for you? Go if: Balanchine said it best “Like Hamlet, Giselle is a classic: it is not only important historically, it also happens to be good (…) People go to see Giselle and to see ballerinas dance it for the same reason we got to see new interpretations of Hamlet: the work [...]
What Do Dancers Think About Black Swan?
Earlier this week we followed with interest the lively debate online reaction to a Guardian piece entitled “What Britain’s ballet stars made of Black Swan”. Objecting to the dancers’ more literal and nitpicky approach to Aronofksy’s movie, commenters made such remarks as “Watching Black Swan for the ballet seems to me like watching South Park: [...]