The Open Square by Itzik Galili

Itzik Galili is one of the most active choreographers of his generation. Ever happy to try out new things, he is forever searching for new links to different art forms and intellectual worlds in his projects. One elementary characteristic of his work is the impartiality of style, eluding all definition. In one work he utilises… Continue reading The Open Square by Itzik Galili

The Royal Ballet: Leaping beauties caught on camera

The Royal Ballet’s top dancers wear quirky accessories and clothes by young British fashion designers in a new series of unconventional portraits. Marianela Nuñez, who makes her debut in Onegin this month, has been captured as if in a Biba advert, wearing a head-piece and bejewelled outfit. And Sergei Polunin who dramatically walked out of… Continue reading The Royal Ballet: Leaping beauties caught on camera

Rudolf Nureyev gala at the Paris Opera

Twenty years after his death, Rudolf Nureyev’s legacy still lights up the world of ballet as brilliantly as the flamboyant performances which once illuminated the greatest stages. “As long as they are putting on my ballets, I will live on,” Brigitte Lefevre, dance director of the Paris Opera, recalls Nureyev saying in the years before… Continue reading Rudolf Nureyev gala at the Paris Opera

Chronicling Ballet’s Pain and Passion

Roslyn Sulcas writes: The photographer Henry Leutwyler was building a career in fashion and portrait work in Paris in the late 1980s when he was sent on assignment to photograph Jorge Donn, the charismatic principal dancer who had risen to fame with Maurice Béjart’s Ballet of the 20th Century. The job proved to be a… Continue reading Chronicling Ballet’s Pain and Passion

How Twitter transformed dance

Dance companies have embraced social media like few others arts organisations – and even the founder of Twitter is a ballet fan. Judith Mackrell visits San Francisco Ballet to find out what new technology can do for dancers and audiences alike. San Francisco Ballet (SFB) may well be at the forefront of this new wave.… Continue reading How Twitter transformed dance

First Position

Every year, thousands of aspiring dancers enter one of the world’s most prestigious ballet competitions, the Youth America Grand Prix, where lifelong dreams are at stake. In the final round, with hundreds competing for only a handful of elite scholarships and contracts, nothing short of perfection is acceptable. Bess Kargman’s award-winning, box office hit documentary… Continue reading First Position

Merce Cunningham – Septet (1964)

”Septet,” on a program with ”Doubles” (danced a bit somnolently) and ”Pictures,” proved as delightful as it was revealing, historically. It is not a major work, but it has a clarity of movement that matches the clarity of sound so important to Satie. Mr. Cunningham has since created more complex and sophisticated pieces. Never, however,… Continue reading Merce Cunningham – Septet (1964)