Lynn Seymour and Christopher Gable in Kenneth MacMillan's 'Romeo & Juliet'. (Photo: ROH/Roy Round.)

A Great Ballerina Speaks Her Mind

June 18, 2012

1

comments
Creativity and the creative process have always been a chaotic, troublesome, gloriously messy business, and creative people are very often quite a handful. It’s not difficult to see why it might seem [..]

more
angular_momentum

When dancers are physicists

March 13, 2012

5

comments
Fouettés rond de jambe en tournant, en dehors.* *Series of turns propelled by a whipping action of the working leg, turning away from the supporting leg. See Gail Grant, Technical Manual and Dictionary of Classical Ballet, p. 57, for step-by-step instructions. (Illustration courtesy of the brilliant xkcd.com)
sb01

Trust, or How I Met My Husband

January 30, 2012

10

comments
After watching a video clip that I had posted earlier of the elegant Aurélie Dupont and Manuel Legris, a dance student – who admits to a fear of partnering work – wrote to ask if I w [..]

more
ippolita spine close up

Singing the Body Electric: Dance Encounters in New York

September 12, 2011

5

comments
Observing ABT dancers in company class on Wednesday, what struck me the most was not the 180-degree turn-out (ubiquitous), nor the extensions (extravagant), nor the pirouettes (I lost count), nor the men’s hands grazing the ceiling light fixtures every time they launched into an assemblé or grand jeté (we’re talking 16-foot ceilings at the ABT studios). What leapt out at me was how the danc [..]

more
Becky croise derriere 2

Arabesque à terre in the eye of a storm

August 29, 2011

1

comments
It’s called petit allegro – the swift and agile footwork that enables ballerinas to dodge falling debris during a hurricane. Ignoring Mayor Bloomberg’s order to stay indoors and watch SYTYCD reruns this weekend, Becky, visiting from England, decides not to let a little hurricane spoil her trip to New York. Leaping over a fallen tree branch, she finishes in an arabesque à terre croisé de [..]

more
TriptychBallet

Houston, We Have Lift-Off

August 22, 2011

0

comments
A ballet dancer is constantly renegotiating her relationship with gravity; we rise on pointe as an expression of our desire to fly. Joie Brown’s beautiful watercolor triptych illustrates two important aspects of a dancer’s technique: Well-developed arches of the feet, coupled with the ankle mobility needed to position the ankle bone over the toes en pointe Dancers aren’t born with these f [..]

more
Anthony McHale adopts a princely demeanor on a cliff overlooking the St. Lawrence Seaway

Anthony takes the 4th

August 6, 2011

3

comments
Anthony takes a break from rehearsing an Indonesian adaptation of ‘Swan Lake’ on the Big River to demonstrate an open 4th position croisé. Think of the open 4th position of the f [..]

more
American Ballet Theatre alumna Cristina Escoda, partnered by Adrian McHale of Ballet Populaire de l’Île du Cerf. Cristina models Ballet to the People’s regulation Hello Kitty practice T while both dancers favor flip-flops when rehearsing on cliffs. Please do attempt this if you are not a trained professional. (Photo courtesy of Sam Watson, Deputy Chief of Mission, U.S. Embassy Bujumbura, Burundi.)

Thousand Island Arabesque

August 5, 2011

2

comments
[caption id="attachment_368" align="aligncenter" width="584" caption="American Ballet Theatre alumna Cristina Escoda, partnered by Adrian McHale of Ballet Populaire de l’Île du Cerf. Cristina models Ballet to the People’s regulation Hello Kitty practice T while both dancers favor flip-flops when rehearsing on cliffs. Please do not attempt this if you are not a trained professional. (Photo cou [..]

more
Dancing on Omotesando

Maria and the Boys à la hauteur in Tokyo

July 28, 2011

1

comments
Tokyo Metro commuters were temporarily stymied the other day by an unexpected set of turnstiles that sprung up at the entrance to the Omotesando station… no, wait, those aren’t turnstiles… those are [..]

more