Ballet West

Have you gotten your April/May issue of Pointe yet? Click on the photo at right for an exclusive sneak peek. It's an outtake from Jim Lafferty's photo essay, which chronicles Ballet West, Nevada Ballet Theatre and Pacific Northwest Ballet's historic shared production of George Balanchine's Jewels. Lafferty captured the dancers backstage: warming up in company class, soaring in performance. The result is a kind of magical series of intimate images. Keep your eyes peeled for the full feature.

When Adam Sklute spoke to Pointe earlier this year about his company's decision to participate in "Breaking Pointe," he said one of the driving reasons behind allowing cameras into his studios was the opportunity to set "the record straight about the real dramas and the real joys that happen in the ballet world, without having to play into stereotypes."