via Burst
Master pointe shoe fitter Josephine Lee of the California-based ThePointeShop dives into pointe shoe sinking: what it is, why it happens, and what you can do to avoid it. Plus, Lee shares some thoughts on toe pad thickness.
ABT Studio Company dancer Chloe Misseldine and her mom, former soloist Yan Chen. Rosalie O'Connor.
When former American Ballet Theatre principal Cheryl Yeager watches her daughter—Hannah Marshall, a current ABT corps member—take the stage, she gets a bit emotional.
"I always think, 'I wanted to move just like you when I was dancing!' because we are total opposites," Yeager says. "She is tall and moves with a legato quality, while I was short and moved fast and staccato."
Marshall isn't the only ABT dancer who inherited ballet genes from her mother. Former ABT soloist Carla Stallings Lippert's daughter Carolyn Lippert is also a current member of the corps, and former soloist Yan Chen's 17-year-old daughter, Chloe Misseldine, is a rising ABT Studio Company star. So for Mother's Day, we spoke with each pair about what it's been like sharing the same career path.
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Nayara Lopez in The Nutcracker's snow scene. Alexander Iziliaev, Courtesy Pennsylvania Ballet.
Many workouts, one goal: When Nayara Lopes is asked what she does to cross-train, there's no short answer. Some days she swims laps; other days she takes yoga. And then there are her elliptical sessions, strength-training with light weights and Pilates classes. Why does she work so hard outside of the studio? "Because I want to feel good onstage," she says. "There's nothing better than going out there and having fun and knowing you're gonna get through it." Thanks to her cardio routine, stamina isn't an issue. "When I'm onstage, I feel ready for anything."
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Steven McMahon will take the helm of Ballet Memphis on July 1. Trey Clark, Courtesy Ballet Memphis.
Ballet Memphis announced some major news yesterday: Steven McMahon, a former company dancer, will become its next artistic director on July 1, 2019. Current artistic director Dorothy Gunther Pugh, who founded the company in 1986, will remain as Ballet Memphis' CEO.
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Jennifer Garner. Courtesy Conversations on Dance.
Ever since 2017, Jennifer Garner has been proving herself as ballet's biggest fangirl. From her incredible cameo backstage at American Ballet Theatre's Nutcracker to her insistence that she is the third Cindy, we've been here for all of it. This week, we finally got to the bottom of Garner's ballet obsession, thanks to the podcast Conversations on Dance.
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Newly appointed principal WanTing Zhao in Helgi Tomasson's The Sleeping Beauty. Erik Tomasson, Courtesy SFB.
San Francisco Ballet has announced its 2019 company promotions, and artistic director Helgi Tomasson has elevated five talented young artists who all started in the company's corps de ballet. With several world premieres along with Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream and the full-scale Jewels planned for the 2020 season, there will be ample opportunities for these dancers to shine on the SFB stage. Read on to learn more about them, and congratulations to all!
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Avant Chamber Ballet in Katie Cooper's Aurora's Wedding. Sharen Bradford, Courtesy ACB.
Katie Cooper knows an opportunity when she sees one. When the Dallas-area Metropolitan Classical Ballet—where she'd danced for six years—shuttered its doors, she saw an opening for a new company: her own. "There were ballet dancers who needed work," she says. So in 2012, Cooper, known for her Texas spunk, founded Avant Chamber Ballet, now considered the city's cherished boutique troupe.
"During my performance career, I had never worked under a female artistic director or danced work by a female choreographer," says Cooper, who began developing herself as a dancemaker when she launched the company. "It was time for me to move to the front of the room." After starting ACB at 28, she quickly found that dancing, choreographing and running a company proved too big a load, so she retired from performing after the first few shows.
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Courtesy Miko Fogarty
Miko Fogarty is no stranger to the spotlight. But when the former comp star and Birmingham Royal Ballet dancer took the stage at University of California, Berkeley last month, it wasn't in a tutu and pointe shoes. Instead Fogarty, dressed smartly in a black blazer and turtleneck, was there to give a TEDx talk titled "A Ballerina's Second Act: My Journey of Rediscovery."
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Suzanne Farrell works with Sara Mearns during a rehearsal of George Balanchine's "Diamonds." Rosalie O'Connor, Courtesy NYCB.
In a large practice studio inside Lincoln Center's Koch Theater, Suzanne Farrell watches quietly as New York City Ballet principals Sara Mearns and Russell Janzen work through a series of supported poses. As Janzen kneels to face her, Mearns brushes through to croisé arabesque, extending her leg high behind her. "I wouldn't penché there," says Farrell, gently. "You can, but I wouldn't."
"I get so excited here," says Mearns with a laugh. The three are slowly working through the pas de deux of "Diamonds," the ballet George Balanchine created on Farrell and Jacques D'Amboise in 1967 that makes up the third act of his full-length Jewels.
"I know," Farrell says. "But it's more exciting if the arabesque turn afterwards is sustained."
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The six Emerging Dancer Award finalists. Laurent Liotardo, post production by Nik Pate, Courtesy ENB.
For the past 10 years, English National Ballet's annual Emerging Dancer Awards have offered a unique opportunity for lower-ranking company members to step into the spotlight. This year's competition, held on May 7 at London's historic Sadler's Wells Theatre, features six finalists selected by their peers. If a quick trip to London's not in the cards, don't fear; ENB will live-stream the awards on their Facebook and YouTube pages starting at 7:25 pm BST (2:25 pm EST).
The young dancers will take the stage before a panel of expert judges in classical pas de deux and contemporary solos, in which they've been coached by their ENB colleagues. The program also includes an appearance from last year's winner, Daniel McCormick, who will dance a pas de deux from Don Quixote with ENB dancer (and 2017 Pointe Star of the Corps) Francesca Velicu. Get to know the six finalists below.
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Sylvie Guillem and Massimo Murru in "Petite Mort," via YouTube.
From the outside, classical ballet can seem restrictive with its decorum, elaborate costumes and, or course, uncomfortable pointe shoes. Yet as ballet dancers we know that our technique actually allows our bodies to move with incredible freedom. That physical freedom is never more apparent than in watching dancers like Sylvie Guillem and Massimo Murru, both of whom danced with historic ballet companies, take on contemporary masterpieces like Jiří Kylián's Petite Mort. Stripped down to the barest costumes, their musculature and sheer physicality are unencumbered and demand awe.
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Former Richmond Ballet dancer Shira Lanyi went through high school without getting her period. "My two older sisters had gotten theirs at 11, so my mom was so worried," says Lanyi, who didn't start her menstrual cycle until she was 26. At the time, Lanyi found her delayed puberty to be convenient. "To be honest, I was thankful because I was flat-chested, and that was great for dance."
But in fact, it's not okay for puberty and the things it brings (like your period) to be put on hold. The process is dictated by hormones that affect both your body and mind. While these hormones may be vilified for increasing the curves of your body and altering your moods, they make it possible for you to build up adequate bone mass and eventually bear children.
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Joseph Gordon in George Balanchine's Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2. Paul Kolnik, Courtesy NYCB.
Since becoming New York City Ballet's newest and youngest principal dancer in October of last year, Joseph Gordon has been quietly working his way through a series of important roles in the company's repertoire. He's not a flashy dancer, nor was his rise meteoric. The 26-year-old, Arizona-born dancer did his time, spending five years in the corps before being made a soloist in 2017. Many of his earliest featured roles were in ballets by Jerome Robbins, works like Interplay and Glass Pieces in which his clean, unmannered style and boyish, all-American look were a natural fit. But the seasons since his promotion to principal have revealed him to be much more—a dancer with a subtle radiance and unforced gravitas. In the past two seasons alone, he has debuted in, among other things, "Diamonds," Afternoon of a Faun, Sleeping Beauty, Liebeslieder Walzer, and William Forsythe's Herman Schmerman. This spring, he will take on Scotch Symphony and one of the greatest challenges in all of ballet, Theme and Variations. Quietly, and without fanfare, he is coming into his own.
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The Royal Ballet's Vadim Muntagirov and Marianela Nuñez in La Bayadère. Photo by Bill Cooper, Courtesy ROH.
Do you ever wish you could teleport to London and casually stroll into The Royal Opera House to see some of the world's best-loved ballets? Well, we have a solution for you: The Royal Ballet's 2018-19 cinema season.
Whether live or recorded, the seven ballet programs listed below, streaming now through next October, will deliver all of the magic that The Royal Ballet has to offer straight to your local movie theater. Can you smell the popcorn already?
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Isodale Alexis in a pastel pink stage tutu with a sparkling silver design by Grishko. Jayme Thornton.
These classic tutus, paired with a dose of shimmer, add a starlike quality from every stage angle. Ballet des Amériques' Isodale Alexis, Irene Przywara and Alexandria Ina Rose model these glamorous looks.
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Students from Walnut Hill School for the Arts perform Gerald Arpino's Birthday Variations during the school's anniversary gala at The Joyce Theater. Christopher Duggan, Courtesy Walnut Hill School for the Arts.
If you could ask a professional dancer's advice for starting a ballet career, what would you want to know?
Earlier this month, Walnut Hill School for the Arts celebrated its 125th anniversary with a gala performance of students and alumni at New York City's Joyce Theater. And with graduation on the horizon, we thought it would be fun to arrange a Q&A session between upper level ballet students and the visiting graduates of Walnut Hill School for the Arts, among them San Francisco Ballet principal Joseph Walsh '06, Houston Ballet soloist Harper Watters '10, Ballet Arizona dancer Alison Remmers '12 and former Sacramento Ballet/Twyla Tharp dancer Charlie Hodges '98.
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Female ballet dancers are often plagued by lower-extremity injuries. But why? Researchers in the U.S. and Australia recently analyzed studies published in the last 11 years to determine common risk factors for hip, knee, ankle and foot injuries in elite-level dancers. Here's what they found:
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Master pointe shoe fitter Josephine Lee of the California-based ThePointeShop chats (in Korean!) with Joffrey Ballet artist Gayeon Jung before a performance of Anna Karenina earlier this year to hear all of her pointe shoe hacks and customizations. Jung shares her thoughts on Gaynor Minden verse Freed, why she rotates between different shank strengths, and the joy she felt when she saw her name stamped on the bottom of her shoes for the first time.
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In a still from The White Crow, Rudolf Nureyev (Oleg Ivenko) looks out over Paris from the roof of the Palais Garnier. Photo courtesy Sony Pictures Classics
I caught a preview screening of The White Crow earlier this week at New York City's 92Y, and I have to say: Even with a solid grasp of dance history and a smattering of film studies knowledge, I had some questions when the credits rolled. The Ralph Fiennes–directed Rudolf Nureyev biopic dramatizes the events leading up to the ballet star's famous defection from the Soviet Union, touching on incidents from his childhood and his years at the Leningrad Choreographic School.
So before you check out the film (which has a limited release in NYC and Los Angeles today), here are a few details that might be helpful to know.
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Courtesy Nutmeg
Congratulations! You've made it through audition season and have decided which summer intensive to attend. (Don't worry if you're not there yet—that day is just around the corner.) We asked faculty from The Nutmeg Ballet Conservatory what to do in the months leading up to your intensive so you can get the most out of it:
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Nashville Ballet's Kayla Rowser and Nicolas Scheuer in Swan Lake. Karyn Photography, Courtesy Nashville Ballet.
Pre-professional ballet students know this to be true: Training comes first; everything else fits when—or if—it can. Are the sacrifices pre-professional ballet dancers make to pursue a highly competitive career worth it? Four professionals weigh in.
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From left: Elwince Magbitang and Raye Vince Pelegrin. Erica Wolf, courtesy Magbitang and Pelegrin.
Training in Manila, Philippines may seem a world away from dancing with the big ballet companies in New York City. Yet in April 2018, local ballet students Elwince Magbitang and Raye Vince Pelegrin, both 17, shared the stage in Manila with leading dancers from American Ballet Theatre in the benefit gala An Intimate Evening with Stella Abrera & American Ballet Stars. Little did they expect that their performance as toreadors in the Don Quixote Suite would land them at ABT's prestigious Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School.
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