Artists of Ballet West in Balanchine's Jewels. Photo by Beau Pearson, Courtesy Ballet West.
Wonder what's going on in ballet this week? In addition to the programs at Pacific Northwest Ballet, The Washington Ballet, Ballet West and City Ballet of San Diego listed below, this week also marks Balanchine: The City Center Years, a five-day extravaganza bringing together eight companies from around the world. You can read more about it here. Also coming up is Boston Ballet's black box show, BB@home: ChoreograpHER, which features six new works by women in the company. Peek inside the budding choreographers' processes here.
Miranda Silveira was a member of San Francisco Ballet's Trainee Program before making her way into the company. Here she's pictured in rehearsal for Balanchine's Serenade. Photo by Erik Tomasson, Courtesy SFB.
Receiving a second company or trainee contract can help bridge the gap from student to professional. Whether you make it into the main company afterwards or move on to another one, these years, if danced to the fullest, can be valuable to your life and career.
Kansas City Ballet Dancers Tempe Ostergren and Dillon Malinski. Photo by Kenny Johnson, Courtesy KCB.
Wonder what's going on in ballet this week? We've pulled together some highlights.
New Peter Pans at Ballet Austin and Kansas City Ballet
Never Never Land becomes a reality this week with two exciting new productions. Kansas City Ballet presents world premiere choreography by artistic director Devon Carney in Peter PanMay 11-20, while Texas audiences can experience the Austin premiere of Paul Vasterling's acclaimed Peter PanMay 11-13. We love this fun trailer that Ballet Austin put together.
Wistrich teaching company class. Photo by Gary St. Martin, courtesy City Ballet of San Diego.
City Ballet of San Diego is admired in Southern California for its diversity of dancers, a sizeable Balanchine repertoire, lively story ballets and regular accompaniment by full orchestra—all from a compact company. Steven Wistrich, artistic director of CBSD, recalls a 2007 performance, an “aha" moment, when he knew his company, then only 14 years old, had matured: The sisterhood of dancers in Balanchine's Serenade delivered the aqueous grace that the ballet demanded. “Seeing Serenade onstage danced so beautifully was definitely a turning point for me," says Wistrich. “I was so impressed with the style, technique and quality of the dancing."
