Pirouette Power

Pirouette Power

Pirouettes! En Pointe! I have a friend who says, “I hate pirouettes. If there was any way to kill them, I would.” I think every one of us ladies has had the experience of putting on her pointe shoes while dreading the inevitable pirouette combination that will arrive...
Pirouette Power

In Defense of Nail Polish

Growing up, we were forbidden to wear nail polish at our studio. It was considered strictly taboo, as offensive as wearing a messy ponytail or a  necklace to class. I remember I once had an audition just 3 hours before prom. I had to paint my nails in the car...
Pirouette Power

Chutzpah

What is it that makes certain performers magnetic? This past weekend I saw Pacific Northwest Ballet perform at the Joyce here in New York City. I was taken aback by the bevy of beautiful bodies onstage. Almost every female dancer had exquisitely long limbs, ideal...
Pirouette Power

Yoga for Dancers

Yesterday Pointe had a photo shoot with a handful of super-talented dancers from Ballet Academy East. They were each fantastic: technically brilliant with strong, fit bodies and completely game for all of the crazy things we threw at them. (Be sure to check out the...
Pirouette Power

Our Cover Girl

As you might have noticed, a new cover girl has taken over our website: New York City Ballet’s Kathryn Morgan. Read her story from our February/March 2010 issue here. Even though she was still a corps member when we started talking about who we wanted to put on...
Pirouette Power

The Dancer In The Mirror

It’s Monday evening, and I’m just finishing barre in Marisa’s 5:30 ballet class. Things haven’t been going well tonight—my body is not listening to me, and I’ve felt off-balance, stiff and awkward the whole time. I know what each...
Pirouette Power

Work Your Height

Last week, I was previewing a behind-the-scenes video I shot featuring San Francisco Ballet principal Maria Kochetkova. Maria is all the things you would expect from a principal dancer at one of the nation’s top ballet companies—elegant, expressive,...
Pirouette Power

The Beauty of a Pirouette

When I was at an ABT summer intensive years ago, one of my teachers told our class that the most thrilling pirouettes aren’t the tazmanian devilishly fast spins, but they are the slow, smooth turns that look like they’re effortlessly in control. This made...