A dancer's dressing room is often her "home away from home." In our August/September issue, we went backstage with three ballerinas, including San Francisco Ballet principal Frances Chung. Below, she shows us how she personalizes her space and walks us through her pre-performance routine.
The setup: Chung basically moves in to her theater's dressing room once the season starts. She shares her space with three other dancers, and notes that the vintage metal vanities come down a little too low. "We hit our knees on them all the time—it's the most painful thing!"
Erik Tomasson, Courtesy SFB.
Artists of Miami City Ballet in Justin Peck's Heatscape. Photo by Gene Schiavone, Courtesy Miami City Ballet.
In late April at the Harris Theater, Chicagoans found Miami City Ballet firing on all cylinders, following the company's Lincoln Center debut and an engagement at Northrop in Minneapolis. Stage-filling Balanchine classics like Bourrée Fantasque, Serenade and Symphony in Three Movements struck a perfect balance between relaxed exuberance and clean execution, while seasoned stars like Jeanette Delgado and Renato Penteado shone in contemporary works by Justin Peck (Heatscape) and Liam Scarlett (Viscera), respectively. Most memorably, a dream team of 23 artists—including the irrepressible Nathalia Arja—gave a commanding presentation of Symphonic Dances, created for MCB by Alexei Ratmansky.
