All – Tagged "INTERVIEWS" – Page 3

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INTERVIEWS | By Victoria Looseleaf

Locke-step with Ligia Lewis

As a choreographer and dancer who conceives and directs experimental performance, Dominican-born, Florida-raised Ligia Lewis is not shy about expressing her opinions, whether in an interview, on stage, or in real life. Indeed, with her most recent work, “A Plot/A Scandal,” which has its U.S. premiere in Los Angeles at the Geffen Contemporary at Museum of Contemporary Art, May 5-6, Lewis once again pulls no punches as she weaves together historical, anecdotal, political, and mythical narratives as only she can.

INTERVIEWS | By Lorna Irvine

The Daisy Age: Dominique Larose

Northern Ballet's critically-acclaimed adaptation of “The Great Gatsby,” now in its tenth year, is back on May 16th at Sadler's Wells. With superb choreography from David Nixon CBE, audiences are sure to be dazzled by their highly visual, pulse-raising production, which promises to go deep into the scandals, decadence, wild parties and heart-rending tragedies. Above all, the piece will explore the huge moral ambiguity at the heart of the classic Jazz Age drama.

INTERVIEWS | By Chava Pearl Lansky

Dance from the Archives

In 2014, five years before writer Toni Morrison passed away, Princeton University acquired a collection of the luminary’s personal papers, letters, and manuscripts. The goal behind the collection (known as the Toni Morrison Papers) is to inspire original creations across genres; a more forward-thinking approach than simply cultivating research on Morrison and her work.

INTERVIEWS | By Claudia Lawson

Reaching for the Stars

The Telstra Ballet Dancer Award is an annual competition that recognises rising talent within the Australian Ballet. Each year, a handful of nominees have the chance to win the Rising Star, or People's Choice Award, accolades respectively accompanied by a purse of $25,000 and $15,000. Telstra has been a longtime partner of the Australian Ballet and has sponsored the award for two decades, seeing many a prizewinner and nominee rise to principal rank.

INTERVIEWS | By Cecilia Whalen

Annie Rigney, Loosening Up and Letting Go

Hovering over her on all fours, the man looks into the woman as if he's caught his own reflection. Cradled on the floor, she has nestled her feet into his chest. Slowly, without breaking eye contact, the man begins an ascension to standing. The woman extends her legs, and it looks like he is floating, drawn upward by some mystery in the clouds. This striking scene comes from emerging choreographer Annie Rigney's “Galithea,” which was selected for presentation at the Joyce Theater in 2021 as part of the 92NY Harkness Dance Center's Future Dance Festival.

INTERVIEWS | By Victoria Looseleaf

Vision of Hope

“It’s amazing!” she gushed. “I’m loving every minute. It’s been busy, exciting and there’s a lot of momentum.”

INTERVIEWS | By Mindy Aloff

The Evolution of Noh

The genre of Noh theater and dance exists in our time thanks to important contributions by two nineteenth-century Americans. The first you’ll know. The story goes that when President and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant toured the world after Grant had left office, they visited Japan, where, as the former American head of state and a famous military man, Grant was treated to a performance of a Noh play. Some treasured plays in that genre feature tragic laments for a lord felled in battle by warriors whose essential message is, as the Wanderers and Seafarers of Old English poetry—so similar to...

BOOKSHELF | INTERVIEWS | By Sophie Bress

Rethinking the Broadway Body

Broadway Bodies is dedicated to “anyone who has ever been told they were too fat, too short, too gay, too disabled, and otherwise too much or not enough to be in a musical.” The book, written by musical theater scholar Ryan Donovan, examines the ways different aspects of identity have historically affected casting on the Great White Way, using shows like A Chorus Line, Dreamgirls, and La Cage aux Folles as case studies to illustrate the issues that arise when bodies are used as an artistic medium.

INTERVIEWS | By Victoria Looseleaf

A New Vision with Melissa Barak

It’s been a good year for women leading ballet companies: In the recent past, Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell took the reins at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago; Tamara Rojo became the first female artistic director of San Francisco Ballet in the troupe’s 89-year history; and Jodie Gates is leading Cincinnati Ballet into a new era.

INTERVIEWS | By Marina Harss

A Quiet Presence

When Jared Angle retired from New York City Ballet this past January after a twenty-five year career with the company, he did so in a characteristically understated manner. He danced in only one of the three ballets on the program, playing Prince Ivan in Balanchine’s “Firebird.” Afterward, he received only a modest number of bouquets, having requested that the money be spent, instead, on New York City Ballet’s Education and Public Programs. He then said a few words, thanking the audience for coming to the ballet, his colleagues for their years of friendship, and the orchestra for their music. There...

INTERVIEWS | By Veronica Posth

Dancing in the Rain with Boris Charmatz

In an extended phone interview, I had the pleasure of posing question after question to Boris Charmatz. He told me about his various projects as dancer and choreographer, starting with association EDNA, the Musée de la Danse and finishing with his artistic direction, as of September 2022, of the world-renowned Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

BOOKSHELF | INTERVIEWS | By Sophie Bress

What Ballet Leaves Behind

In her latest book, Don’t Think, Dear: On Loving and Leaving Ballet author Alice Robb calls New York City Ballet co-founder George Balanchine her “problematic fave.” Especially as the dance world continues to examine many of the darker aspects of the famed choreographer’s influence on ballet culture, this is a sentiment that many of us—myself included—seem to be echoing.

Featured Reads

REVIEWS | Lorna Irvine

Teenage Angst and Institutions

Watching Matthew Bourne's reworked version of the “star-cross'd lovers,” I was briefly reminded of Veronica, played by Winona Ryder, in the dark 1988 comedy by Daniel Waters and Michael Lehmann, Heathers, and her line, “my teen angst bullshit has a body count.” Yes, this is the darker side of Bourne's repertoire,...

INTERVIEWS | Marina Harss

The Me of Today

The choreographer Alexei Ratmansky reflects on the war in Ukraine, the connection between geopolitics and ballet, and joining the house of Balanchine.

REVIEWS | Rachel Howard

Starry Nights

Beneath blue California skies, manicured trees, and the occasional hum of an overhead airplane, Tamara Rojo took the Frost Amphitheater stage at Stanford University to introduce herself as the new artistic director of San Francisco Ballet.

REVIEWS | Faye Arthurs

America, F**K Yeah

After a week of the well-balanced meal that is “Jewels”—the nutritive, potentially tedious, leafy greens of “Emeralds,” the gamy, carnivorous “Rubies,” and the decadent, shiny white mountains of meringue in “Diamonds”—the New York City Ballet continued its 75th Anniversary All-Balanchine Fall Season with rather more dyspeptic fare.

REVIEWS | Emily May

Acosta Danza’s Choreographic Soup

An “Ajiaco” is a type of soup common to Colombia, Cuba, and Peru that combines a variety of different vegetables, spices, and meats.