Stella Abrera, the much loved and recently retired American Ballet Theatre principal talks to Oksana Khadarina about her new life as Artistic Director of the Kaatsbaan Cultural Park and its much admired Festival. That and putting on a ballet for Alexei Ratmansky in St. Petersburg...
Author - Oksana Khadarina
★★★✰✰ The Washington Ballet new program titled Balanchine + Ashton showcased four works by the two great choreographers, who “forever shaped our art form,” as the company’s artistic director, Julie Kent, put it in her opening remarks.
★★★★✰ I saw two performances; each of them demonstrated why Giselle is still so popular even 180 years after the ballet’s premiere.
★★★★✰ ...undoubtedly one of the most visually stunning and dramatically meaningful Beauties you will ever find.
★★★✰✰ The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, the opening dance of the first program, is Forsythe burrowing into the neoclassical cannon and a nod to the style and traditions of George Balanchine.
★★★✰✰ Much of the exuberance and vibrancy in Pepperland is supplied by Morris’s ingenious and utterly entertaining choreography...
★★★✰✰ The Washington Ballet opened its season with a program of new works created specifically for the company. All three ballets ...had a strong visual appeal and plenty of winning ideas...
★★★✰✰ This three-act three-hour-long Paquita is a brainchild of Smekalov, who is a second soloist with the company. He wrote his own libretto, largely borrowing from the Cervantes novella La Gitanilla...
★★★✰✰ Opus 19 feels at once nostalgic, mysterious and dreamy...
★★★★✰ When Kent took the helm of Washington Ballet ...one of her goals was to raise the standard of classical technique and shape the company into a world-class ballet institution. Judging by this production, she is on the right track.
★★★★✰ Steeped in the company’s history, this Sleeping Beauty is a real treasure – a lavishly-outfitted and deeply absorbing spectacle which bears the indelible imprint of its creator, the legendary Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev.
This is a Beauty like no other – the most spectacular classical production in the National Ballet’s repertory and a true jewel of a ballet.
★★★✰✰ A strikingly beautiful ballerina, with a lissome body and expressive features, EunWon Lee is an ideal Juliet...
★★★★★ As artistic director of her own troupe, Farrell was able to take her devotion to Balanchine and her aspiration to promote and preserve his legacy to a new level. For nearly 20 years, Washington audiences have enjoyed an annual mini-festival of Balanchine’s works...
Dancer, choreographer, actress, teacher, director, writer, and mentor, Carmen de Lavallade is a true artist in every sense of the word – and a true legend.
This season the Suzanne Farrell Ballet is bidding farewell to its audiences with final performances at the Kennedy Center Opera House, December 7-9. There will be two programs, each featuring a selection of George Balanchine’s choreographic gems...
★★★✰✰ Since its creation 140 years ago, La Bayadѐre has been one of the Mariinsky Ballet’s calling cards and the Russian company can make this enduring classic shine in all its stylistic glory and theatrical splendor.
Answer: "Do it!" Question: "What advice would you give to a young dancer who aspires to choreograph?"
★★★★✰ It was a pleasure to see this company in such a smart and wide-ranging program. It was even more rewarding to see the Washington Ballet dancers masterly navigating the numerous challenges...
★★★✰✰ To watch works created by the 29-year old Justin Peck, resident choreographer of New York City Ballet, is to experience what it feels like to be young.