Gray Davis’s grandest battement
Jun
4
2017
“I never realized how high it was,” he said. “Luckily, I’m a ballet dancer, so I swung my leg up.” That’s what American Ballet Theatre dancer Gray Davis, 31, told the New York Times in describing how he got himself out of the grisly pit of the subway track at Broadway and 72nd Street station. ...
Ratmansky’s frothy ‘Whipped Cream’ casts @ Segerstrom
Mar
2
2017
There are all kinds of considerations to weigh — and this is great fun for balletomanes — in selecting a ballet performance. The focus of this tough decision is the big world premiere at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Orange County of Alexei Ratmansky’s new full-evening ballet, “Whipped Cream.” The superb Pacific Symphony will ...
Stella Abrera, ABT’s proud Firebird, soon in flight at the Chandler 3
She’s a woman of color in a white ballerina world. She began her training in Southern California, joined American Ballet Theatre, had a serious injury, recovered and was promoted to principal in 2015. Misty Copeland, right? No, it’s Stella Abrera. A Filipina American, her career trajectory is similar to Copeland’s but without all the hoopla. ...
Pick your Sugar Plum Fairy NOW!
Hey, you Sugar Plums and Snowflakes! Stop dancing in our heads, and start whirling ’round the Segerstrom Hall stage. This will occur sooner than you can shake a candy cane. In a real first, Segerstrom Center of the Arts is presenting a big-city-style, lengthy run of American Ballet Theatre’s “The Nutcracker” at the esteemed Orange ...
Library of Congress ABT exhibit to roost at Disney Hall
In this photo dated 1938, dancer John Kriza stars in choreographer Eugene Loring’s characteristically American ballet about the notorious outlaw, Billy the Kid. Loring created the work for George Balanchine’s Ballet Caravan to a score by Aaron Copland. American Ballet Theatre first performed the work in its Chicago season in November 1940. [Loring’s significant southern ...
Stellar casting creates “Beauty”ful ABT quandary @ Segerstrom Center
Feb
18
2015
Southern California, wake up! Stop your behind-the-wheel slumbering … Don’cha know that we’re hosting the dance event of the season? And it’s a real sleeper! That would be “The Sleeping Beauty,” in a prestigious new production presented by American Ballet Theatre. The new “Beauty” will have its festive premiere March 3 at the Segerstrom Center ...
Gomes transcends in Balanchine’s “Apollo” for ABT
Jul
12
2013
It was not just “awesome,” but indeed a privilege to watch Brazilian-born Marcelo Gomes, a great personal favorite, stretch his lovely long limbs as the Greek god, Apollo, in George Balanchine’s plotless ballet dating from 1928. In the dance the young man encounters and frolics with three muses, Calliope, the muse of poetry, Polyhymnia, the ...
While in Moscow, California dreamin’: ABT’s Ivan Vasiliev
Jul
10
2013
We very much enjoy seeing this photo of the divine Ivan …That would be Ivan Vasiliev, heading to Los Angeles for weekend performances with American Ballet Theatre. Here’s Ivan, caught by the camera pouring CALIFORNIA wine at a recent Moscow dinner party. On his teeshirt: True Believer Los Angeles, California That is so righteous. We ...
In a New York state of mind … with Henning Rubsam 1
This New York/New York anecdote comes from our Facebook friend, Henning Rübsam, the artistic Director/Choreographer of SENSEDANCE: Back in NYC. Last night at the MET watching ABT … “Are you in fashion?,” the old lady sitting next to me started the conversation. “Always in fashion. But professionally I am a choreographer,” I answered. “My nephew ...
David Hallberg grew up obsessed by Fred Astaire
Dec
18
2011
Studying tap dance as a kid, before he got proper shoes, says David Hallberg, “I taped nickels on the bottom of my penny loafers.” Hallberg explains this charmingly in a marvelous profile that aired today on CBS’s News’s “Sunday Morning” program. The premier dancer of the Bolshoi Ballet and principal at American Ballet Theatre more ...