Portrait of an Artist – the many roles of Medhi Walerski

Dance
ed. note: This story written in advance of a November 23 performance by Ballet BC in Los Angeles was commissioned and first published by The Soraya on November 8 2024. It is reprinted with permission. Soft-spoken but emphatic, Medhi Walerski, at 45, is a ballet prince with piercing eyes, a crown of clipped curls, and ...

Two new ‘now’ ballets in world premieres by Ballet BC at The Soraya

Dance
Ed. note: This story by Debra Levine, commissioned and published by the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for the Arts, is reprinted with permission. It is a big, hopeful, nervous-making, celebratory event when a ballet has its world premiere.  The preparation is immense, with many moving parts to orchestrate: choreography and rehearsals, of course, but ...

Vancouver’s ‘Ballet BC,’ resident dance company of The Soraya, to perform

Dance
photo by luques ed. note: This story by dance critic Debra Levine, commissioned and originally published by the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for the Arts, is reprinted with permission. When the effervescent contemporary ballet troupe Ballet BC last appeared at The Soraya, it was indeed “BC”—Before Covid. The stellar dancers captivated the audience in ...

A ‘Romeo + Juliet’ for 2020 soon at The Soraya 2

Dance
As reviews and reactions to the just-opened Broadway production of West Side Story (based of course on the Romeo and Juliet myth) zing back and forth like gang warfare, a new Romeo + Juliet by Ballet BC, the nearly 35-year-old Vancouver-based contemporary ballet troupe, heads to The Soraya for two performances. The production is en ...