Scheherazade premiered on June 4, 1910, at the Opéra Garnier in Paris by the Ballets Russes. The choreography for the ballet was by Michel Fokine and the libretto was from Fokine and Léon Bakst. This ballet provoked exoticism by showing a masculine Golden Slave seducing Zobeide who is one of the many wives of the Shah. Continue reading
Theme and Variations received its world premiere at New York’s City Center on November 26, 1947, danced by Alicia Alonso and Igor Youskevitch. George Balanchine’s plotless ballet with its glorious choreography and glittering costumes is a vision of the Imperial Ballet in its heyday at the Maryinksy Theatre. A second production with costumes by Desmond Heeley, premiered at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, on April 17, 1978, with Gelsey Kirkland and Mikhail Baryshnikov in the leading roles.
George Balanchine choreographed Maurice Ravel’s La valse in 1951. Ravel wrote La valse, poème chorégraphique pour orchestre (a choreographic poem for orchestra), between February 1919 and 1920. The music premiered in Paris on 12 December 1920. It was conceived as a ballet but is now more often heard as a concert work. The work has been described as a tribute to the waltz, and the composer George Benjamin. Continue reading
Arthur Mitchell’s Creole Giselle performed by the Dance Theatre Of Harlem (DTH), and set the traditional story of Giselle in 1841 Louisiana broke barriers with this all African American adaptation. Continue reading
“The ballet stays and exists in the time of the music and its work. Nothing is out of it, I believe; all gestures and moods, steps, etc. are part of the fabric of the music’s time and its meaning to me.” – Jerome Robbins
Dances at a Gathering
Choreography: Jerome Robbins (1969)
Music: Chopin
Pianist: Ryoko Hisayama
Opéra de Paris (2014)
Ludmila Pagliero – en rose
Amandine Albison – en mauve
Nolwenn Daniel – Amarelo
Aurélie Dupont – en vert
Charline Giezendanner – en bleu
Mathieu Ganio – en brun
Karl Paquette – en violet
Josua Hoffalt – en vert
Emmanuel Thibault – en rouge brique
Christophe Duquenne – en bleu
Nolwenn Daniel – en jaune
Balcony scene from John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet featuring Marcia Haydee and Richard Cragun with music by Sergei Prokofiev. Continue reading
In 1972, Alvin Ailey created the elegiac solo Love Songs for dancer Dudley Williams. The sixteen minute solo, composed in three sections includes A Song for You by Donny Hathaway; Poppies by Nina Simone; and He Ain’t Heavy, He’s my Brother by Donny Hathaway. Many thought of the work as the male equivalent of the female solo Cry (1971). Continue reading
By Walter Rutledge
Maurice Hines presents Tappin Thru Life, at the New World Stages (340 West 50th Street), an entertaining mix of song, and dance peppered with Hines winning blend of tongue in cheek comedic realism. The evening chronicled his career in show business, which spans over six decades (beginning at age five). Septuagenarian (plus two) Hines charmed and cajoled the audience with unabashed panache, creating a clap along good time from beginning to end. Through a series of autobiographical anecdotes accompanied by song, dance and a mosaic/collage of multiple projected images Hines reveals a life spent “walkin the walk” or in Hines case “tappin thru life”.
Misty Copeland, principal dancer American Ballet Theatre, appears in the March issue of Harper’s Bazaar to recreate iconic ballet inspired paintings and sculpture from impressionist painter Edgar Degas. Congratulations to Copeland for once again disrupting the historical whiteness of ballet.
Copeland as Swaying Dancer (Dancer in Green); Oscar de la Renta dress, $5,490
Photographers Ken Browar and Deborah Ory captured the world-renowned dancer for the eye-catching editorial spread. The resemblance to Degas’ original works of dancers at the Paris Opéra Ballet is uncanny. Copeland nails the graceful poses while dressed in high fashion designs by Valentino, Alexander McQueen, Carolina Herrera, and Oscar de la Renta that look like they were literally plucked from each painting and sculpture.
Copeland as Degas’s Dancer; Carolina Herrera top, $1,490, skirt, $4,990
In the article, she explains why she love to dance. “I was drawn to ballet and performing for a reason that I think a lot of people can’t really understand or relate to,” she says. “People think it’s like, ‘You’re out there,’ or ‘You’re exposed.’ But I felt safe when I was on the stage, like no one could get to me. It was the first time in my life that I felt protected.”
Copeland as Degas’s Little Dancer Aged Fourteen; Alexander McQueen dress, $4,655, and corset, $4,525
At 33, she’s in the midst of the most illuminating pas de deux with pop culture for a classical dancer since Mikhail Baryshnikov went toe-to-toe with Gregory Hines in White Nights.
Copeland as Swaying Dancer (Dancer in Green); Oscar de la Renta dress, $5,490
Degas’s ballet works, which the artist began creating in the 1860s and continued making until the years before his death, in 1917, were infused with a very modern sensibility. He offered images of young girls congregating, practicing, laboring, dancing, training, and hanging around studios and the backstage areas of the theater.
Alberta Ferretti dress, $28,090
Copeland is engaged to Olu Evans, an attorney, who she’s been with for more than a decade. They live together in an apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. She admits to an “intensifying” designer-footwear addiction, and while she’s still working out the details of her nuptials, she confesses giddily that Christian Louboutin is making her shoes for the occasion.
Roberto Cavalli skirt, price upon request
Misty Copeland- The Art Of Dance
Video shot by Sandy Chase
Photography by Ken Browar and Deborah Ory of the NYC Dance Project
Part 7 of Step Into My Dream, a unique Jazz / Dance collaboration by Billy Taylor and David Parsons, featuring Dr. Billy Taylor on piano, Chip Jackson on bass, Steve Johns on drums, and the David Parsons Dance Company. Recorded in 1994. Continue reading
Ghanaian artist Paa Joe has brought some of New York City’s most iconic motifs to life. As part of Superhouse NYC’s inaugural “Celestial City” exhibition, the multidisciplinary artist served up a handful of lifesize sculptures of the city’s signature signage, including pizza boxes, taxi cabs, bagels and of course, rats. 120 Walker Street, 6R
The Dance of the Village Elders are back ! This time we exercise, dance and just have fun through the zoom platform or in-person at R.A.I.N. Nereid 
The Dance of the Village Elders are back ! This time we exercise, dance and just have fun through the zoom platform or in-person at R.A.I.N. Nereid 