Ballet NEWS | Straight from the stage – bringing you ballet insights

Ballet News photography competition winner announced I ran a competition to find a new and original photograph that had never been published before. There were lots of entries and it’s been pretty tough choosing the winner. I am very pleased to announce that Andrea Paolini Merlo, with her beautfiul Swan Lake photograph below, has won the [...]

Backstage on Swan Lake This exclusive gallery of backstage photographs has been created to compliment my YOU magazine feature on English National Ballet’s Swan Lake in-the-round, published in August last year. All of the images were captured backstage at the Royal Albert Hall on the last night – June 19th 2010. All of the photographs [...]

Backstage Reporter – Chelsy Meiss goes backstage in rehearsals for Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for Ballet News Following the phenomenal success of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by The National Ballet of Canada, and our fabulous backstage reporter Chelsy Meiss’ promotion to soloist, I am really pleased and a little sad to bring you the final [...]

Backstage Reporter – Chelsy Meiss goes backstage in rehearsals for Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for Ballet News Christopher Wheeldon has been in rehearsals with us since Wednesday. These rehearsals have been very detailed and extensive. This is important because the ballet has many small details that need to be communicated to the audience [...]

Backstage Reporter – Chelsy Meiss goes backstage in rehearsals for Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for Ballet News Time is racing by, and The National Ballet of Canada premiere Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland next week!  Here, Corps de ballet dancer Chelsy Meiss continues her reports on living Alice, with her fourth diary entry. Last Friday, [...]

Backstage Reporter – Chelsy Meiss goes backstage in rehearsals for Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for Ballet News Corps de ballet dancer Chelsy Meiss continues her backstage diary The sets, props and costumes from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland are so intricate and elaborate it is somewhat mindboggling. Other than The Nutcracker, this is the [...]

Backstage Reporter – Chelsy Meiss goes backstage in rehearsals for Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for Ballet News National Ballet of Canada Corps de ballet dancer Chelsy Meiss sends her second behind-the-scenes report on rehearsals for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Everyone knows that behind any great ballet is a great score. The music is [...]

Sugar Plum moments with Northern Ballet Principal, Martha Leebolt I’m comparing toes with Cleopatra, a.k.a. Martha Leebolt, and it’s caught me slightly by surprise. How many prima ballerinas do you know who would, unprompted, whip off their shoes and show you their feet ? Leebolt’s are strong & tiny, with no discernable marks from a [...]

Yesterday in central London a lunch was held in honour of English National Ballet’s Senior Principal dancer Daria Klimentová, who was presented with the Critic’s Circle Patron Award 2010 by Dame Beryl Grey. The Patron’s Award is given to an individual or organization that has significantly furthered the cause of dance in the UK. The [...]

The Royal Ballet’s newest dancer is 17 year old Patricia Zhou, an inspiring late starter who joins the company on an apprenticeship, and I recently caught up with her as part of the Ballet News ‘From Student to Star’ series, to see how she won her coveted contract and what she’s looking forward to. What was the [...]