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

Northern Ballet’s The Great Gatsby | Illustrated Regulars among you will know that Ballet News has been collaborating with Berenice Berelli for some time now. Today I want to offer you the latest Limited Edition and exclusive collection based on Northern Ballet’s The Great Gatsby, which opens at Sadlers Wells in London this week. Inspired by Principals Martha [...]

Ballet News collaborates with Berenice Bercelli Today I’m really pleased to announce a collaboration that I’ve been working on for a while between Ballet News and Berenice Bercelli, to produce some wonderful Limited Edition collections of newsworthy ballet drawings. These illustrations will be released periodically as Limited Editions and in line with Ballet News’ ethos, [...]

The most popular Ballet News photograph of all time This photograph, by Richard Calmes, is the most popular image ever to be published on the Ballet News facebook page, so today I wanted to share it with a wider audience. When I first published the image, it was ‘liked’ by 7,896 Ballet News readers and it was [...]

Ballet News | World Exclusive Valentine’s Day Illustrations Once again, Noemi Manalang, a long-time collaborator with Ballet News, has produced two world exclusive ballet Valentine’s Day illustrations. Happy Valentine’s Day to Ballet Newsers everywhere.

The Ballet News New Year Bundle & some great new features If you’ve been on the beach, or the slopes, or curled up in your onesie this holiday period, then you might have missed some of the features, news and interviews published here on Ballet News during Christmas and New Year. Here’s a snapshot of the highlights. [...]

The Ballet News New Year Puzzle A while ago I offered Ballet Newsers the chance to own a Limited Edition, bespoke wooden jigsaw puzzle made with a scene from the ballet. At the time, last posting dates for Christmas meant that I couldn’t offer a guaranteed delivery before Christmas to readers overseas. When it’s chilly [...]

Happy Christmas to Ballet Newsers I’d just like to thank you all for being wonderful, loyal readers over the last year. Here’s to 2013! Merry Christmas everyone Or in other words….. Nadelek lowen bon Natale glædelig jul vrolijk Kerstfeest joyeux Noël frohe Weihnachten mele Kalikimaka buon Natale merii kurisumasu feliz Natal Рождеством Христовым feliz Navidad [...]

Ballet News Christmas Cupcakes & Conversation 2012 What does a ballet dancer do ? What happens when the curtain goes down ? The grit and the glamour : your backstage pass into ballet. It doesn’t matter whether you are new to ballet, a ballet teacher, dancer, student or someone who just loves ballet, there is always something [...]

The Ballet Christmas Puzzle for you At the weekend I reported on a new Christmas gift that I wanted to share with you all – a Limited Edition, unique, collectable, gorgeous and fun Christmas jigsaw puzzle with a ballet theme. Your ballet jigsaw will become a piece of family history and is not available anywhere else. [...]

Ballet News | Pointe Shoes Readers, I need your old pointe shoes. Well, a photo of them….. I’m working on a feature and I’d like any readers with a used pair of pointe shoes to contact me. I can’t say too much about this top secret story at the moment but once you’ve been in touch [...]

Ballet News | 14 Most popular photographs To celebrate the Ballet News facebook page reaching 50,000 followers this week, I wanted to share with non-facebook users some of the most popular photographs. Most of them have received over 1000 ‘likes’ on facebook , with the most popular reaching several thousand. Often, they divide opinion and ignite [...]

Cupcakes & Conversation | looking at the stats It’s that time of year when it’s possible to take a bit of time to analyse the business and in particular, today, I wanted to highlight the immensely popular Cupcakes & Conversation interview series, which has been running since 2009. Looking at the breakdown of how many interviewees [...]

Cupcakes & Conversation … There are now four volumes of my interview series with professional ballet dancers called Cupcakes & Conversation with ..  From the back cover : “The grit and the glamour; your backstage pass into ballet.” It doesn’t matter whether you are new to ballet, a teacher, dancer or someone who just loves ballet, there is [...]

Backstage at the Olympics Closing Ceremony & rehearsals with the ballet dancers So, what does it feel like to dance in front of an audience of 26 million people ? Last year one of the Olympics casting directors asked me to help them find hundreds of ballet dancers who could dance very strongly en pointe, and in October [...]

Ballet News Previews | A brand new pointe shoe When a brand new pointe shoe arrives, it’s a rare & exciting moment. These shoes were made to a specification agreed with one of my readers who had tried just about every pointe shoe out there and wanted to see whether these new shoes could be [...]

From Student to Star : Jessica Cohen, Northern Ballet From Student to Star is an interview series featuring Graduates from vocational ballet school as they begin their professional careers. Ballet News will be following them periodically to keep you up to date with their progress and whether the reality of ballet life lives up to their high expectations. [...]

Ballet Business | the business of fundraising “It’s my dream. There’s nothing else I want to do.”  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that. Dreams are vital and if you’ve got to the stage where you need to be thinking about fundraising – well done! The transition of dream to reality begins [...]

Ballet News winners I’m delighted to announce the winners of my two most recent competitions : The winner of the Tulips by Tracy ballet skirt is Olivia Holland The winners of the ENB & Flawless show, Against Time, tomorrow night at the Hammersmith Apollo, are : Sam Daniels Sarah Marles Kathleen Fauquenot **Jenna Aarons MaySze [...]

Ballet News Selects… an outfit for the Diamond Jubilee This weekend the celebrations for HM The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee will really take off – and it’s a long weekend here in the UK. The Thames River Pageant on Sunday 3rd of June promises to be a highlight, and street parties are being organised up and down the land, but [...]

Behind the scenes at the Summer Party photo shoot @ Kensington Palace What does it take to get ten swans ready to dip and dazzle in London ? A very early start, full hair and make-up, a Swan tutu, Swarovski necklaces, a walk in the park and everything crossed for dry weather – the sun would be [...]