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

Cupcakes & Conversation with Andile Ndlovu, The Washington Ballet What motivates you at 8am on a Monday morning ? Nothing really motivates me on a Monday.  I do not like Mondays as it is the first day of the week. Why ballet ? I do ballet because it is not a stereotypical activity that people [...]

Darcey Bussell becomes President of the Royal Academy of Dance World-renowned Prima Ballerina Darcey Bussell CBE has been elected President of the Royal Academy of Dance, becoming only the fourth President in the organisation’s 92 year history. Darcey follows in the footsteps of Dame Antoinette Sibley who retired in April after 21 years in the [...]

The South Bank Show The most respected arts programme in the world is revived on Sky Arts from 27th May on Sky Arts 1 HD From Broadway to Bow, from the First World War   to female songwriters, The South Bank Show returns to screens this May with a   brand new, exclusive line up, [...]

Ballet News reviews | First Position First Position is a documentary film, following the fortunes of seven children between the ages of 10-17 (during filming) as they compete for scholarships at the Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) in 2010. YAGP is an annual competition for students aged 9-19 and the final is held in New York, where only [...]

Ballet San Jose presents Cinderella with guest dancer Sascha Radetsky Ballet San Jose presents its final program of the 2011-2012 season, May 4-6 with the Company Premiere of Ben Stevenson’s Cinderella set to music by Sergei Prokofiev.  All the classic elements are here: the ugly stepsisters (danced by company men with cross-dressing humor) an elaborate [...]

STAR CASTING FOR BALLET SAN JOSE’S PERFORMANCES OF CINDERELLA ABT’s Sascha Radetsky, star of film “Center Stage,” to dance two performances Ballet San Jose has had its share of star dancers making guest appearances in recent years…the most notable, up to now, being Carlos Acosta of The Royal Ballet in London and his performance as [...]

English National Ballet’s Emerging Dancer & People’s Choice Award On Monday evening, this year’s Emerging Dancer competition organised by English National Ballet was judged by, among others, Arlene Phillips. The winner of both the Emerging Dancer and People’s Choice Award was Yonah Acosta. The nominees were : Yonah Acosta Don Quixote (Gorsky), Diana and Acteon (Petipa) Barry [...]

Cupcakes & Conversation with Joseph Phillips, Corps de Ballet, American Ballet Theatre What motivates you at 8am on a Monday morning? My passion for dancing has been my main motivation and drive ever since I can remember. Attending class is my favorite part of the morning it sets me up for the whole day. The [...]

Ballet Business | How to work with the media In an earlier feature, How to get into ballet, I outlined the early stages of a ballet career and some of the pitfalls you might need to watch out for & be prepared for. As part & parcel of your professional ballet career, in a visual art form, photographs of you could (and hopefully, will) end up in the [...]

English National Ballet | The Nutcracker Back in October I published The Nutcracker casting for English National Ballet’s new production.  Ballet News favourites Venus Villa and Yonah Acosta take centre stage in December : Casting in order of Clara, Nephew/Prince, and the Nutcracker * Monday 26 December 2:30pm (F) Venus Villa, Yonah Acosta and Laurent Liotardo F [...]

Ballet San Jose | A ballet company losing it’s direction Dennis Nahat Photograph : John Gerbetz Ballet San Jose (BSJ), a well-respected non-profit charity and the second largest ballet company in California, performs three or more repertory programmes per season (October-May) as well as Artistic Director Dennis Nahat’s The Nutcracker which has a run of only ten [...]

Cupcakes & Conversation with Max Westwell, Soloist, Birmingham Royal Ballet What motivates you at 8am on a Monday morning? Not a lot! But by 8.30am the challenge to improve, learn new skills and be part of something exciting is good motivation. Why ballet? Because it’s a beautiful way of portraying emotion. Who would you most [...]

The Hong Kong Ballet – First Asian Partner Company of the prestigious Prix de Lausanne Hong Kong – 18 November 2011 - The Hong Kong Ballet is delighted to announce that it has been chosen as a Partner Company by the Artistic Committee of the world-renowned dance competition, the Prix de Lausanne. The 40th edition of [...]

Cupcakes & Conversation with Hannah Grennell, Aspirant, Dutch National Ballet What motivates you at 8am on a Monday morning ? What motivates me is basically class. I enjoy the physicality of ballet and how focused it is. I find that in a company, class isn’t just class; it is the warm up at the start [...]

Press Release Date of release: 26 October 2011   MATTHEW BOURNE, WAYNE MCGREGOR, AKRAM KHAN, RUSSELL MALIPHANT AND IVAN PUTROV LEAD NEW SEASON AT SADLER’S WELLS   BALLET PRELJOCAJ, NEDERLANDS DANS THEATER AND DANZA CONTEMPORANEA DE CUBA ARE AMONG THE INTERNATIONAL STARS The Spring/Summer 2012 season at Sadler’s Wells, showcasing some of the world’s most [...]

The Royal Ballet releases a trio of Ashton works on DVD From October 31st, and just in time for Christmas presents, Opus Arte release three of Fredrick Ashton’s ballet’s : Les Patineurs/Scènes de ballet/Divertissements. The Divertissements include Darcey Bussell, Carlos Acosta, Leanne Benjamin, Tamara Rojo, Miyako Yoshida, Steven McRae & Jonathan Cope. See larger image Meyer/ Strav: [...]

Cupcakes & Conversation with Lauren Rogers, Soloist, Cape Town City Ballet What motivates you at 8am on a Monday morning ? Some kind of errand I have to do before getting to work. Why ballet ? I’ve been doing ballet since I was 3yrs old, and it’s a passion of mine that never stops growing. [...]

Cupcakes and Conversation with… well, you guess! Many cupcakes have been baked in order to make this on-going interview series with professional ballet dancers, and to celebrate I’ve picked out a selection of my favourite answers to make a uniquely flavoured cupcake! Each question has been answered by a different dancer this time – male and [...]

Every now and then (but nowhere near often enough) something innovative catches my eye and I just have to break the Ballet News rules !  This is one such occassion. The National Youth Ballet is not a vocational school or ballet company, rather it’s dancers are yound dance students who have often gone on to [...]

The Royal Ballet at the O2 On 17th June 2011, The Royal Ballet pushed the boat out from their usual home in Covent Garden to the O2 in Greenwich for four performances of Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo & Juliet. They took with them their star names – Carlos Acosta, Tamara Rojo, Alina Cojocaru, Johan Kobborg, Lauren [...]