Dancers who have fled Ukraine — and Russia — due to the war have found a new temporary home in Berlin’s top ballet company, which helps with practice space, housing, even shoes.
Conductor Scott Speck, who leads the Chicago Philharmonic for performances of The Nutcracker with Joffrey Ballet, explained what makes Tchaikovsky’s score as addictive as your favorite holiday treats.
Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker isn’t just a popular holiday ballet. The composer grouped eight pieces in his Nutcracker Suite, which is often performed in concert. But, which movement of the “Nutcracker Suite” are you? Are you the “Spanish Dance?” “The Waltz of the Flowers?” Take the quiz and find out!
From its premiere more than 75 years ago, this music and ballet continue to speak to the American soul. Dive into the score of Appalachian Spring with Bill McGlaughlin.
To conceal that the book’s author was a woman, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre was first published in 1847 under a pen name. Choreographer Cathy Marston feels the book was revolutionary: “It truly was groundbreaking for a woman to write about her emotions and station in life with such honesty.”
Alicia Alonso, the revered ballerina and choreographer whose nearly 75-year career made her an icon of artistic loyalty to Cuba’s socialist system, died Thursday at age 98.
The Bolshoi Ballet is returning to Chicago for the first time in sixteen years. The Russian ballet company will perform at the Auditorium Theatre in June 2020, which will be the only Midwest stop on their United States tour. The Bolshoi Ballet will perform Yuri Grigorovich’s Swan Lake, set to Tchaikovsky’s classic score. Grigorovich, who served as the Bolshoi’s director …
“I believe that Karenina is a magical moment of looking at our beautiful art form and taking it a step forward,” says Ashley Wheater, Joffrey Ballet’s artistic director. One of the cornerstones of the production is 35-year-old composer Ilya Demutsky’s brand new, full-length orchestral score, the first such commission in Joffrey’s 62-year history.
Joffrey Ballet’s artistic director, Ashley Wheater, and music director, Scott Speck, discuss “Swan Lake,” Joffrey’s 2018-19 season, and ballet’s unique and rich creative relationship with music.
Renowned choreographer Justin Peck took a break from his rehearsals with the Joffrey Ballet to explain what he listens for when selecting music to choreograph.
Elise K. Kirk, emerita director of the White House Historical Society, highlights ten US presidents who changed music in America through the music they presented at the White House.
Dancer Anastacia Holden reflected that “as an artist, we’re always looking for new challenges, because they make us grow. It’s always great to do a new work and see a fresh take on this traditional holiday story.”
“The last time we did this production, you could hear that people were really upset by it. And yet, there is absolutely beautiful choreography — it’s absolutely stunning.”
“I think I am one of the few American dancers who ever saw the Diaghilev ballet at the peak of its glory,” Sono Osato begins her autobiography Distant Dances. At the ripe age of 14, Osato became the first American dancer to join the Ballet Russes de Monte-Carlo, derived from Diaghilev’s famous Ballets Russes. With the company, she toured the …
Choreographer John Neumeier said that in his reinterpretation of Sylvia, he “tried to invent a movement vocabulary that would suit each of the characters.”
Choreographer and modern dance maven Claire Bataille: “But gender discrimination is really no different in the dance world from what it is in the corporate world…”
