Review: National Ballet of Brno’s new production of Giselle with Ksenia Ovsyanick and Alejandro Virelles
Graham Watts sees Rodolfo Castellanos’ Giselle with the National Ballet of Brno – a production that stands among the very best.
Alicia Alonso
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Remembering Carla Fracci, three years after her death
Carla Fracci, the great Italian ballerina, died three years ago today, on 27 May 2021. I wrote her obituary for Dancing Times magazine that is reproduced here.
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[Review] English National Ballet’s Our Voices triple bill – “Art isn’t easy… and it shouldn’t be.”
There’s a buzz in the air… The Our Voices triple bill at Sadler’s Wells feels like the arrival of a different English National Ballet.
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[Photo Album] 100% Cuban with Acosta Danza
Photographer Dasa Wharton photographed Acosta Danza’s three UK premieres: Hybrid, Liberto, and De Punta a Cabo, part of the programme 100% Cuban.
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Les Étoiles for three days shone over Rome
The annual orgy of dance that kicks off the year in Rome, known as Les Étoiles, began in 2015 with an evening in the Auditorium della Conciliazione near the Vatican with its 1,700 seats. The gala has grown to occupy three days in the Auditorium Parco della Musica with its 2,800 seats. The reason for…
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Les Étoiles Gala in Rome 2020 features the ballet world’s starriest names with some surprises
The annual appointment with Les Étoiles in Rome is certainly a chance to enjoy a thrilling ballet gala, but the producer Daniele Cipriani also finds interesting twists to make each edition unique, so it never becomes a clichéd evening of ballet’s greatest hits. Such was the popularity last year, that the gala will spread over…
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Interview with Alicia Alonso at 95: my dancing is my most eloquent testament
I was fascinated by dance when I was very young, and after my first lesson I said to my mother, “This is what I want to do!” From that moment on it has been my life. I have had problems with my sight throughout my career, though it has never been total blindness. I found…
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Ek, Laguna, Mercy and Linke in Rome: over 200 years of dance experience
For two nights from tomorrow in Rome there is the possibility to attend a most unusual dance gala. While there are only four taking part, their ages combined total 266 years. The dancers are Mats Ek, Ana Laguna, Susanne Linke and Dominique Mercy, Laguna being the youngest of the quartet at just sixty. Playing on…
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Russian ballerina Maya Plisetskaya dies at 89
Maya Plisetskaya died of a heart attack today in Munich. She was 89. The director of the Bolshoi Ballet, Vladimir Urin, said, She died of a severe heart attack. The doctors tried everything, but there was nothing they could do. Mikhail Shvydkoi, former Russian Minister of Culture, said, I always thought that Plisetskaya would live forever….
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Coppélia: with tutus or wafers?
An ice-cream parlour around the corner from my home is called Coppélia. It’s just opposite the new Fendi showroom and offices in via Solari in Milan. Now I’m sure regular readers of this blog will roll their eyes in disbelief on reading my query in the next sentence, but for those who don’t know the…
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You choose it out of Love! Dancing with the Khan-MacKay family
Dancing, like acting and singing, often runs in the family. There are countless dancers whose parents danced: Zenaida Yanowsky (Royal Ballet), Yury Yanowsky (Boston Ballet) and Nadia Yanowsky (Het Nationale Ballet) are the children of Russian ballet dancer Anatol Yanowsky and Spanish ballet dancer Carmen Robles. Ballet’s in their blood. What makes the Khan-MacKay family special is that…
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Alicia Alonso makes a comeback at 91
Alicia Alonso, at 91 years of age, has made a stage comeback at the 23rd Havana International Ballet Festival. Prensa Latina reported that the Cuban ballet legend danced Un retrato para el recuerdo (A portrait to remember) with two of her former partners: Lazaro Carreño and Jorge Vega. The news service said, Alonso was again an exceptional actress, inspiring ovations throughout…
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Unseen photos: Alicia Alonso
A wonderfully natural and rare shot of Cuban ballerina Alicia Alonso in her heyday.
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Alicia Alonso on her dancers, her company and Fidel Castro
Kevin Griffin of the Vancouver Sun asked Alicia Alonso (via email) some questions: On classical ballet being elitist Ballet does not have to be an elitist art form. If the public have access to a good ballet show, they will greatly enjoy it. Cuba has worked for years to attract new audiences, through lectures, conferences…
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Alicia Alonso: “I will live until I’m 200”
In an interview on Tuesday, Alicia Alonso said that she is not planning on retiring from her post as director of the National Ballet of Cuba. She said that it was pointless naming a successor as she plans to live until she’s 200. Viva Alicia! via Cubadebate
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Carlos Acosta “a genuine product of the Revolution” receives Cuba’s 2011 National Performing Arts Award
Cuban danseur and choreographer Carlos Acosta was bestowed with the 2011 National Performing Arts Award, which he devoted to Fernando, Alberto and Alicia Alonso, founders of the National Ballet of Cuba that trained him as a ballet dancer. “I owe them what I am,” he said at Havana’s Garcia Lorca Grand Theatre to a standing…
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Ballet Nacional de Cuba prepares for its 30 city (yes, thirty!) tour of Spain
The Ballet Nacional de Cuba in early September for Spain on a tour that will take the company to almost 30 cities. They will take their greatest hits repertoire, including Swan Lake, Cinderella and Giselle. Less known pieces include En las sombras de un vals (In the shadows of a waltz), with choreography by Alicia Alonso…
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Alonso talks before the Moscow Gala: Viva Alicia, Viva Legend! says the Voice of Russia
On August 2nd the Bolshoi audience again saw the legendary ballerina and the founder of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba (Cuban National Ballet) Alicia Alonso. The gala concert at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow on Tuesday was dedicated to her 90th birthday. The day before the gala Alonso said that she was very happy to…
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