Ballet Icons Gala 2025 arrives at the London Coliseum in March
On 9 March 2025, the Ballet Icons Gala will fulfil its annual promise of presenting dancers from across the world to the London public.
Paris
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Review: Les Étoiles gala in Milan – 21 dancers, 17 pieces, 3 hours of starry dance
Graham Spicer sees the Les Étoiles galas in Milan with ballet stars in thrilling pas de deux and seductive modern repertoire.
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Paris dancing teacher sacked for calling students ‘men’ and ‘women’
Valérie Plazenet, an experienced and well-known ballroom dance teacher, has been sacked from Paris’ Sciences Po university.
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Italy’s Riccardo Tisci designs costumes for Abramovic’s Bolero
Italian designer Riccardo Tisci, a graduate from London‘s Central Saint Martins Academy, has been Givenchy’s Creative Director for the last eight years. His first ballet costumes were seen last night in Marina Abramovic’s take on Boléro. Belgian choreographers Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet were responsible for the dance, but it was Abramovic’s concept, and set design. This coming together was organised by the Paris Opera Ballet…
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Boris Bilinsky: costume and set designer for ballet, opera and film and legendary graphic artist
Boris Bilinsky was born in Odessa in 1900, but left Russia in 1920, escaping from the aftermath of the Revolution. He settled in Berlin where he was still able to collaborate with Russian theatres, but in 1923 he moved to Paris and worked with the Studio Albatros, a production company in Montreuil. Albatros had only been set up…
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Pointe shoes and tutus at the Ziegfeld Follies
Florenz Ziegfeld created his Follies in 1907, and the successful format continued on Broadway until 1931. The Ziegfeld Follies were extraordinarily elaborate revues inspired by the Folies Bergères in Paris. While being a high-class Vaudeville variety show, mixing comics, singers and speciality dancers, it was the Ziegfeld girls that made them a hit. That whiff of sex disguised as art presented by…
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Claire Motte, étoile of the Paris Opera Ballet, at the circus
Claire Motte, étoile of the Paris Opera Ballet, died when she was just 48. She was a striking beauty and possessed a strong personality, such that Roland Petit created Esmeralda for her in his ballet Notre Dame de Paris. Motte came through the school at the Paris Opera with teachers Carlotta Zambelli and Serge Lifar. Her strong technique permitted…
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The Times reviews two casts of La Source in Paris
Ludmila Pagliero, as Naïla, is a dancer of regal polish, plangent grace and classical conviction, though Myriam Ould-Braham as the second cast Naïla brought more visible heartbreak to the spirit’s sacrifice. Nouredda, the woman Djémil loves, is so passive it’s hard to bring her alive, but Isabelle Ciaravola and Muriel Zusperreguy did well in their…
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‘Restored’ video of Rudolf Nureyev’s version of Romeo and Juliet with Carla Fracci and Margot Fonteyn, now on YouTube
In 1983, Rudolf Nureyev‘s version of Romeo and Juliet was filmed in Milan, and broadcast in Italy and in Britain on Boxing day of the same year. It stars Carla Fracci as his Juliet and the extraordinary participation of Margot Fonteyn as Lady Capulet. This cameo is rather like another wonderful homage by Nureyev when in his…
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Cecilia Bartoli meets her match: wax and feathers in the musée Grévin
The musée Grévin in Paris has unveiled its Cecilia Bartoli waxwork. She joins the good company of Maria Callas and Luciano Pavarotti. The waxwork wears the costume designed for her “Sacrificium” tour. Looking at her likeness Bartoli commented, “She is more beautiful than me. If I get sick, she can sing.”
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Isadora Duncan dances again in Paris
At the Musée Bourdelle until 14 March is an exhibition devoted to Isadora Duncan. Duncan was the muse for many artists, including Antoine Bourdelle (1861–1929) who used her as inspiration for his renowned decorative series of friezes executed for the exterior of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (1913). More than 300 drawings and sculpures are on…
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The Paris Opera Ballet dances at the Bolshoi for the first time since the fall of communism
This week the Bolshoi Theatre‘s ‘New Stage’ will host the Paris Opera Ballet for a mixed programme, and next week they will present Preljocaj’s Le Parc. It is the first time the company has been in Moscow since the fall of communism. Lifar’s Suite en Blanc, Petit’s L’Arlesienne and Béjart’s Bolero form the triple bill. “Over the…
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Luca Pisaroni – the new bass-baritone on the block
With ten years of professional singing under his belt, Luca Pisaroni is starting to make big waves. Here is a well-disciplined voice with a personality, whose owner is good actor and has a charming stage presence. You might have caught him in Giorgio Strehler’s legendary production of Le Nozze di Figaro at the Opéra Bastille…
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