It’s become famously difficult for a female soloist at American Ballet Theatre to rise to principal. Some of the best dancers in New York are at the soloist level. But ABT imports spectacular guest artists from abroad (which is great for box office and buzz) with such regularity that it creates a ceiling beyond which […]

Flying High at 10 Donald Byrd’s 10th season at Spectrum Dance Theater has been chock-full: a national tour of his Theater of Needless Talents, Byrd’s homage to artists who perished in the Holocaust; the premiere of A Meeting Place last winter; and a DanceMotion USA goodwill trip to Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh. This month, […]

Training the youngsters in ABT’s Nutcracker     Franco De Vita (left) and Alexei Ratmansky audition dancers for The Nutcracker. Photo by Gene Schiavone, Courtesy ABT.   There are many memorable moments in Alexei Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker—from a baby mouse wreaking havoc in the Stahlbaums’ kitchen to Clara and her Nutcracker Prince meeting their adult […]