What Does It Mean to Be a Ballet Company's "Scholar in Residence"?

A scholar of Russian literature and culture, Dr. Natalie Rouland works for the Kennan Institute, a DC think tank invested in building bridges between the United States and Russia. She also advises The Washington Ballet’s artistic director Julie Kent on staging classical ballets, serving as the company’s first scholar in residence. A native of Lexington, […]

How Can Dance Thrive If We Don't Care About Its History?

When I was a young dancer in Louisville, Kentucky, my ballet teacher used to speak a lot about Merrill Ashley. She brought neoclassical technique to exquisite new heights under Balanchine, and as a technician, she famously paved the way for today’s balletic whiz kids. (Later, when I was a teenager, I was lucky enough to […]

#tbt: Margot Fonteyn and The Royal Ballet Arrive Stateside in Style

To celebrate our 90th anniversary, we excavated some of our favorite hidden gems from the DM Archives—images that capture a few of the moments in time we’ve documented over the decades. Ninette de Valois, Margot Fonteyn, Moira Shearer, Frederick Ashton, Michael Somes and Robert Irving arrive in the U.S. Photo by Enell Inc., Courtesy DM […]