Artistic directors reveal how they decide who gets the top promotion. Isabella Boylston was promoted to principal at ABT in 2014. Photo by Gene Schiavone, Courtesy ABT There is one question at the ballet that might provoke more curiosity than any other: Who will be promoted to the rank of principal dancer? The answer is […]

A King Re-Gendered Setterfield in Lear. Photo by Patrick Moore, courtesy NYLA. Play King Lear? Valda Setterfield has done so many other things that when she turned 79, she felt ripe for the challenge. At the request of Irish maverick choreographer John Scott, she played (and danced) the plagued king in Ireland two years ago, […]

After spending so much of her day in the studio, Ballet West principal Arolyn Williams prefers to head outside once it’s time to cross-train: “There’s just something about having the wind in your face, watching the light change—it fills you up in a way that a gym just can’t.” Two or three times a week, […]

IN HIS FIRST GO at a romantic role, Houston Ballet’s Joseph Walsh dove deep into the delirium of love. He’d been cast opposite Sara Webb in Manon, and danced as though every muscle in his body was longing for her. Then, as soon as bows finished opening night, the first person he ran into in […]

Ballet West enters Season 2 of Breaking Pointe.   Allison DeBona and Rex Tilton of Ballet West and Breaking Pointe. Photo by Matthew Karas. Will there be more dancing? Will Allison and Rex be officially dating? Will Beckanne, the ingénue of the company, keep getting cast in top roles? Will Adam have to deliver more […]

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, […]