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Dance in Pop Culture

Boston Ballet Joins Twenty One Pilots and Tame Impala at Boston Calling Music Fest

Courtesy Boston Calling

Twenty One Pilots, Janelle Monáe, Tame Impala, Boston Ballet.

One of these things is not like the others.

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News

6 March Performance Picks From Our Editors

Boston Ballet in Forsythe's Pas/Parts 2018. Photo by Rosalie O'Connor, Courtesy Boston Ballet

A feast of Forsythe, a surfeit of Dorrance Dance, a challenge to how we perceive refugees. Our editors' performance picks this month run the gamut.

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Dancer Voices

"Even at My Lowest Points, Choosing Not to Dance Has Never Been an Option"

Cirio in Sleeping Beauty. Photo by Liza Voll, Courtesy Boston Ballet

When I was born, the delivery doctor exclaimed to my parents, "You have a dancer on your hands!" I had been a footling breech baby and entertained myself by jumping in utero, until I jumped so hard that I broke my mom's water and was delivered as a C-section. Cut to present day: I wake up each morning, head to the building where I've worked for almost 16 years, strap on my pointe shoes and dance almost seven hours a day as a professional. Yes, every day I choose to dance, but in some ways, it is as if dance actually chose me.

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News

Are Ballet Companies Making Too Much Money From The Nutcracker?

New York City Ballet's Nutcracker has been performed every year since 1954. Photo by Paul Kolnik, via nycb.com

Love it or hate it, come December, The Nutcracker is ubiquitous. It's easy to wonder whether it's sustainable to keep performing the same holiday classic year after year, or to spend millions of dollars reinventing it for new productions. But believe it or not, the show's popularity is only growing.

Every year, Dance/USA conducts a Nutcracker Survey on its member companies, compiling data about ticket sales, attendance and more. The organization just reported on the state of the Nutcracker for the first time since 2008, and the data shows just how much the ballet's prevalence has grown in the past 10 years—and how much companies have come to rely on it as a revenue source:

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Career Advice

5 Veteran Ballet Dancers on What It Takes to Survive Nutcracker

Ballet Austin's corps in Snow Scene. Photo by Anne Marie Bloodgood, courtesy Ballet Austin.

Few people who are busier during the holidays than corps members of American ballet companies. December is officially Nutcracker season—a company's chance to earn a huge chunk of their revenue for the year, and a dancer's chance to go a little, ahem, nuts, waltzing and swallowing fake snow night after night for weeks on end.

But Nutcracker can also be an opportunity like no other, and for some corps members, it's the highlight of their year. Five dancers told us what helps them get through it all.

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Breaking Stereotypes

When Can We Finally Talk About Why Boys In Dance Get Bullied?

A still from the new documentary, DANSEUR. Image courtesy DANSEUR

According to the new documentary DANSEUR, 85% of males who study dance in the United States are bullied or harassed. A quote in the film from Dr. Doug Risner, faculty member at Wayne State University, states, "If this scope of bullying occurred in any activity other than dance, it would be considered a public health crisis by the CDC."

So why is it allowed to persist in ballet? And why aren't we talking about it more? These are the questions that DANSEUR seeks to answer. But primarily consisting of dance footage and interviews with male dancers like ABT's James Whiteside, Houston Ballet's Harper Watters and Boston Ballet's Derek Dunn, the film only addresses these issues superficially, with anecdotes about individual experiences and generalizations about what it's like to be a male dancer.

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News

Season Preview: Your Guide to the Hottest Dance Tickets of 2018–19

Xenos, Akram Khan's final full-length solo, is an ode to the soldiers of World War I. Photo by Nicol Vizioli, Courtesy Sadler's Wells

We might have gotten a little bit carried away with this year's "Season Preview"—but with the 2018–19 season packing so many buzzy shows, how could we not? Here are over two dozen tours, premieres and revivals that have us drooling.

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In The Studio

This Boston Ballet Principal Is Using the Domestic Violence He Witnessed Growing Up to Fuel His Latest Work

Boston Ballet rehearsing "ELA, Rhapsody in blue" choreographed by Paulo Arrais. PC Kelsey Grills

When Boston Ballet principal dancer Paulo Arrais was approached to choreograph for the company's spring program, Rhapsody, he immediately knew where he wanted to draw inspiration from. "I grew up in a part of Brazil where it was very common to see domestic violence," says Arrais. "I'm angry about this problem and I'm trying to find a way to choreograph with the anger I have."

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Career Advice

How Do You Convince A Patron To Give Their Money To Dance?

Behind every virtuosic performance, there is a quiet group of champions. Private patrons are critical to the success of American dance companies. Most large troupes only generate about half of their operating budget from ticket sales, while smaller companies recoup only a fraction. In a country with minuscule government funds allocated to the arts, individual contributors play an indelible role in financing concert dance.

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Just for Fun

Five of Our Favorite Ballet Trailers

Bucharest National Ballet's 2013 trailer for "La Sylphide,' via YouTube

Few things are more powerful for promoting ballet performances than captivating trailers—especially in today's visually-focused, digitally-connected world.

We've rounded up some eye-catching ads from seasons past and present that not only make us wish we could have seen the show, but also stand alone as short films.

Bucharest National Opera's La Sylphide

Magnifying the scarf which—spoiler alert—brings about the ballet's tragic conclusion, this 2013 Bucharest National Opera's trailer turns that fateful fabric into a beautiful, deadly web. Its windswept movements form a dance of its own.

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News

Round Robbins: How the Dance World is Celebrating Jerome Robbins' 100th Birthday

Miami City Ballet in Jerome Robbins' West Side Story Suite. Photo by Daniel Azoulay, Courtesy MCB

From the over-the-top antics of Fancy Free to the stylized realism of West Side Story, the discomfiting world of The Cage to the poignant humanity of Dances at a Gathering, the work of Jerome Robbins redefined what American dance could be. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth, ballet companies across the country are performing his iconic works throughout the year. Here are a few of our favorites, but keep your eyes peeled for more Robbins tributes in 2018.

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Dancers Trending

The Definitive Ranking of All of Dusty Button's Craziest Turning Videos

via Youtube

If you've ever scrolled through former Boston Ballet principal Dusty Button's Instagram, you've probably experienced the mixture of utter disbelief and total envy that comes with watching videos of her turning. She's ridiculously aerodynamic, endlessly daring, and every time you think she's done, she fits in another revolution.

We rounded up her most mind-blowing turning videos, ranked by how far they made our jaws drop:

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Popular

Behind-the-Scenes Clips of All Our Fave Companies Gearing Up for Nutcracker

The Joffrey Ballet's "The Nutcracker." Photo by Cheryl Mann

Since Thanksgiving is finally here, it's officially time to talk Nutcracker. With countless productions taking place between now and Christmas (and even some through the new year), we've been keeping tabs on Instagram to check in on rehearsals. Whether you're obsessed with all things Sugar Plum Fairy or the snow scene is more your speed, we've got your first look at the holiday classic.

We have a feeling even the Boston Ballet dancing bear couldn't keep up with second soloist Lawrence Rines' tricks in Russian.

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Health & Body

Treat Your Feet: The Foot-Care Products Dancers Love

Ashley Ellis, photo by Albert Ayzenberg, courtesy of Ashley Ellis

Every dancer has learned—probably the hard way—that healthy feet are the foundation of a productive and happy day in the studio. As dancers, our most important asset has to carry the weight (literally) of everything we do. So it's not surprising that most professional dancers have foot care down to an art.

Three dancers shared their foot-care products they can't live without.

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Dancers Trending

James Whiteside Is Collaborating With Disney Japan and It's Just as Magical as You'd Expect

If you love James Whiteside as much as we do, allow us to further fuel your obsession. The ABT principal announced via Instagram that his latest project will be playing the Beast (post-transformation, obv) and choreographing an upcoming extra with Disney Japan's Beauty and the Beast DVD release. While we're still awaiting all of the details, we reached out to Whiteside, who confirmed that he and Boston Ballet principal Misa Kuranaga—who will be dancing Belle—will be recreating the film's ballroom scene.

"I choreographed the pas de deux to a specially arranged piano version of the central theme song, "Tale as Old as Time," and stuck with a very classical ballet structure," Whiteside told us via email. "[I incorporated] moments from the original Disney film, as well as feelings I get while watching classic Disney films. My ballet influences were the very Russian Spring Waters, [Frederick] Ashton's Cinderella and much of Alexei Ratmansky's work."

Courtesy of James Whiteside

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