How has the rising popularity of competitions affected the concert dance world? Backstage at Youth America Grand Prix finals. Photo by Kyle Froman. Showstopper hosts more than 50 events each year. Photo courtesy Showstopper. A disembodied voice calls out a number, name, age and title of the dance. Out of the wings comes an expert […]

The secrets of creating onstage chemistry Kochetkova and Boada in Romeo & Juliet. Photo by Erik Tomasson, Courtesy SFB. As Lasha Khozashvili eases Lia Cirio down from a lift, the pair work out the exact angle of her hips. They try again and again, reading each other’s responses until they have it right. They’re rehearsing […]

Bettes dancing “Coppélia” at the Cape Town International Ballet Competition. Courtesy Patel Conservatory.   Even before taking her first professional bow with Boston Ballet this fall, Hannah Bettes was one of the best-known teens in ballet. Her bright, lyrical presence, together with a stunning facility (those feet), has won her numerous competition medals and a […]

Whitney Jensen tackles college on the side. Jensen and Jeffrey Cirio in Alexander Ekman’s Cacti. Photo by Rosalie O’Connor, courtesy Boston Ballet   Whitney Jensen’s career is a study in ballet stardom. With a slew of competition medals, she joined Boston Ballet’s corps in 2009 and hasn’t stopped rising since. The 22-year-old’s long lines, calm, […]

The rosters at major companies are growing.   Artistic director Gil Boggs (right) leads a Colorado Ballet rehearsal. Photo courtesy Colorado Ballet.   The recession in 2008–09 took a major toll on U.S. dance companies of all sizes, genres and geographic locations. Some shortened their programming and cut staff members. Many had to downsize their […]

The Boston Ballet dancer brings emotion as well as athleticism to his roles.   In the world premiere of the angular, abstract Resonance by Jose Martinez at Boston Ballet, you wouldn’t have known that Roddy Doble has spent most of his career in classic story ballets. His athletic build and the explosive quality of his […]

Kathleen Breen Combes moves like silk across the stage. But although it appears effortless, the Boston Ballet principal is constantly at work, maintaining her strength and keeping injuries in check. Because she is hypermobile, Combes says she has a tendency to pull muscles and overstretch ligaments. Currently, she is working around a labral tear in […]

Alison Roper, Paul DeStrooper, and Damian Drake of Oregon Ballet Theatre in Kudelka’s Almost Mozart. Photo by Blaine Truitt Covert, Courtesy Kennedy Center.   In the five years since the Kennedy Center launched its Ballet Across America celebration, the focus has shifted from larger companies to those smaller in size, but large in impact. In this […]