Most corps members have one thing in common: little rest. When you’re the backbone of the company, you’re cast in almost every major ballet, and expected to give just as much to each character and peasant role as you do the rare soloist opportunities thrown your way. Recently, Dance Magazine followed Boston Ballet’s Hannah Bettes […]

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 […]

Boston Ballet principal Misa Kuranaga in Forsythe’s The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude. Photo by Gene Schiavone, Courtesy Boston Ballet. For most dancers, performing (or even watching) William Forsythe’s electric, exaggerated vocabulary is an exhilarating experience. For dancers at Boston Ballet, it will soon be a new norm. Today, the company announced a five-year partnership with the master choreographer starting next […]

As a long-limbed powerhouse, yet soulful soubrette, Maria Baranova defies “type.” At 16, she signed her first contract with Hamburg Ballet. At 19, she became a principal at Finnish National Ballet. This season, with a persistent glimmer still in her eyes, she has joined Boston Ballet as a soloist, where she’s eager to test the […]

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 […]

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 […]