Burning Question: Is Nutcracker Racist?

Many productions feature the traditional Act II dances that have been challenged as negative stereotypes. We asked three directors their opinions. Ronald Alexander Program director of the professional training programs at Steps on Broadway and the director of Harlem School of the Arts Prep Program. The whole ballet tradition is inherently racist, so the traditional […]

Dance Matters: Ballet Across America at the Kennedy Center

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 […]

Vital Signs

The Mariinsky in Nijinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps. Photo by Natasha Razina, Courtesy Mariinsky.   One Hundred Years Later May 29 marks the centennial of Nijinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps. Dance artists pay tribute to the original provocateur around the world (probably without the riots, but one never knows):     Akram Khan Company in […]

Huge Talent: Maggie Small

This ballerina has deep roots at Richmond Ballet.     Maggie Small in Karinska costume for Balanchine’s Liebesleder Waltzer. Photo by Matthew Karas.   Maggie Small’s pointe shoe swings inches from the ceiling of a corner studio at Richmond Ballet, as partner Fernando Sabino presses her through a lift, her body arched across his hand. […]