Yesterday, Kaatsbaan, the Tivoli, NY-based cultural park for dance, announced that Stella Abrera will join the organization as its new artistic director, effective January 1. This news come just weeks after we learned that Abrera will be taking her final bow with American Ballet Theatre in June. While we’ll miss seeing Abrera on the ABT […]

Here are the latest promotions, appointments and transfers, plus notable awards and accomplishments from the last month. Comings & Goings Karen Kain Karolina Kuras, Courtesy National Ballet of Canada Karen Kain will retire as artistic director of National Ballet of Canada in January 2021, at which time she will be named artistic director emeritus. A […]

American Ballet Theatre announced today that, after 24 years, beloved principal dancer Stella Abrera will retire from the stage this coming summer. Her farewell performance will be June 13, 2020, at the Metropolitan Opera House, dancing the title role in Giselle. Giselle holds special significance for her. In 2015, Abrera, then a 37-year-old soloist, made […]

Story ballets that debut during American Ballet Theatre’s spring season at the Metropolitan Opera House are always the subject of much curiosity—and, sometimes, much debate. Cathy Marston’s Jane Eyre was no different. The ballet follows the eponymous heroine of Charlotte Brönte’s novel as she grows from a willful orphan to a self-possessed governess, charting her […]

No matter how much anti–Valentine’s Day sentiment I’m feeling in a given year, there’s something about dancer couples that still makes me swoon. Here’s a collection of wonderful posts from this year, but be warned: Continued scrolling is likely to give you a severe case of the warm fuzzies. Herman Cornejo got engaged! Herman Cornejo […]

You know you’ve got something going for you when stars from New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre—plus our favorite celebrity dance fan, Jennifer Garner—are all fangirling about you on Instagram. The man of the hour is Nick Palmquist, a choreographer and teacher who can often be found dishing out irresistibly sultry commercial jazz […]

In her first season as a principal at American Ballet Theatre, Stella Abrera experienced a kind of exhaustion she’d never known before. “For 14 years, I got used to gearing up to do one pas de deux or one solo, and I would usually feel fresh beforehand,” says 38-year-old Abrera, who was promoted in 2015. […]