Addressing the elegantly dressed audience at the Eissey Campus Theatre on March 20, Ballet Palm Beach’s founder and choreographer, Colleen Smith, said she thought about creating a ballet from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby last season. Written about the excesses of the years after World War I, Smith felt Fitzgerald’s story was really about the American Dream, in … [Read more...]
Joffrey Ballet stunning at Kravis in all-contemporary show
It was a good night at the ballet — a very good night. Playing to a packed house for one performance only, the Joffrey Ballet showed an easy command of the physically demanding and highly technical program it boldly presented March 12 at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts. The calling card of the evening was the line-up of dance makers — a virtual Who’s Who in the new … [Read more...]
Ballet Palm Beach creates dance take on ‘Great Gatsby’
Just before Nick Carraway meets Jay Gatsby in his big mansion on West Egg, the party his neighbor is throwing for a large number of people is in full Roaring Twenties swing. And inevitably, that means dancing, from “old men pushing young girls backward in eternal graceless circles” to “a great number of single girls dancing individualistically,” all of it part of the … [Read more...]
Boca Ballet Theatre to mark 25th with stars they fostered
By Dale King Boca Ballet’s executive director, Dan Guin, feverishly pulled together copies of Dance Magazine covers from the past several years that were strewn across his desk. “He performed here,” he said, poking his finger at the photo of a familiar dance artist. “She did, too,” he said, pointing at another. Guin repeated this action again and again until he singled 27 … [Read more...]
Boca Ballet’s salute to summer sparkles
By Dale King Boca Ballet Theatre wrapped up its 24th season with two memorable performances Aug. 1 and 2 that brought a diversity of talent, elegance and comedy to the stage of the University Theatre at Florida Atlantic University. It featured some top-notch professional dancers along with the 32 aspiring performers from the United States and Canada who were finishing up … [Read more...]
Leading dancers to star in Boca Ballet’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’
Two major ballet dancers will be starring with the Boca Ballet Theatre this month in the company’s production of The Sleeping Beauty, Tchaikovsky and Petipa’s 1890 classic drawn from Charles Perrault’s Mother Goose tales. Dancing the lead role of Aurora will be Bridgett Zehr, a Sarasota-born, Harid-trained dancer who has been a principal dancer with the National Ballet of … [Read more...]
Moscow City Ballet makes mess of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Swan’
By Tara Mitton Catao You are all dressed up. You are going to Dreyfoos Hall to see Swan Lake, the most revered Russian story-ballet, which is being performed by the Moscow City Ballet, a “critically acclaimed” touring Russian ballet company. It is natural to have a certain set of expectations. After all, the house at the Kravis Center is sold out for the one-night show. Then … [Read more...]
Nutcrackering: Ballet companies ready for holiday favorite
All over the country at this time of year, in prop rooms big and small, someone is dusting off the head of the Mouse King. It’s time, in other words, for The Nutcracker, a ballet from Imperial Russia that has been an indelible staple of American culture for decades, an unmistakable sign of the holiday season as familiar as Ebenezer Scrooge and round-the-clock Christmas carols. … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Aug. 9-10
Film: You may remember Swedish director Jan Troell, who made two linked Oscar-nominated films, The Emigrants and The New Land, in the early ’70s. Now 83, he has crafted a stunning, downbeat, history-based film, The Last Sentence, but since the story it relates is Swedish history, it is likely to be unfamiliar to most American viewers. It focuses on a crusading newspaper … [Read more...]
A beautiful visitation for Boca Ballet’s ‘Swan Lake’
It’s too easy to compare the appearance of a major ballerina with a local company to the visitation of a swan, especially when the ballet in question is that of Tchaikovsky. And it also minimizes the contribution of the company itself, which in the case of Boca Ballet Theatre would be distinctly unfair. But this past Saturday night’s mounting of Swan Lake with New York City … [Read more...]