The Corps de Ballet News

New York City Ballet will open its 2021-22 season on Tuesday, September 21, 2021 with a four-week Fall Season, presenting its first full-company, live performance in more than 19 months. 

Amar Ramasar will retire from City Ballet in May after 20 years with the company. Ramasar has previously 'accused of sending inappropriate texts and photos of other City Ballet dancers.' His final performance will be Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Betsy McBride, Simon Wexler, and Daniel Saez, will be members of the faculty for the Shreveport Dance Academy’s Summer Intensive which will be taking place from July 26 – August 6, 2021.

Artists from Victoria's diverse arts community have joined forces with some of Melbourne's leading arts organisations to create an awareness campaign encouraging Victorians to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

The Royal Ballet is continuing its commitment to create opportunities for the next generation of dance professionals and today announced joiners for the 2021/22 Season. This year they welcome four dancers to the Company from The Royal Ballet School: Olivia Findley, Ava May Llewellyn, Viola Pantuso and Alix Van Tiggelen. 

The Clive & Valerie Barnes Foundation has announced their Innovation Awards in Dance and Theatre.  Unlike previous years, the Foundation chose to honor one  winner in each category that demonstrated outstanding innovation during the past year.  Each awardee will receive a $5,000 gift.   

Karen Kain, Artistic Director of The National Ballet of Canada, today announced the promotions for the 2021/22 season: Koto Ishihara, Siphesihle November, Tina Pereira, and Ben Rudisin to Principal Dancer, Jeannine Haller and Calley Skalnik to First Soloist and Brenna Flaherty, Noah Parets and Genevieve Penn Nabity to Second Soloist.

Miami City Ballet (MCB) welcomes nine new dancers to the company, bringing this season's roster to 53. Under the artistic leadership of Lourdes Lopez and with a growing repertoire of over 130 works that honor the masters while opening pathways for emerging choreographers, MCB is one of the most celebrated and critically acclaimed ballet companies in the country.

Boston Ballet Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen announces the return to live, in-person performances for the 2021–2022 season. Live performances return in November with Nissinen's The Nutcracker.

San Francisco Ballet brings its extremely successful 2021 Digital Season to a close by revisiting that all-time classic, Swan Lake, in a production choreographed by Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson back in 2009, and captured on video in 2016. Swan Lake is a particular favorite of mine, so I was sincerely looking forward to seeing it again and would love to be able to report that SFB was ending their season on a high note. Alas, that isn’t quite the case here. Instead, it was a little like re-encountering a long-lost friend who is going through a bit of a rough patch. It’s still lovely to see them, but they do seem to be missing some of the spring in their step.

The Joyce Theater Foundation in association with the Argyros Performing Arts Center brings three of the biggest talents from American Ballet Theatre downtown for Neo, a world premiere digital duet. James Whiteside and Isabella Boylston take on their first post-quarantine collaboration in the brand-new choreography from Alexei Ratmansky.

Pacific Northwest Ballet will be bidding an adieux passionnés to principal dancers Jerome Tisserand and Laura Tisserand at the end of the company’s 2020-2021 season: The couple have announced that they will be leaving Seattle this summer, to accept positions with Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo.

The Royal Opera House will continue its #OurHouseToYourHouse programme, featuring online broadcasts that can be accessed by audiences around the world.

San Francisco Ballet has announced two promotions and the appointment of four apprentices for the 2022 Season. Effective July 1, SF Ballet corps de ballet member Jasmine Jimison is promoted to Soloist and apprentice Olivia Brothers is promoted to the corps de ballet. 

New York City Ballet announced today that Principal Dancer Lauren Lovette will give her final performance with the Company at the 2pm matinee performance on Saturday, October 9, dancing Jerome Robbins’ Opus 19/The Dreamer and Alexei Ratmansky’s Namouna, A Grand Divertissement.

Colburn School announced today that dancer, educator, and choreographer Silas Farley, a recent New York City Ballet alumnus, will become Dean of the Trudl Zipper Dance Institute (TZDI), and Darleen Callaghan, former Director of Miami City Ballet School, will become Associate Dean of TZDI, effective July 1, 2021.

San Francisco Ballet just released the second program of its 2021 digital season and it’s a knockout. The mixed-rep program of 3 very different contemporary ballets beautifully shows off the breadth and depth of the company’s artistry. Watching it, I kept saying to myself, “God, they’re good!” The headliner of the program is 'Colorforms,' a stunning world premiere by Myles Thatcher.

We may be in the doldrums of winter right now – with nippy temperatures, dark skies and some much-needed rain – but January also means that San Francisco Ballet (SFB) is back in season for the next several months and, to me, that signifies all’s right with the world. SFB is kicking off its 2021 digital season exactly where it left off last March, when the remainder of its 2020 season was abruptly cancelled for obvious reasons. The company presented an enchanting new production of George Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream only to have the curtain come down on opening night to the news that the just-ended performance would be its last for the season.

Ann Reinking’s kicks, smile, charisma, and passion will have an ever-lasting impact on me and the rest of the Broadway community. May she Rest In Peace.

For those lucky enough to be living under restrictions where you can still visit your local cinema, you can still catch one of the most festive theatrical events of the season; the Bolshoi Ballet’s The Nutcracker, which is screening in selected cinemas on December 20. Of all the many versions of this ballet, the Bolshoi’s is undoubtably one of the most traditional.