The Corps de Ballet News

Watching Bolshoi Ballet's Don Quixote is like watching Usain Bolt running for his gold medal in an Olympic game, or Lewis Hamilton winning Formula One.

This version of Don Quixote may be good enough for people who casually hop around the realm of ballet and other performing arts, but it is not preferred by classical ballet lovers.

It has been announced that ballet star Robert Fairchild has been added to the cast of the upcoming film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's CATS.

The Maggie Allesee Department of Theatre and Dance, a program within the College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts at Wayne State University, is thrilled to kick off our year-long 90 Years of Dance at Wayne celebration with the annual December Dance Concert, December 7 and 8 at Detroit's Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts.  This year's show promises diverse and moving works showcasing highlights of dance through the decades. Dance students have the pleasure of working with a variety of talented artists, including invited guests, esteemed faculty, and talented student choreographers.

Writer/comedienne/best-selling author Sandra Tsing Loh will be reviving her expanded version of her once one-woman show SUGAR PLUM FAIRY at the Skylight Theatre beginning November 24, 2018; with opening night set for December 1st. I grabbed the chance to delve into Sandra's most witty psyche on her creative processes leading up to her now three-person FAIRY.

American Repertory Ballet (ARB) is thrilled to announce that New York City Ballet dancers Unity Phelan and Joseph Gordon will perform the roles of the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier in ARB's Nutcracker for two performances on Friday, November 23 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, NJ. For tickets, mccarter.org or 609.258.2787.

A&A BALLET (A&A), under the artistic direction of Anna Reznik and Alexei Kremnev, has announced the principal casting for "The Art Deco Nutcracker" (© 2017 Alexei Kremnev), which will be performed at Chicago's Studebaker Theatre at 410 S. Michigan Ave, November 30-December 2, 2018.

This November and December, American Repertory Ballet (ARB) presents its annual production of the holiday classic, Nutcracker, at five venues throughout New Jersey. To kick off the 2018 Nutcracker season, ARB welcomes special guest New York City Ballet Soloist and Princeton Ballet School alum Unity Phelan in the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy for two performances at McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton on Friday, November 23 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Oakland University's School of Music, Theatre and Dance will present Envisioning Marche Funebre: A Study in the Early Choreography of George Balanchine at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 3 in the Oakland Center Banquet Rooms.

Sarasota Ballet Presents Iconographic

Fancy Free established Jerome Robbins' as a groundbreaking American choreographer. In this installment of Anatomy of a Dance, Corps de Ballet Member Sebastian Villarini-Velez talks about his showy solo as a debonair sailor.

It can be a rarity, but every so often, perhaps once a year if you're lucky, you stumble across a work so sublime it leaves you a little stumped as to how to describe it. Unfortunate when you need to review it, however. English National Ballet's Lest We Forget first opened in 2014, marking the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the first World War. Just two years into Tamara Rojo's tenure as Artistic Director, it was a bold statement about where the company was heading. Four years later it sits proudly in their repertoire, a modern masterpiece to absorb, devour and shed a tear.

Karen Kain, Artistic Director of The National Ballet of Canada announced today that Corps de Ballet members Hannah Galway and Alexander Skinner are the winners of the sixth annual RBC Emerging Artist Apprentice Award for their performances as Apprentices during the 2017/18 season. Ms. Galway and Mr. Skinner each received a $1,000 cash prize. The awards were presented in Toronto this evening by Artistic Director, YOU dance / Principal Ballet Master Lindsay Fischer and Flora Do, VP, Strategy and Client Insights, RBC Wealth Management, during the Patrons' Council 2018/19 season opening party. 

Pacific Ballet Dance Theatre (PBDT), led by Natasha Middleton, Artistic Director and Choreographer will kick off its 17th Anniversary Season with a Southern California Tour of the full-length ballet 'CARMEN,' based on Georges Bizet's opera and Prosper Merimee's original story with Special String and Percussion Musical Arrangements conceived by Rodion Shehedrin, starring Elen Harutyunyan as Carmen, Gregori Arakelyan as Don Jose, Preston Swovelin as Escamillo, Damara Titmus as Micaela and Alexander Fost as Remendado.

Karen Kain, Artistic Director of The National Ballet of Canada today announced that Night, by Canadian choreographer and former National Ballet dancer Julia Adam, will make its company premiere during the Winter Season. Night will be performed with Apollo, The Sea Above, The Sky Below and Paquita March 1 - 3 and March 20 - 21, 2019 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.

Robert Fairchild made his Broadway debut in 2015 with his breakout role as 'Jerry Mulligan' in the Tony Award-winning musical AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, which he reprised in London in 2017. He was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance By An Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical and the Evening Standard Award for Outstanding Performance, and won the 2015 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Outstanding Actor in a Musical, the 2015 Astaire Award for Best Male Dancer, the 2015 Theatre World Award, and the National Dance Award UK. He was also nominated for the 2015 Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance.

The Washington Ballet is excited to launch its season opener TWB Welcomes at the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater. The program, which includes acclaimed highlights from choreographers Alexei Ratmansky and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, as well as iconic masterworks (likeSerenade and Les Sylphides), provides a highly curated production that defines ballet as an art form over the last century. TWB Welcomes is named so because the company will play host to the audience and also welcome internationally recognized stars of the dance world who will share the stage as guest artists alongside TWB dancers.

Pacific Ballet Dance Theatre (PBDT), led by Natasha Middleton, Artistic Director and Choreographer will kick off its 17th Anniversary Season with a Southern California Tour of the full-length ballet 'CARMEN,' based on Georges Bizet's opera and Prosper Merimee's original story with Special String and Percussion Musical Arrangements conceived by Rodion Shehedrin, starring Elen Harutyunyan as Carmen, Gregori Arakelyan as Don Jose, Preston Swovelin as Escamillo, Damara Titmus as Micaela and Alexander Fost as Remendado.

The Phantom is back, and he's here to bring you dreams and nightmares, music and mystery, opulence and wrath. Cameron Mackintosh's production of The Phantom of the Opera at the Paramount Theatre is a masterpiece of spectacle. From heavily adorned costumes to pyrotechnics to shimmering chandeliers, this show sparkles from top to bottom. The Phantom of the Opera has long reigned as one of the jewels in the pantheon of musical theater. The current national tour retains the beauty of the old while incorporating new technical marvels. The sets and costumes are fit for a palace while the staging ensures that the story is not lost among the grandeur. Compelling and mesmerizing, Phantom hits all the high notes.