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"The Devil Ties My Tongue" by Amy Seiwert performed for the SKETCH Series, 2013. Photo by David DeSilva. Courtesy of Amy Seiwert's Imagery

Up to date announcements of company seasons, featured artists and special programming as well as grant of awards such as Princess Grace, or artistic appointments

Pointe Magazine: Susan Jaffe Named Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s New Artistic Director

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By Steve Sucato

14 April 2020

Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre announced today that former American Ballet Theatre principal Susan Jaffe will succeed Terrence Orr as artistic director of the company, effective July 1. Jaffe becomes PBT’s seventh artistic director and only the second female director in the company’s history.

Dubbed “America’s Quintessential American Ballerina” by The New York Times, Jaffe comes to PBT after eight years as dean of the dance program at University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Born and raised in Bethesda, Maryland, Jaffe joined ABT II at age 16, followed by ABT’s corps de ballet in 1980, at age 18. She was promoted to principal dancer just three years later, and was a company star until her retirement in 2002. Jaffe has held a wide range of teaching and leadership positions since then, and has also choreographed for ballet companies and colleges around the country. She recently launched The Effect of Intention, a series of live and online wellness workshops and audio meditations.

Pointe spoke with Jaffe shortly after receiving the news of being named to her first artistic directorship.

Why leave UNCSA?

I love UNCSA and debated leaving, but being the artistic director of a professional ballet company has been a lifelong dream of mine. I knew I would regret it if I didn’t throw my hat in the ring. When the headhunter called to say the search committee had chosen me, I was so overwhelmed with joy and emotion and a little bit of fear. This is a really big deal for me.

What are you most looking forward to?

Being back in the studio. As a dean, I didn’t get to be in the studio as often as I wanted. I am really good in the studio and am thrilled to be able to do that.

…

Giving female choreographers more opportunities is something a lot of companies have embraced; will you and the company be championing any specific interests?

I want to make sure there is a beautiful, diverse pool of choreographers and that be one of the ingredients every time I am making a program.

Read the full article in Pointe.

Dance Magazine: Learning the Principles of Choreography, Alone But Together

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By Marina Harss

13 April 2020

Choreography may be the most social art. A composer can write music alone at her piano; a painter has his paints. But dance requires human bodies sharing space and physical contact, neither of which is possible at the moment. And yet the imagination is a powerful tool. As the choreographer Jessica Lang recently told a group of seven American Ballet Theatre dancers in a Zoom session, “We may not be together, but we get to use our imaginations.”

The dancers’ faces popped up on the screen, each framed by his or her current living arrangements. Some were sitting in living rooms, between the couch and the TV. Others in the kitchen, or in a bedroom. For an hour and a half, they talked, listened, moved.

The session was part of a new initiative connected to ABT Incubator, a choreographic workshop started by the dancer David Hallberg two years ago. That first year, the dancers were simply given time and space to create a dance. Lang, who has been involved since the beginning of the Incubator, felt this wasn’t enough. She suggested that it might be useful to have a forum in which the dancers could be exposed to principles that underpin the creative process.

So this year, ABT introduced a preparatory workshop, ahead of the creation period in the fall. Then COVID-19 happened, and suddenly everyone was stuck at home. Like so much else in people’s lives, the sessions went online. The dancers meet up with Lang on Zoom for an hour and half every Wednesday, for a total of five weeks.

Read the article on Dance Magazine online.

Major Arts/Dance Philanthropist and Misconduct Whistleblower Anne Bass Dies at 78

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According to her partner, Julian Lethbridge, Anne Hendricks Bass has passed away following a battle with cancer. Bass will be remembered, as a patron who, according to the New York Times, “Helped raise the profile of ballet in the United States, harking back to an era when art was viewed as a vehicle for beauty and moral uplift.” Her many philanthropic endeavors spanned from Fort Worth, Texas, all the way to Cambodia, and back to New York City, where her commitment to dance was most profound.

In 1980, Bass became a Board member at New York City Ballet, which she served for the next twenty-five years. Her support of another Lincoln Center establishment, the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library, which “holds the largest archive on the history of dance in the world,” will also remain a steadfast aspect of her legacy.

At DDP, we will also remember Bass as a whistleblower for the misconduct of the former Artistic Director of New York City Ballet Peter Martins, who, Bass alleged, “Inflicted ‘cruel and excessive punishment’ on a student whom he had expelled just a few weeks before graduation.” Sokvannara Sar, the student, was a Cambodian danseur sponsored by Bass at the School of American Ballet. Bass herself had discovered Sar on a trip to Cambodia, and she subsequently plucked him from poverty to ensure he was trained in New York. According to Bass, Martins’ dismissal of Sar from the School was due to “boardroom politics in which he played no part.”

The dance world is today, of course, aware of the severe allegations of abuse and misconduct against Martins, who was retired in 2018 before he could be forced to resign at the company, which is now led by Artistic Director Jonathan Stafford.

Determined in her philanthropy and outspoken against an abuser, DDP mourns Anne Bass’ death alongside our ballet community.

Read the New York Times’ farewell to Bass here.

Dance Magazine: The Dance Performances That Have Gone Online

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By Jennifer Stahl

16 March 2020

As COVID-19 shuts down schools and businesses across the world, just about every upcoming dance performance has been canceled. That means dancers who’ve spent weeks (and sometimes months or years) rehearsing won’t be able share their work with live audiences anytime soon.

But dancers are nothing if not creative. Many have quickly adapted and found ways to put their work online instead. Some companies are offering one-time livestreams to ticket holders, while others are putting up videos on-demand. Many are posting rehearsal clips that were captured before we all started social distancing.


The DDP team is (as always) working from home. During this time of self-isolation and quarentine, we are sharing our favorite videos on Twitter with the hashtag #DDPatHome – check out the posts for some videos of women in ballet: ballerinas, work by female choreographers, leaders, and more. Stahl’s list is a good start – she features women choreographers Mariana Oliviera and Sheena Annalise in her article for Dance Magazine above!

Read the full article on Dance Magazine’s blog.

The Fan Carpet: BalletBoyz To Present Deluxe For BBC Four TV Premiere And Online Screening To Launch Sadler’s Wells Facebook Premieres Series

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26 March 2020

BALLETBOYZ NEW SHOW DELUXE TO AIR ON BBC FOUR FOR THE BBC CULTURE IN QUARANTINE FESTIVAL AND TO BE SCREENED ONLINE TOMORROW EVENING TO LAUNCH SADLER’S WELLS FACEBOOK PREMIERES SERIES

FURTHER DIGITAL WORKS FROM BALLETBOYZ’ VIDEO ARCHIVE PLUS NEW MATERIAL WILL ALSO BE AVAILABLE TO WATCH SOON

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BalletBoyz’ new dance show Deluxe will air on BBC Four for the BBC Culture in Quarantine festival and the production will also be available to view online from Friday 27 March at 7.30pm to launch Sadler’s Wells Facebook Premieres. Following Government advice on Monday 16 March and to protect the safety of audiences, artists and workforce, BalletBoyz cancelled the remaining performances of its 20th anniversary UK Spring Tour but is now able to share the production with audiences watching from home. Deluxe will have its TV premiere on BBC Four and will be available on iPlayer – further details to be announced in due course. Co-producers Sadler’s Wells, where the live show was due to be performed in London this week, will also host Deluxe on its Facebook page this Friday at 7.30pm as the first video of the new Sadler’s Wells Facebook Premieres series where it will be available to watch for one week only. 

Deluxe features three new works choreographed by an all-female team: Ripple, the UK debut of renowned shanghai-based choreographer Xie Xin with music by electronic composer Jiang Shaofeng; Bradley 4:18 by Punchdrunk choreographer Maxine Doyle in a collaboration with Mercury Prize-nominated jazz musician Cassie Kinoshi and inspired by the Kate Tempest track Pictures On A Screen; plus The Intro, a short opening film by emerging choreographer Sarah Golding set to music by SEED Ensemble.

BalletBoyz was founded in 2000 by Artistic Directors Michael Nunn and William Trevitt. Deluxe is the company’s 20th anniversary production and is performed by the current BalletBoyz company which includes Joseph Barton, Benjamin Knapper, Harry Price, Liam Riddick, Matthew Sandiford and Will Thompson plus apprentice Dan Baines.

In addition to Deluxe, BalletBoyz will be sharing further video content online in the coming weeks including excerpts from their past shows, films and documentaries, behind the scenes in rehearsals, plus brand new material online.


Read the full article online here.

Vogue: The Australian Ballet’s Alice Topp on the cancellation of Volt and why you have to see it when it returns

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By Alexia Petsinis

23 March 2020

Only a few days after its Melbourne premiere, The Australian Ballet announced that Volt— its latest contemporary offering—will have its season cancelled as nation-wide precautionary measures are taken against Covid-19. The news has devastated Australia’s tight-knit ballet community, affecting everyone from dancers and choreographers, to loyal ticket-holders who haven’t missed a single production in years.

Alice Topp—Resident Choreographer and Coryphée dancer with The Australian Ballet—is sharing deeply in the company’s disappointment. Topp premiered her work Logos as part of the program, a gutsy, hypnotic piece trading sugar plum fairies for an exploration of how we grapple with our modern demons.

“Obviously we are all gutted by the forced cancellation of the season. We’ve been working so hard, pouring everything into the program and working for over a year on bringing the new piece to life, so it’s devastating to have the shows cancelled,” shares Topp. “But this beast is something well beyond our control and it will only make our return to stage so much sweeter. Everyone is so hungry to get back out there and share with the world what we’ve been working on.”

A triple-bill comprising the works Chroma and Dyad 1929 from acclaimed British choreographer Wayne McGregor, and Topp’s Logos, Volt is a multi-sensory spectacle exploring the trials and complexities of the human condition with explosive power. The piece is a mirror to society, challenging the audience to reflect on our place in the world—our vulnerable bodies, our emotional sensitivities—and how our humanity is ultimately registered in connection with those around us.

Read the rest of the article here.

The Oklahoman: Coronavirus in Oklahoma: Oklahoma City Ballet moves triple bill including world-premiere OKC bombing tribute to new dates and venue

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By Brandy McDonnell

20 March 2020

Oklahoma City Ballet is postponing its “(e)motion(s): A Triple Bill,” which is to include the world premiere of a new short ballet commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, to new dates and times in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. 

The venerable dance company was originally to perform “(e)motion(s): A Triple Bill”  April 17-19 at the Civic Center. Since the weekend corresponds with the 25th anniversary of the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, OKC Ballet Artistic Director Robert Mills said in an autumn interview that he wanted to create a new work not just to memorialize the tragedy but also to celebrate Oklahoma City’s resilience.

 As previously reported, the world premiere piece, titled “A Little Peace,” will be set to music by Oklahoma native and Country Music Hall of Famer Vince Gill.

“I remember his music from that time. I was a fan. He was huge. He pretty much won a Grammy every year in the ’90s. … Most elementally, he’s a beautiful lyricist and an incredible singer,” Mills said in the interview. “I wanted to create something that used the classic ballet idiom in a contemporary way, but something that was extremely unexpected in how it visually looked on the stage.”

Read the full article here.

‘Sleeping Beauty’: State Street Ballet Updates Classic Fairy Tale

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By Daisy Finefrock

09 March 2020

The traditional Sleeping Beauty story presents cultural challenges to a contemporary audience — a stranger kissing an unconscious woman isn’t the heroic gesture it used to be viewed as. Thanks to State Street Ballet, however, female choreographers are coming to Beauty’s rescue. On Saturday, March 14, the company will present the classic Tchaikovsky/Petipa Sleeping Beauty as reimagined for 21st-century audiences of all ages. Choreographers Cecily Stewart MacDougall, Megan Philipp, and Marina Fliagina have taken on the daunting task of adapting the classic ballet version while altering certain details to deliver a message of women’s self-empowerment. 

One of the most eye-catching aspects of this new production comes thanks to UCSB professor Christina McCarthy, who designed a 15-foot wearable dragon to act as sidekick to the wicked fairy, Carabosse. With great props, moving colors, beautiful costumes, and the dancing, this 90-minute version of what was originally a two-and-a-half-hour ballet should keep the kids engaged through every second. 

As part of their popular Family Series, State Street Ballet intends Sleeping Beauty to resonate with all ages. MacDougall pointed out some of her favorite moments to watch for, including the Garland Waltz, during which the prince and Aurora fall in love in the forest; as well as any scene with Carabosse, the Maleficent fairy godmother, and her dragon sidekick. 

Read the full article and see the gallery here.

WBUR: Choreographer Helen Pickett Explores Femininity With Boston Ballet

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Sharon Basco

10 March 2020

Choreographer Helen Pickett approaches her art in an intellectual way. She refers to music, literature, painting, design, philosophy and history. Her latest big project is “The Crucible,” an award-winning full-length work for the Scottish Ballet, on the weighty subject of the Salem witch trials. And yet, there’s something of the flower child in Helen Pickett. Not the flakey kind, but rather a force-of-nature type.

“I always thought I could have been a florist,” Pickett said of her ballet “Petal,” which has been evolving since 2007, and is part of Boston Ballet’s upcoming “Carmen” program. “My brain’s really oriented toward smell and the color, it’s always ignited my sensory system,” she continued. “Nature doesn’t try. It ‘is’ in its vigor and its beauty. It just ‘is.’ And it’s that ‘is’ of nature that inspired ‘Petal.’ The whole exercise of ‘Petal’ is to take the artifice of performing away and give the dancer onstage their individuality, their nature.”

“Petal” is one of two Pickett works included in the “Carmen” program, whose title is also the name of the program’s Bizet-opera-inspired piece by Jorma Elo. Also included is the 1935 classic “Serenade,” the first work George Balanchine choreographed in America.

The company’s stated goal of the “Carmen” program is to explore and celebrate many facets of femininity. How do these four short ballets — two by men and two by a woman — address the subject of being female? How are they all about women?

“Basically, George Balanchine’s ‘Serenade’ is about femininity, it’s about regular women turning into dancers. Epic, classic, the ultimate feminine brilliant ballet,” said Mikko Nissinen, Boston Ballet’s artistic director. “And Helen Pickett is the creative female force, and we see ‘Tsukiyo’ and ‘Petal’ from her. And then there’s another really strong woman, ‘Carmen,’ in the Jorma Elo choreography.”

Click here to read the full article.

Boston Globe: Boston Ballet’s ‘Carmen’ program puts strong women in the spotlight

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By Karen Campbell 

06 March 2020

While it may not have been the initial theme, Boston Ballet’s upcoming “Carmen” program (March 12-22 at the Citizens Bank Opera House) seems to come into focus as a celebration of strong, complex women. In addition to the feisty antiheroine of the title piece by company resident choreographer Jorma Elo, and “Serenade,” George Balanchine’s luminous ode to young ballerinas, award-winning dancemaker Helen Pickett contributes two evocative ballets — “Petal” and “Tsukiyo.”

“It’s a really special program that highlights every aspect of a woman — the sassiness of a woman, the strength, sensuality, camaraderie,” says Boston Ballet principal dancer Lia Cirio, who will perform the role of Carmen as well as dance in both of Pickett’s ballets. “I think it’s a really beautiful, very positive show.”

The evening suggests an evolution of womanhood, beginning with Balanchine’s landmark “Serenade.” The choreographer’s first original ballet created in America, the work is set to Tchaikovsky’s stirring “Serenade for Strings” and was originally created as a lesson in stage technique for aspiring ballerinas. “The whole ballet is about a regular woman turning into a ballerina, and what a masterpiece it is,” says Boston Ballet artistic director Mikko Nissinen. “It is an absolutely gorgeous essence of a woman, of a dream of a woman and dream of a ballet all in one. Every time I watch it, I still find it fresh.”

The evening takes a different turn with the works of Helen Pickett. Boston Ballet gave Pickett her first ever choreographic commission in 2005 and has commissioned five works in total from her. An impressive commitment to Pickett’s talent and artistic development, it has translated into a kind of collaborative dialogue she says she is able to have with dancers she has worked with over many years. “We understand each others’ movement ideas,” she says. “You can have conversations without words. There’s a symbiosis through art, and I really value that.”

In fact, Pickett’s “Petal” comes full circle with the upcoming Boston Ballet presentation. The seeds of the ballet were planted here in 2007 through a grant from the New York Choreographic Institute and resulted in a 10-minute piece for a Boston Ballet in-studio workshop. Pickett later developed the piece into a full ballet for Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, and this marks the first time the complete version of the work will be seen in Boston.

Pickett recalls a key moment of inspiration, walking by a flower shop and being taken by the vibrant explosion of colors. “It was this visceral moment of buds in spring, of life bursting forth,” she says, “and the colors and the kinetic relationship between the dancers came to reflect the vigor of nature.”

The work is not just about the sensory swirl of colors and patterns, Pickett says, but also about communication and connection. “It’s a celebration of the birth of color, the sound and touch of the human being, without which we would all wither.”

Pickett says the intimate duet “Tsukiyo” is also about the power of touch, but in a more sensual vein. She calls it a kind of “fated meeting” freighted with anticipation. “I want audiences to live in the possibility of what can happen between two people.”

Nissinen calls it “very steamy, very personal.” He adds with a laugh, “The funnest compliment I heard from someone was that after watching it, they felt like they needed a cigarette.”

Read the full article online here.