Musings on ballet, classical music, the violin, and life
Musings of a former ballet dancer who’s returned, years later, to the studio as a student.
Everyone’s asking: will there be a World Ballet Day in 2025? The real one, that is, sponsored by The Royal Ballet, The Australian Ballet and (most recently in 2023) San Francisco Ballet. Yes, you saw “World Ballet Day”s Facebook page, assuring you that it was on for 2025. Woo hoo! Or … ? Sorry to … Read more
No piece of classical music grips my ballet-dancer’s imagination like Aram Khachaturian’s “Waltz” from his Masquerade suite. Like his Piano Concerto that I blogged about HERE in 2017, it doesn’t start so much as drop the listener smack into a musical extravaganza, where the lines between listener and music have been erased and, oh Lord, … Read more
In continuing celebration of ten years of the Ballet Theatre Chronicles, enjoy the first and last book of the series for only 99 cents, through the end of the year! Scroll to the bottom for the four individual links (plus a related book for free!). The adventure started with this, my 2015 New Year’s resolution, … Read more
Marius Petipa’s 1898 classic, Raymonda, has long been due for a reboot. Set during the Crusades, it features a courtly knight and his betrothed, the helpless but beautiful Raymonda. In this current Bolshoi staging, the gallant Jean de Brienne heads off to fight the infidels, leaving Raymonda to fend for herself (or not) against a … Read more
In 2004, San Francisco Ballet’s then-Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson took a creative leap with a new production of the perennially popular Nutcracker. Stakes were high; the San Francisco Ballet was, after all, the first U.S. company to stage and produce a full-length version (based on the Ivanov/Petipa 1892 original), which premiered on Christmas Eve, 1944, there … Read more