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.
She showed up in London, an apprenticeship with the Royal Ballet secured after her win in the Prix de Lausanne. Bolshoi Ballet had said “no thanks” upon her graduation at their ultra-elite training school. Here in the West, she decided, she would build her career. Shockingly, though, her Royal Ballet contract wasn’t renewed the next year. The English … Read more
Okay, let’s hear your opinion. Is watching a grand, evening-length story ballet on the silver screen better, worse, or the same as the real deal, live onstage before you? My opinion ricochets around, kind of like movie popcorn in its glass case at the concession stand. No, nothing can beat the real deal – nothing! … Read more
Robert Dekkers Jennifer Friel Dille David Fonnegra Tetyana Martyanova Rosselyn Ramirez Derek Sakakura Edward Stegge Mayo Sugano Justin VanWeest Okay, so maybe the title’s sort of a teaser. I mean, certainly, you should watch Diablo Ballet. And the aforementioned dancers are indeed a good reason to go — odds are you’ll see all of them perform, … Read more
The Classical Girl was a concept I’d created on the eve of 2013, a New Year’s resolution of sorts. My ballet novels were long completed, out being shopped, and I missed researching and living inside the dance world far more than I’d anticipated. Further, I knew, as a writer, that it was good to … Read more
My first glimpse of the magic that is “The Kingdom of the Shades” came when I was sixteen, via the opening sequences of the film The Turning Point. The music, the image of twenty-four women attired in white, descending a tiered ramp through silvery lighting, striking arabesques in perfect synchronicity, haunted me. Particularly once I got some … Read more