Laurretta Summerscales sits next to me on a snug loveseat in her dressing room, curled up under a pink shawl. The English National Ballet principal has just completed the second show in a series of gala performances in Singapore. Performing five shows in 3 days while dealing with jetlag left most of the performers fairly tuckered out by the end, but even though she had just stepped off the stage 15 minutes ago, Laurretta still sparked with energy, a warm…
A personal anecdote on body image, ballet, sport and anorexia that was original posted on the C&V instagram. Something happened to me last week – I was at gymnastics, feeling particularly tired and nibbling at chocolate to keep my energy and focus up. My coach looked over and said half-jokingly, ‘stop eating! When I first came to the gym, you were so skinny! And now, because of chocolate…’ I was too taken aback to do anything but laugh and say…
The instagram video of Ashley Bouder performing multiple pirouettes while 6 months pregnant may seem extraordinary to us mortals, but it’s par for the course for her. Ashley is known for her quick-footed and explosive dancing ability, and sometimes her falls – affectionately known as the ‘Bouder falls’ – because it’s impossible to defy gravity so spectacularly without taking a tumble once in a while. Her high-octane onstage persona is just as much a reflection of what she’s like offstage:…
Gillian Murphy is an icon of American ballet. A principal dancer with the American Ballet Theater for more than a dozen years, she and her then-boyfriend (now husband) Ethan Stiefel were considered ballet’s golden couple when they danced together and Gillian is, in her own right, supremely accomplished – a slew of accolades are a testament to this, as are the glowing reviews for her various performances. Her potrayal of Odette/Odile in Swan Lake is considered particularly special, so much so…
In August this year I had the chance to catch up with my friend, Birmingham Ballet artist Miko Fogarty. She told me she would be in Taiwan and would be game for a shoot and lunch, so a furious few days were spent mulling over a concept and cobbling together moodboards, styling looks and conversing with a photographer – the always reliable Puzzleman Leung, who was happily free on the day – and the next thing I knew, I was…
We recently launched the Cloud & Victory Fall/Winter 2015 collection, which features a ‘Mean Girls’ twist on ballet this season – something that was probably fairly inevitable, given my inability to divorce C&V from ballet humour and pop-culture references.…
It’s strange to hear someone describe themselves as old when they’re just a smidge over 30, but Marijn Rademaker does so, matter-of-factly and without a hint of irony in his voice. It’s true, in a manner of speaking. While no one would seriously consider a person to be old at 33 years of age, ballet, like every other highly athletic occupation, is progressively unkinder on one’s body as the years go by. Not that anyone would think Marijn’s age is any limit on…
Keenan Kampa is the coolest. Watch a video of her dancing onstage, and she radiates the loveliness of a classically-trained dancer. All effort and hard work is hidden beneath a veneer of calmness and grace honed from years of ballet training, and refined in the notoriously exacting Vaganova Academy in Russia. Offstage, she exudes another sort of coolness – an effortless, off-the-moment chicness of someone who marches to the beat of her own drum. One only need to look at her breadth of…