Bayaricshes Stattsballett artist Jeanette Kakareka takes us through a day in her busy life as a professional corps ballerina.…
Wondering what to get the bunhead in your life this Valentine’s Day? When flowers and chocolate just don’t cut it, here are some recommendations for the sissonne-ing significant other in your life.…
Trying to find the perfect dance present for your ballet boo this Christmas? Or maybe you’re looking to treat yo’self this holiday season? We asked our C&V Squad for their ballet favourites, must-haves and covetables in our Cloud & Victory gift guide. From dancewear to training accessories to recovery tools, here are our picks for the best ballet gifts!…
Should I change my job? Should I move? Where do I go next? Is this the right time? What am I doing with my life? Change is inevitable, but seldom easy. In an ongoing series called Movers and Shakers, we’ll be talking to dancers who’ve made changes in their lives and careers to find out what they’ve learnt and what impact it’s had on them. Here, we talk to Patricia Zhou, Prix de Lausanne winner and one of the first…
The dancer’s road back from injury is often fraught with frustration and uncertainty. Ballet dancers immerse themselves so fully in their art that any halt of this pursuit often comes as a rude awakening that extracts as much mentally as it does physically from them. “Will I be able to come back?” “Will I have lost everything?” “Will I be able to regain it?” “WILL I BE ABLE TO COME BACK?” But when an ACL injury hit longtime American Ballet…
This summer, C&V approached Lindsay Thomas, inhouse photographer at Pacific Northwest Ballet, to collaborate with us on a series of photos. I had admired Lindsay’s work for a while – she takes some seriously dreamy photos and has a sense of humour that we at C&V can vibe with (is ‘vibe’ still an acceptable expression? Was it ever?). In fact, we had the exact same idea to make pun-filled, ballet-flavoured Valentine’s day cards. It goes without saying that there are so…
Cloud & Victory brought San Francisco Ballet principal dancer and former Paris Opera Ballet soloist, Mathilde Froustey, to Singapore in April to teach a series of ballet masterclasses. During her time here, we sat down with her to have a dialogue about her perspectives on ballet, her career and the realities and responsibilities of being a professional ballet dancer.…
[Reviewed on 18 March 2017. This article was originally written for and published on the Straits Times (print edition).] Coppelia is a fluffy confection of a ballet, a light-hearted piece that combines comedy and pantomime with classical dance. It tells the story of two young lovers, Swanilda and Franz. Their road to the altar is threatened by Franz’s affection for a mysterious girl in the balcony – Coppélia – who turns out to be a doll. Hijinks and mayhem ensue.…
At C&V, we’re always looking for ways to mashup ballet with everyday things and special occasions. This Valentine’s, we’ve created a series of 5 Valentine’s Day greetings filled with some of our favourite ballet dancers – and puns, of course! What better way to tell the ballet lover in your life how much you cherish them than with a well-chosen ballet pun or two?…
Outwit, outplay, outnut. In this guest post, English National Ballet corps member Jeanette Kakareka shares her tips on surviving a gruelling 48-show season of Nutcracker during the holidays.…
The ballet world rippled with intrigue when it was announced that Staatsballett Berlin’s artistic director, Nacho Duato, would be replaced in 2019 by a duo of Johannes Öhman (current director of the Royal Swedish Ballet) and Sasha Waltz (who heads her own company, Sasha Waltz & Guests). A co-directorship raised eyebrows, but it was the appointment of Waltz, a decidedly avant-garde choreographer whose expertise lay in dance-theater around whom controversy swirled. It was nothing short of a bold move to appoint an…
[Reviewed on 7 December, 2016. This article was originally written for and published on the Straits Times (print and web edition).] The Nutcracker has been considered one of ballet’s most beloved yet most controversial pieces. Russian audiences in the 1800s might have found it acceptable, but in a globalised, culturally aware age, its Eurocentric fetishisation of Eastern cultures has raised eyebrows. Some artistic directors have tried to argue that the ballet’s play on stereotypes is “traditional”, not “racist”. But in…
Hannah O’Neill is a rare gem indeed. A dancer of supreme elegance and grace, she possesses not only the talent, but the mettle to become one of the few foreigners to be accepted into the world-renowned Paris Opera Ballet. She has not just survived, but succeeded as a POB dancer, rising to become a soloist after weathering a rough few early years and the exacting cauldron of POB’s concours, their annual competition on which careers and promotions hinge – it’s…