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A biography of the start of a brilliant season
New York Ballet
Marketing major with a serious dance background
Bonnie Harris
Patricia Delgato shares her secrets to her performance
The Charm Factor
DECEMBER 2012
POINTE MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2012. On the cover BONNIE HARRIS photographed by MATTHEW CONWAY
3. THE CHARM FACTOR
11. A SENSATIONAL SEASON
14. HEIGHT & ARTISTIC ADVANTAGE
Miami Ballet’s own Patricia Delgado talks about her path into fame, her expectations, and her indifference to certain dance choreography and curriculums.
New York City’s own famed ballet prepares for another magnificent season. Peek into the world of fantasy, talent, and sheer creativity.
Teresa Reichlen talks about her past, her present, and her future when it comes to dance and explains the disadvantage that makes her the best.
5. BONNIE HARRIS Miami Ballet’s own Patricia Delgado talks about her path into fame, her expectations, and her indifference to certain dance curriculums.
OTHER FEATURES 15. Ballet Injuries 17. Call Board
THE CHARM FACTOR
Miami City Ballet’s Patricia Delgato What it takes to stand out. by ROBERT GOTTLIEB
I turned up one morning to watch Eddie Villella’s company class at Miami City Ballet, as I do most mornings when I’m in Miami, and there at the barre was a dancer I’d never seen before—a ravishingly beautiful girl with immense natural charm who was working as hard, or harder, than anyone else in the room. After watching her for 10 minutes I sidled over to Villella and whispered, “Who is that girl? She’s a star! Give her everything!” He’s used to tolerating my enthusiasms, but it was also clear that he didn’t totally disagree, even though he wasn’t going to say so. Her name was Patricia Delgado, he told me. She was 17, and she was an apprentice at the company, where Villella is artistic director. When later in the day I said more or less the same thing to Linda Villella, Eddie’s wife, who runs the company’s school, she just laughed and said, “Wait till you see her sister, Jeanette. She’s just as good!” I didn’t =believe it—until I saw Jeanette in action when she came along two years later. The Delgado sisters are not only extraordinary dancers, they’re extraordinary young women: ballerinas without a trace of pretension, self-satisfaction or opportunism. The reason isn’t hard to find, once you know their parents. Millie (Migdalia) is a psychologist with a PhD from the University of Miami; Zeke (Ezequiel), with a bachelor’s of science in industrial engineering and a master’s in education, is a math teacher. Like their daughters, they’re both completely grounded—as far from traditional ballet parents as it’s possible to get. When Patricia said she wanted to go to ballet school, that was fine with them—and it would have been just as fine if she’d wanted to take up water-skiing or raise chickens. The senior Delgados saw, and see, their job as being there to support and advise their girls (when asked). At a crucial moment when Patricia had to decide whether to focus on dancing or to pursue an academic path (she was always at the top of her class), they helped clarify her choices and stood back. Luckily, Patricia knew that deep down she wanted to dance–not to be a ballerina, not to be a star, but to dance. And Jeanette wanted to do whatever her big sister was doing–never in a spirit of competition but in emulation. “I’m so lucky,” she says, “to have my older sister as my best friend.” Millie’s family emigrated to Miami from Cuba soon after Castro came to power, when some family property was nationalized. They never regretted it; there’s none of that nostalgia for the old days. The girls, of course, are Miami-born and bred, went to Miami public schools, and led normal young American lives—with friends, activities and, in Jeanette’s case, dates. Patricia’s first and only date was with Matthew, a boy she met in high school, and that was that—a
year ago they were married. There have been only two major obstacles in Patricia’s professional life. One was a serious injury that kept her offstage, her foot in a boot, for an entire season. The other was worrying whether Matt, who had a good job in New York, could find an equally good job back in Miami. The alternative was too painful to consider, but Patricia—the realistic daughter of realistic parents—had to consider it. Everyone breathed a lot easier when the job came through. Leaving Miami City Ballet would have been an emotional disaster for Patricia (not a professional one; any ballet company would be happy to have her). “I feel like a deep-rooted part of Edward’s company, of the creativity here, of the family environment. This is my place.” Villella returns the feeling: “She’s a total dancer,” he says. “She can grow in every direction. And apart from her extraordinary abilities, she’s such a delightful personality—she lights up any room she’s in, be it class, rehearsal or onstage.” Observing her progress these past 10 years, I’ve noticed that even other dancers who might be envious of what she’s achieved have nothing negative to say about her as a person, although for a while
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there were remarks about her “weak” feet. Needless to say, she worked on them obsessively, and a year ago had a difficult operation to relieve her of almost constant pain: A small extra bone—it’s called an os trigonum—was removed from her ankle. For the first time, she now feels absolutely free to dance full-out, to stretch her technique without fear of hurting herself. You could see the difference this past season: She was not only radiant, but at 27, she was finally fully secure. Her range is already large. How many dancers go effortlessly from the “Man I Love” pas de deux in Who Cares? to “Sanguinic” in The Four Temperaments to In the Upper Room? She’s classical— Swanilda, Kitri, eventually Giselle—and she’s down and dirty: the sexy lead in Paul Taylor’s Piazzolla Caldera. And surely she’ll be one of the Juliets in the company’s upcoming production of the John Cranko version of the ballet. She also hopes to push herself in the direction of the pyrotechnical Balanchine ballets like Ballo della Regina and Ballet Imperial—in a way, Jeanette’s turf. Usually, it
doesn’t serve sisters well to work in the same company, but the Delgados’ dance temperaments are so different that there’s no problem. Jeanette has a thrillingly blithe propulsiveness and rock-solid technique. It’s Patricia’s refinement, repose and allure that instantly grab the audience’s attention, and hold it. In Miami City Ballet, there’s room for them both. Although Patricia is such an integral part of the repertoire now, she remains eager and modest. “I’ve never thought of what I do as ‘a career.’ I’ve always only wanted to dance wonderful roles. And one of the great things about Miami is that we don’t perform anything but the best choreography: Balanchine, Taylor, Tharp (we had a fabulous time with her when she was down here creating Nightspot on us), Robbins, the classics. I just go on working on my feet, on my line, hoping like everyone else that I’ll be cast. continued on page 28...
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KEPT TRADITION
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onnie Harris’s pointe shoe swings inches from the ceiling of a corner studio at Richmond Ballet, as partner Fernando Sabino presses her through a lift, her body arched across his hand. After a slow spin down, the pas de deux continues through shifting romantic moods—lyrical and earnest, charming and flirtatious—punctuated by more gravity-defying lifts. Harris and Sabino are rehearsing ballet master Malcolm Burn’s Pas Glazunov under the gaze of artistic associate Igor Antonov. At the end of the run, Antonov mentions to Harris that a pirouette seemed late; she says quickly, “Yes, I felt it.” Harris, 26, generates crackling energy from within her small frame. Her vivacity makes you want to run up and hug her onstage sometimes. In sprightly roles such as the mischievous Swanhilda, she brims with comic energy. She dances an elegant and gracious Sugar Plum Fairy, skimming joyfully through her grand jetés. But audiences love best her rippling, smoldering snake in the Arabian Dance. And in a contemporary work such as Ma Cong’s Luminitza, she spirals and arcs through luscious partnering sequences.“Her range, both technically and emotionally, is very impressive,” says Stoner Winslett, artistic director of Richmond Ballet. “There’s a deep honesty about her performance.” Richmond Ballet is particularly proud of Harris’s accomplishment, since she is a homegrown talent. She started dancing at age 3 in a local studio, and by age 5 her mother enrolled her at the School of Richmond Ballet. She came up through the school, served her time as a trainee, then an apprentice, and joined the company six years ago. “You were immediately drawn to her…a little sparkle going on there,” remembers Burn.
her career, she has participated in every aspect of RB, even the Minds in Motion program, which brings dance to children in area schools. When the program came to Richmond Montessori School, where Harris was in upper elementary class, she says, “I remember thinking it was so cool to see my ‘regular’ friends doing dance moves.”
As a young teenager Harris rode horses, played piano, and roller-skated. “But ballet was always my favorite,” she says. “There was no question that eventually it would take over, once I was allowed to take more classes.”
In the midst of her apprenticeship, Small tried college for one year at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. “After my first apprentice year it was really hard to decide what to do,” she says, “because it was important to my mom that I went to school, and I didn’t want to. I was happy dancing all day long, and it was really difficult because the company offered me a position and I didn’t know what to do. You know… you want to make your family happy. So I said, OK, I’ll go to school.”
Harris feels a tremendous respect for her teachers at RB. She took as many classes as she could, and even though she’d audition for summer intensives, she ended up staying in Richmond for the chance to work with Burn, who doesn’t teach in the school during the year. Over the course of
Harris was not particularly happy at Tisch. She was not interested in choreographing, for example, which was a big part of the program. After the first year, she called Winslett and asked to return to finish her apprenticeship. Winslett was able to make it happen, and Harris has not looked back.
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“They throw themselves into the emotional work full-out, breathless and sweaty by the end.”
Growing up at RB has yielded some magical experiences for her, including the chance to work with Antonov, a dancer she had idolized as a child. During her apprenticeship, she remembers, “I was giggly excited to be in the studio with him.” Later, “It was really cool to dance with Igor. For his retirement performance [last fall] I got to dance Who Cares? with him. And it was sort of like a pinch-yourself moment, even now when I’ve been in the company with him for so long.”
tently. Says Winslett about her 14-member, unranked troupe, “In a small company like this we usually move people around, and we never purposely try to develop partnerships. But they’ve been put together a lot, and work together beautifully.” Sabino enjoys their complementary styles. “We are completely different,” he says. “But when we are together we become one. I like a lot of improvisation, and she likes to
Back in the studio, Harris and Sabino take a few minutes to work on another lift from Pas Glazunov, with help from Antonov. Harris is concerned about her balance at the top of the lift; Sabino is not sure if he can slow down and still manage to press her to full extension. Harris’s partnership with Sabino has developed almost inadver-
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be told what to do. It’s a good marriage. I go with her, and she goes with me.” They call each other “work husband” and “work wife,” though their relationship remains platonic. Harris has been dating RB dancer Thomas Garrett for several years. They are rarely partnered, however. “Tommy and I don’t dance together very much,” says Harris, who is 5’ 5”. “He’s real tall, and there are a lot of tall girls here. I’m little.” After going through Pas Glazunov, Harris and Sabino run
After Eden for Burn. They are rehearsing for the company’s London debut in June. They throw themselves into the emotional work full-out, breathless and sweaty by the end. Burn compliments them and gives a few notes. Later, he says of Harris, “She’s always been wonderfully open to try anything—and laugh while she’s doing it. She’s gutsy and courageous. You can take her and throw her into the air, and she’ll go ‘Wheee!’ as she comes flying down.”
interpretations on DVD and she read up on the history of dolls. “I had a lot of fun researching automatons,” she says. “It was really creepy. But it’s difficult to decide how you’re going to be a girl, or a doll, or a girl being a doll.”
During the summer she explores other opportunities, such as the National Choreographers Initiative, in which she participated for three years as a dancer, and this summer she performed with Jessica Lang’s new company at Jacob’s Pillow.
Burn appreciates the dancer’s intelligence and versatility. “Bonnie continues to surprise me. I don’t think there’s any limit to what she will be able to accomplish.”
Eve, in After Eden, is Harris’s favorite role. “I really love that the steps come from the character and the character comes from the steps,” she says. “It can be different every time— there’s room to make it my own without feeling like I’m not being true to the choreography.” When studying a new role, Harris calls herself “a homework girl.” For Coppélia, in which she performed last February, she studied other dancers’
Harris loves the challenge of RB’s repertoire. If she were in a bigger company, she says, “I wouldn’t get to do what I do here. There are days when I cannot possibly give any more. I would love to sit down for an hour. But whenever we actually get that break, I think, ‘Oh, I’m
But she is always glad to return to RB. “I dance with people I like, for people I like, in my hometown. My family is here. I work with my boyfriend every day, and he’s happy. It’s a real good gig.”
so bored. I should probably go run something downstairs.’ It’s just the way I enjoy dancing— dancing a lot.”
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THE NEW YORK CITY BALLET
Setting an unprecidented standard 3 festivals, 1 magnificaent fantasy The New York City Ballet has prepared its 2012/2013 season to remind viewers why they are one of the foremost dance companies in the world. With three lead performances backed by outstanding talent, this season looks to become of the most memorable for the company. From a simple Pas De Deux to the monstrous American Music Festival production, the New York City Ballet continues to further its reputation.
STRAVINSKY/BALANCHINE The Collaboration (September 18-30) New York City Ballet opens the 2012-13 Season in tribute to one of the 20th Century’s greatest creative collaborations—two weeks of Stravinsky/Balanchine programs chronicling an unparalleled partnership and the ballets that continue to exhilarate.
Sept 18, 19, 21, 22 Eve, 23 GREEK TRILOGY Apollo Orpheus Agon
Throughout his career George Balanchine was continually inspired by Igor Stravinsky’s music, presenting two landmark Stravinsky Festivals in 1972 and 1982 that included works by multiple choreographers. Now, for the first time ever, the Company presents 12 Stravinsky/Balanchine ballets in a two-week period. From Greek mythology and Russian fairytales to the streamlined, black and white neoclassical masterpieces that were the apex of their partnership, these ballets, along with Rubies, also presented this fall, represent the brilliant ballets of their groundbreaking collaboration.
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Sept 22 Mat, 25, 27, 28 SCHERZO À LA RUSSE Divertimento from “Le Baiser de la Fée Danses Concertantes Firebird Sept 26, 29 Mat & Eve, 30 BLACK & WHITE Stravinsky Violin Concerto Monumentum pro Gesualdo Movements for Piano and Orchestra Duo Concertant
TSCHAIKOVSKY Celebration (January 15-27 & February 13-24) Highlighting the winter is a four-week celebration devoted to Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky, whose expressive melodies have captivated listeners and the imagination of choreographers for over a century.
Jan 15, 16, 18, 19 Eve, 26 MAY SERANADE Mozartiana Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2
Following the Company’s annual run of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker™, the Tschaikovsky Celebration begins with three stunning programs bringing together nine of Balanchine’s Tschaikovsky works, including Serenade and Mozartiana, the first ballet Balanchine choreographed in America and his last great masterwork, in addition to his one-act version of Swan Lake with a corps of sleek black swans. The third program will also include a premiere by Peter Martins to musical selections from Tschaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin.
Jan 17, 19 Mat, 20, 22, 23 SWAN LAKE Allegro Brillante Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3
A feast for the eyes and ears, New York City Ballet’s full-length staging of The Sleeping Beauty concludes the winter with 14 performances. One of the Company’s grandest productions, this charming fairytale focuses the audience’s attention on Martins’ enchanting choreography, luxurious sets and costumes, Tschaikovsky’s glorious score, and a cast of fanciful characters.
Feb 13-24 The Sleeping Beauty
Jan 24, 25, 26 Eve, 27 DIVERTIMENTO from “LE BAISER DE LA FÉE” Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux Waltz of the Flowers Diamonds
AMERICAN MUSIC Festival (April 30-May 19) In the spring, New York City Ballet celebrates its affair with American music, a passion first shared by Founding Choreographers Balanchine and Robbins and continued by Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins. With 18 composers, these three weeks will be a festival of American music like no other. From Balanchine’s light-hearted, Americana–inspired Western Symphony and Stars and Stripes to Jerome Robbins’ ever-popular Broadway ballets Fancy Free and West Side Story Suite, the works onstage during the spring bring the American spirit to life. Contemporary music reigns in choreography by Peter Martins, who has set his works to scores by over 30 American composers, and former NYCB Principal Benjamin Millepied, who has created works with frequent collaborator Nico Muhly for American Ballet Theatre, the Dutch National Ballet, and the Paris Opera Ballet. From Duke Ellington to John Adams, there’s something for all audiences to explore during this three-week tribute to American music.
Apr 30, May 1, 4 Mat, 11 ALL BALANCHINE Who Cares? Ivesiana Tarantella Stars and Stripes May 2, 5, 7 ALL RODGERS Thou Swell Carousel (A Dance) Slaughter on Tenth Avenue May 3, 4 Eve, 8 ALL ROBBINS Interplay Fancy Free I’m Old Fashioned
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May 10, 11 Eve, 12 BALANCHINE & ROBBINS: MASTERS AT WORK Western Symphony N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz Glass Pieces May 14, 18 ALL MARTINS Calcium Light Night River of Light Barber Violin Concerto Fearful Symmetries May 15, 17 CONTEMPORARY COMPOSERS Two Hearts New Wheeldon May 16, 18 Eve, 19 Sophisticated Lady The Infernal Machine Purple
Height & Artistic Advantage By GIA KOURLAS
“...it was apparent that she had blossomed, surpassing or at the very least proving herself to be an equal...”
Teresa Reichlen is a rarity at New York City Ballet, though for more than her angelic face, long legs and soaring jump, which manages to spring up and float in the air like silk. What’s unusual about Ms. Reichlen is that in the arduous quest to become a ballerina at a competitive and grueling company like City Ballet, her delicacy hasn’t turned into brittleness. Since being named a soloist in 2005 she has preserved her poise and attained a new rigor in her technique. “It took me a long time to realize that you can try too hard onstage,” she said after a company class one day last month at the New York State Theater. “Sometimes you just have to settle down. I would always have good shows when I was really tired, and I think it’s because I just did what I had to do.” She smiled. “Experience is a big thing,” she said, “and I guess I’m starting to finally have some of that after seven years.” Her height makes her regal authority all the more apparent. Ms. Reichlen can’t hide. She is tall: 5 foot 9 before rising on point. While such stature does leave her out of the running for certain roles, it can also be an advantage. To enhance her dancing with a touch of rubato — a kind of teasing or playing with the music — she uses her elegant limbs to slow down moments or stretch them out like taffy. Unlike other classical companies, City Ballet traditionally has a fair share of parts for tall women. (Suzanne Farrell, after all, originated many of them.) Since joining the company Ms. Reichlen has performed Balanchine roles in the repertory that are generally reserved for taller dancers or don’t require partnering: memorably the statuesque sexpot in the “Rubies” section of “Jewels,” which she will perform Friday and Saturday nights; Dewdrop in “The Nutcracker”; the second female lead in “Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2”; and the leader of the Wrens in “Union Jack.” But she is also easing into pas de deux roles. When the company was in residence at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center last summer, she performed “Stars and Stripes,” opposite both Stephen Hanna and Charles Askegard, and last month she again danced the Sugarplum Fairy in “The Nutcracker.” “She’s so tall, but it’s not hard to dance with her because she’s so light and right on top of her leg,” Mr. Hanna said. “She doesn’t lean to the right or to the left. She’s very willowy, but the thing that’s great about it is that she has this powerful jump that comes out of nowhere.” Ms. Reichlen is often cast second or third in roles, often behind another tall dancer, Maria Kowroski, but she doesn’t consider her height a detriment as long as taller partners are available. continued on page 28
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Ballet Injuries
“Swan Lake” and “Sleeping Beauty” may be as tough opponents as the Supersonics or the Steelers. Psychologists trying to understand the factors that put athletes and performers at risk for injuries have found that professional ballet dancers get hurt just as often and suffer just as serious injuries as athletes in contact sports. According to a 2005 study by H. Laws about dancers’ health and injury in the UK
80% of dance professionals and the same proportion of vocational dance students reported at least one injury in the previous year of dancing
17% of professional ballet dancers, 13% of professional contemporary dancers and 10% of vocational dance students overuse drugs and alcohol
9% of professional ballet dancers, 5% of professional contemporary dancres and 19% of vocational dance students have eating problems
80%
43% 32% 43% of professional ballet dancers, 32% of professional contemporary dancers and 42% of vocational dancestudents suffer from depression
17% 9%
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Call Board
A guide to the going-ons in the dance world
ABT TO URUGUAY: MARIA RICCETTO
MILLEPIED PREMIERES LA DANCE PROJECT Black Swan choreographer and former New York City Ballet principal Benjamin Millepied will raise the profile of Los Angeles dance this September, when his L.A. Dance Project debuts at the city’s Walt Disney Concert Hall. The program, commissioned by L.A.’s Music Center, includes a Millepied world premiere, William Forsythe’s Quintett and Merce Cunningham’s Winterbranch. Millepied shares directorship of LADP, which is more an international collective than a dance company, with Dutch producer Charles Fabius, American composer Nico Muhly and two fellow Frenchmen, art consultant Matthieu Humery and film producer Dmitri Chamblas. “They all bring different ideas to the table,” Millepied says. One of the ideas is to delve deeply into modern dance. “I studied Cunningham for a year; I almost left NYCB for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company at one point,” he recalls. Millepied counts LADP’s dancers, a small group that includes Frances Chiaverini and Nathan Makolandro, among his collaborators. “When you only hire seven dancers, you need really strong individuals,” he says. “Every single one of them has to be striking and different, with really good technique and a specific quality. We will also let them choreograph within the company and develop their creative talent.” Along with restaging major modern works, LADP will create contemporary ballets and experimental site-specific pieces—such as one in development for L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art—and tour to Paris’s Théâtre du Châtelet, Lyon’s Maison de la Danse and London’s Sadler’s Wells. They’re ambitious plans for a company that’s starting small. “This is a big experiment for all of us,” Millepied says. “But I think we’ll all enjoy doing it, and hopefully it will last.”
American Ballet Theatre soloist Maria Riccetto will “have an adventure,” as she says, next season: Beginning in August, she’ll become a guest principal with Uruguay’s Ballet Nacional del Sodre, directed by former ABT principal Julio Bocca, for a year. The Uruguayan dancer has done a few guest performances with the company since Bocca became its director in 2010. “I’ve been thinking for a while now about how much I enjoy working oneon-one with Julio,” she says. “Dancing principal roles with Ballet Nacional challenges me in a way that I’m not challenged right now at ABT. This year will help me grow as an artist.” She’s expecting to dance in productions of The Merry Widow, The Nutcracker and Swan Lake during her time as guest principal. Riccetto says the decision to move was completely her own: She approached Bocca, who was enthusiastic, and ABT director Kevin McKenzie, who was “supportive and gracious enough to grant me the one-year leave of absence,” she says. “I’ve been with ABT for 14 years now, and it’s become a family for me. I’m not ready to leave that all behind just yet. So to have the safety net of being able to come back after the year is great.” That said, Riccetto is excited to spend time with her real family in Uruguay. “My sister is pregnant, and I’m thrilled that I’ll get to be there with her for the whole experience,” she says. “I haven’t been with my family for almost half of my life, and I can’t wait to share my career with them. They’ll be able to see me in every production.”
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GOING VIRAL
FÊTING FORTY
A CHANCE TO DANCE
Noémie Lafrance’s work, in which dancers have scaled buildings, performed in empty swimming pools, and “melted” while perched on a brick wall, evokes a visceral response. Her latest project, Choreography for Audiences, uses technology to incorporate the public into the performance. When reserving tickets to the concert (Sept. 15– 16), individuals were given a secret website link with instructions about the roles they will play in the piece. Lafrance also plans to film the performances and distribute the footage online, adding another layer of audience members. www.sensproduction.org.
Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal’s home season at the Théâtre Maisonneuve is especially sweet this year, as the edgy company celebrates 40. The program includes Benjamin Millepied’s duet Closer with the luminous Céline Cassone and recent Juilliard grad Alexander Hille; Fuel, by Cayetano Soto; and a premiere by Barak Marshall for the full company (set to a mash-up of jazz, Israeli folk music, and traditional Québécois music). Sept. 27–29. The company will tour nationally and internationally this fall, including a run at the Joyce in New York beginning Oct. 30. www.bjmdanse.ca.
“So You Think You Can Dance” fans, set your DVRs: “SYTYCD” producer Nigel Lythgoe’s latest project, “A Chance to Dance,” premieres August 17 on Ovation. The reality show follows Royal Ballet alums Michael Nunn and William Trevitt—better known as The BalletBoyz—as they construct a new troupe, called theCompany. (Eight of the group’s dancers will be the opening act on the 32-city “SYTYCD” tour.) While theCompany’s members specialize in a range of styles, there will be plenty to keep ballet fans interested—including the charismatic BalletBoyz themselves.
VARIETY AT VAIL
VALENTINO FOR NYCB
This year’s Vail International Dance Festival lineup includes a new work by Christopher Wheeldon for former Graham dancer FangYi Sheu and New York City Ballet’s Wendy Whelan, Tyler Angle and Craig Hall; a “Dance TV” program featuring performers from “Dancing with the Stars” and “So You Think You Can Dance,” as well as NYCB’s Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild; and the ever-popular International Evenings of Dance.
New York City Ballet continues to celebrate couture this September at its fall gala, which honors designer Valentino Garavani. The fashion icon will create costumes for three works by Peter Martins and a new pas de deux by Christopher Wheeldon. NYCB will also perform “Rubies” from Balanchine’s Jewels as a tribute to the designer’s signature “Valentino red.”
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