Latest news with #Ballet
Hindustan Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
HT City Delhi Junction: Catch It Live on 17 June 2025
What: Fare Cinema | Domenica Sera & Enrico Piaggio Where: Italian Embassy Cultural Centre, 50-E, Chandragupta Marg (Entry from Nyaya Marg), Chanakyapuri When: June 17 Timing: 6.30pm Entry: Free Nearest Metro Station: Sir Vishweshwaraiah Moti Bagh (Pink Line) What: Sakal Jaani He Naath — A Folk Comedy Where: Lilanoor Center for Voice and Music, 389, Masjid Moth Road, South Extension II When: June 17 Timing: 7pm Entry: Nearest Metro Station: South Extension (Pink Line) What: Summer Sonata – A Festival of Opera, Ballet & Concert Films | Gulda – Mozart Concertos Where: CD Deshmukh Auditorium, India International Centre (IIC), 40 Max Mueller Marg, Lodhi Road When: June 17 Timing: 6.30pm Entry: Free Nearest Metro Station: Jor Bagh (Yellow Line) What: Kal Ki Chinta Nahi Karta ft Ravi Gupta Where: The Laugh Store, CyberHub, DLF Phase II, Sector 24, Gurugram When: June 17 Timing: 7pm & 9.30pm Entry: Nearest Metro Station: Cyber City (Rapid Metro)
San Francisco Chronicle
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
S.F. Ballet secures new contract agreement ahead of 50th anniversary season
The San Francisco Ballet has reached a new contract agreement with its orchestra seven months before its current one was set to expire this year. As part of the new three-year agreement with the American Federation of Musicians, the union that represents more than 70,000 professional musicians in the U.S and Canada, the Ballet Orchestra is able to add a new position, increasing its ranks to 50 musicians. 'S.F. Ballet's commitment to its musicians as a vital foundation upon which the Company stands is concretely expressed by this agreement,' Peter Wahrhaftig, an AFM representative and the orchestra's principal tubist, said in a statement released Monday, June 9. He added that the contract not only helps in expanding the orchestra but also assists in attracting and retaining new players. In December, the Ballet and its performers' union reached a two-year agreement that addressed wage increases, health and wellness provisions and staffing capacity, among other topics. The deal put an end to months of contract negotiations, with demands prompted by concerns about the wellbeing of dancers and an increase in workers' compensation claims. The Ballet is currently facing lawsuits from two dancers who claim that they endured permanent injuries after being forced to perform through pain. AFM's new contract with the Ballet comes at a time where labor negotiations continue to be contentious among several arts organizations, including at the San Francisco Symphony. Dozens of Symphony musicians and choristers have staged several protests over compensation, artistic direction and financial transparency. These tensions have been heightened by the looming departure of Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen, who cited disagreements with the board as his reason for leaving after his last performance with the Symphony on Saturday, June 14. In May, Symphony musicians staged a demonstration outside Davies Symphony Hall ahead of a sold-out screening and live orchestral performance of the soundtrack from 'The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.' The Ballet has had a smoother, shorter negotiation process, which Wahrhaftig called 'unprecedented.' He credited it to the 'strong, long-standing relationship' between musicians and management. In addition to ratifying the new contract, the institution announced it received a 'major gift' from philanthropists and longtime Ballet supporters Shelby and Frederick Gans just in time for its Ballet Orchestra Music Director and Principal Conductor Martin West's 20th anniversary with the company in September. 'Frederick and I are proud of the outstanding artistic excellence of both Martin West and San Francisco Ballet Orchestra,' Shelby said in a statement. 'We are honoring their dedication and respective 20th and 50th anniversaries with a gift that will support our beloved ballet through the year 2050.' The exact amount of the donation was not disclosed. 'We look forward to celebrating our unparalleled artists,' Ballet Executive Director Branislav Henselmann told the Chronicle, 'both in the orchestra pit and on stage, in the year ahead."
Hindustan Times
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
HT City Delhi Junction: Catch It Live on 10 June 2025
What: Summer Sonata – A Festival of Opera, Ballet & Concert Films | Opera Christoph Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice Where: CD Deshmukh Auditorium, India International Centre, 40 Max Mueller Marg, Lodhi Road When: June 10 Timing: 6.30pm Entry: Free Nearest Metro Station: Jor Bagh (Yellow Line) What: Annual Art Exhibition 2025 A post shared by Artography Studio (@ Where: All India Fine Arts & Crafts Society (AIFACS), 1, Rafi Marg When: June 6 to 12 Timing: 11am to 7pm Entry: Free Nearest Metro Station: Central Secretariat (Yellow & Violet Lines) What: Khushi & Rishi Live Where: The Piano Man, Eldeco Centre, Block A, Shivalik Colony, Malviya Nagar When: June 10 Timing: 8.30pm Entry: Nearest Metro Station: Malviya Nagar (Yellow Line) What: Comedy Show Where: Highlane Comedy Club, J-20, Sector 18, Noida When: June 10 Timing: 9pm Entry: Nearest Metro Station: Noida Sector 18 (Blue Line)
Boston Globe
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Boston Ballet takes a leap of faith with Jean-Christophe Maillot's ‘Roméo et Juliette'
Boston has seen many versions of Prokofiev's 'Romeo and Juliet' ballet. The Kirov brought Leonid Lavrovsky's 1940 Soviet première staging to the Wang Center in 1992. Over the past 40 years, Boston Ballet has offered versions by Choo San Goh, Daniel Pelzig, Rudi van Dantzig, and John Cranko. Now, as its 2024–25 season closer, the Ballet is presenting the stripped-down, streamlined creation that Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo director Jean-Christophe Maillot devised in 1996, and it's safe to say Boston has never seen a 'Romeo and Juliet' like this one. Thursday's opening night at the Citizens Opera House slid off the rails from time to time, but stupendous performances from Advertisement Prokofiev's score is a literal evocation of Shakespeare's play; that's why, regardless of choreography, stagings of the ballet tend to the traditional, with sumptuous Renaissance costumes and sets, a carnival atmosphere in the town square, and lots of swordplay. 'Roméo et Juliette' goes its own way. Ernest Pignon-Ernest's sliding white panels and ramps and blocks conjure the backdrop for a dream sequence; Dominique Drillot's atmospheric lighting sets the emotional tone for each scene. Jérôme Kaplan dresses the Montagues in pale tones and the Capulets in darker shades, everything long and flowing and floppy, no two outfits quite alike. Ernest Pignon-Ernest's sliding white backdrop and Dominique Drillot's atmospheric lighting provide emotion and contrast in each scene. Rosalie O'Connor The Prince, Lord Capulet, and Lord and Lady Montague have been eliminated from the cast, along with the Gypsies, the market wares, and anything resembling a sword or dagger. The full score can last close to 150 minutes; here, about a half hour has been removed, mostly ensemble numbers. Thursday's performance, with an intermission after act one and a pause between acts two and three, ran a reasonable 2½ hours. The Boston Ballet Orchestra under music director Mischa Santora was in top form; the erotic Knights' Dance in particular had the weight and accent it needs and doesn't always get. Advertisement 'Roméo et Juliette' opens with the credits — including the performance's principal cast — projected on a scrim while the orchestra plays the Introduction, a nice touch. When the curtain rises, we see Friar Laurence being hoisted aloft, in a crucified position, by two 'acolytes.' Maillot's conceit is that the story is being narrated by the friar, who's racked by regret at having failed the star-crossed lovers. It's a bold idea, given that he's a very minor presence in the score, but it's not a good one. Wearing a clerical collar and acting more like the Revivalist in Martha Graham's 'Appalachian Spring' than Shakespeare's humble Franciscan, this Friar Laurence stalks the action in one-dimensional anguish, his silent screams powerless to affect the outcome. It would be the same ballet, only better, without him. Maillot's contemporary choreography adds to a "Romeo and Juliet" unlike any other performed in Boston before. Rosalie O'Connor Maillot's version still has much to recommend it. His contemporary choreography is, like the costuming, flowing and floppy, but it has an angular quality that suits the music. His Romeo and Juliet are giddy, dizzy, frolicking teenagers; one moment she's backing off when he tries to kiss her, the next she's kissing him. In the balcony scene Thursday, Chae and Cirio were all speed and spontaneity, and their nuances made conventional ballet partnering seem generic. Advertisement A slinky, slit-skirted Rosaline (Emma Topalova on Thursday), who like Juliet is a Capulet, shines as Romeo's first love before a spiky Tybalt (Yue Shi) intervenes. Maillot's jittery, overworked Nurse (Courtney Nitting) is comic but not ridiculous; a sassy Mercutio (Sun Woo Lee) and a peacemaking Benvolio (Daniel R. Durrett) get room to ramble in the 'Masks' prelude to the Capulet party. Lady Capulet ( The delivery of the tragedies in the ballet's second and third acts occasionally feels out of place and uneven. Rosalie O'Connor Acts two and three are less rewarding. A slapstick puppet show in the square anticipates the deaths to come. When Tybalt kills Mercutio, slapstick Mercutio's prolonged death agony, a highlight of the score and a showpiece for the dancer, is cut. Romeo's pursuit of Tybalt is enacted in slow motion, a neat counterpoint to the lickety-split music, but the eventual brutal strangling seems out of place. Maillot is, again, at his best with Romeo and Juliet in the lovers' farewell, where she slaps him for killing Tybalt before falling into his arms and coaxing him back to bed. By now, though, the Nurse's idiosyncrasies and Lady Capulet's histrionics have begun to wear thin. An underused Paris exits the reluctant Juliet's bedroom and is never seen again. After a perplexing sequence with Friar Laurence and the acolytes that has nothing to do with the all-important potion, Juliet in bed becomes Juliet in the tomb. Romeo appears and rams his head into the base of the bier; Juliet wakes and, with Friar Laurence looking on helplessly, strangles herself with a long red rope of sheet that she seems to have pulled from Romeo's body. No Capulets or Montagues arrive to reconcile. Watching this bleak dénouement, you could sympathize with Prokofiev's original impulse to rewrite Shakespeare and give the ballet a happy ending. Advertisement ROMÉO ET JULIETTE Music by Sergei Prokofiev. Choreography by Jean-Christophe Maillot. Sets by Ernest Pignon-Ernest. Costumes by Jérôme Kaplan. Lighting by Dominique Drillot. Presented by Boston Ballet. With the Boston Ballet Orchestra conducted by Mischa Santora. At Citizens Opera House, through June 8. Tickets $32-$232. 617-695-6955, Jeffrey Gantz can be reached at Jeffrey Gantz can be reached at
Times
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Ballet BC review — horror and comedy in a classy Canadian double bill
The Dance Consortium is a collective of UK venues whose aim is to bring the best international dance to our shores. It has made a winning choice with this exceptionally fine double bill by the Vancouver-based Ballet BC, unveiled this week at Sadler's Wells before continuing to tour to six locations — from Edinburgh to Plymouth — until mid June. The 20 dancers of Ballet BC are classically trained, but the works they perform are very much within the contemporary field. In other words, don't go expecting to see pointe shoes. But do go if you want to watch a superb ensemble delivering two complementary works that are, respectively, aesthetically impressive and marked by a smart, generously crowd-pleasing touch. First up is Crystal Pite's Frontier
