#miami city ballet

[lovelyballetandmore]

Jordan Martinez | Photo by Gene Schiavone

#jordan martinez #balletphotography #white tights #ballet slippers #miami city ballet

[dance-world]

Alex Kaden - Miami City Ballet - photo by Luis Casanova Sorolla

#Alex Kaden #Luis Casanova Sorolla #Miami City Ballet #bailarín #danseur #dancer #ballerino #tänzer #boys of ballet #ballet #dance #ballet men #alexander kaden

[papaija]

let's put a penché in the fouettés

because that's a totally possible human thing

congratulations Mary Carmen Catoya, i'm watching it and still hardly comprehend it

i left the music in so she gets due credit for keeping in time (spotting), but honestly the audio quality is terrible, don't turn sound on

#tricks only count if you stay on the music #ballet #fouettés #penché #arabesque #mary carmen catoya #miami city ballet #too bad about the video quality anyway

[hckat]

Miami City Ballet Dancers with Shimon Ito in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Choreography by George Balanchine. Photographer: Gene Schiavone.

#Ballet #ballet #shimon ito #george balanchine #gene schiavone #ballet dancers #ballerina #classical ballet #miami city ballet #a midsummer night's dream #ballerino #american ballet #ballet photography #Shakespeare #fairy #fairytale #fairy core

[patricedumonde]

Interview from the Archives: A Conversation with Alex Wong from 2011

Thirteen years ago, I started a ballet blog as a wide-eyed, teenage ballet girly, who nerded out about ballet as much as I did, Superwholock. I wanted to set out on this journalistic path and interview dancers who inspired me.

As unqualified and delusional as I was, some of these dancers ACTUALLY agreed to be interviewed. In the coming days, I will be releasing these conversations from the archives... if I can find them at all.

Please read these with kindness as you will be reading a 15-year old's version of "a serious interview." Well, it was serious to me and now that I think about it; I am still, deeply, deeply, unserious.

6 January 2011 — A Conversation with Alex Wong

Patrice: What is dance for you and what makes it special?

Alex: Dance is just dance. It somehow lives in me. It feels like something I have to do and it's a great way to be able to express emotions through dance. It's so great to be able to pursue something I love and feel like I've never worked a day in my life!

P: What or who inspired you to dance?

A: I guess it must have been a combination of a few things. When I was 5, I used to choreograph little dance routines and then bring my family into a dark bedroom and ask my Dad to spotlight me with a flashlight. They saw the talent in me and started asking me if I wanted to dance. My answer was "No, dancing is only for girls".

Anyway they kept pressing it and we finally struck a deal. They said that if I would go and watch a year end dance show put on by one of the local schools and if I STILL didn't want to dance after that, then they wouldn't ask anymore. Well anyway, I went to the show, and the rest is history!

P: If you weren't a ballet dancer, what would have been your career?

A: If I wasn't a ballet dancer, I would probably have pursued more commercial dance work, would have maybe gotten more into hip hop. Or more likely I would probably be on Broadway.

P: What motivated you to join So You Think You Can Dance?

A: The sheer fact that you get to work with the most amazing choreographers in the industry and then be forced to do multiple styles in such a short period of time. It doesn't happen anywhere else!!

P: What was your reaction when you found out you were having a hip hop routine with Twitch and how did you handle it?

A: Utter and absolute disbelief, shock and confusion followed by immense pain in my head. Hahahahaha. I really thought it was Comfort. I was the last one to draw the name, and she was the only "girl" left. Yea.

(So You Think You Can Dance, the famous hip-hop routine of Alex Wong and the late Twitch who well all, greatly, miss.)

P: Are you coming back to SYTYCD? If so, what should we expect from you?

A: I don't know yet whether or not I am coming back to SYTYCD. It will depend on how I feel and whether or not my injury has healed enough for me to dance. The doctors say that it takes at least 1 year for an Achilles injury to heal. Some people get back sooner, and some people get back later.

Do you have any advice to young dancers?

Nope! Haha, just kidding. The most important thing is to approach things with a good attitude and a willingness to learn. That will get you really far. Be smart and absorb everything like a sponge. Minus the ego.

P: Since the new year just started, what's your resolution?

A: My new year's resolution is to get healed!

The following questions were sent in by my followers:

How much time did you spend to learn Single Ladies?

It took me about one night. Haha it was a joke. I learned it and then taught my friend. People had been requesting us to do it a lot and we had no idea what the steps were, so we would just make it up, then finally one night I was like "we might as well just learn it!"

(Prior to his silly TikToks, Alex was already entertaining us on youtube with these videos. Here's Alex dancing Single Ladies at the West Beach Gala)

How's your injury going?

The recovery is going well. I am doing a lot of physical therapy and it is coming a long well. I still haven't started back to dancing yet, but I think next week I am going to start with a slow ballet class and see how it goes. Achilles injuries usually take about 1 year, and I am at about 5.5 months now.

Can you still go back to Miami City Ballet?

Yes, I believe I can still go back to Miami City Ballet. I am on good terms with my director there and he called me not too long ago to see how I was doing. When you spend so many dancing years at a place, it always feels like part of home to you

(Alex Wong circa 2010, rehearsing Bournonville's Flower Festival in Genzano, as a soloist with the Miami City Ballet)

Are you naturally a funny guy?

Um, I don't know? I love to joke a lot, it's what keeps me alive!

Evidently, he is a silly goose as Alex has gone on to be a major TikTok celebrity. Since 2011, Alex has been in movies, television shows, and live concerts such as The Greatest Showman, Fosse/Verdon, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and Schmigadoon. He has even shared the stage with The Taylor Swift. Alex is still very active on Tiktok with his 2.7 million followers. BUT, in 2011, he once entertained a girl with her (as you can tell) absolutely, burning questions. Thank you, Alex!

#Alex Wong #SYTYCD #Miami City Ballet #dancer interviews #from the archives #Youtube

[tikitania]

Ratmansky's staging of Swan Lake at MCB

Has anyone seen this version of Swan Lake at the MCB? I'm thinking about heading to Miami for this one and wondered if it was worth the cost of travel. I'm extremely curious about this staging and from the snippets that I saw of the La Scala version, I think it could be very interesting but wanted to get thoughts and opinions before I drop $$ on this. The trailer is wonderful...

#ballet #swan lake #alexei ratmansky #miami city ballet #swan princess #Youtube

[ballet-symphonie]

I’m pretty sure there’s nepotism and other shit going on at New York City Ballet, and I’ve stopped following them:

-there’s children and grandchildren of former dancers who got into the company. Roman Mejia is Paul Mejia’s son, Shelby Mann is the granddaughter of Jacques d’Amboise and the daughter of Charlotte d’Amboise and Terrence Mann (Broadway legends!) it makes me suspicious. I mean, Nilas Martins was in the company too, so I’m not surprised nepotism is still going on with the younger dancers.

-apparently there was/is body shaming? even at SAB I’ve heard rumors of kids having eating disorders. Also not surprising considering that the people who worked with Balanchine wanted a look and it was Balanchine himself who started the “skinny ballerina” trend that quickly spread worldwide. Ashley Bouder spoke up about how the higher ups body shamed her on Instagram live like a year ago, and none/few of the company members commented for support. They just posted it on their story. In general, Balanchine companies/schools tend to have a lot of body shaming, especially with how they treated Kathryn Morgan at Miami CB. CPYB (Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet) has a bunch of horror stories on Instagram account called @/cpybstories if anyone wants to read.

-I don’t know if this is really BS, but they still cast roles based on height/size rather than talent. I was hoping for Tiler Peck to do Diamonds but she got Rubies. Same with Midsummer, she didn’t/doesn’t really get Titania because she’s on the shorter side and from what I’ve heard, NYCB likes their Titanias to be tall. (I’m guessing she probably will never get Titania, just because she lacks emotion in her dancing. Saw her in Sleeping Beauty and Nutcracker and she barely acts.)

-the company is still predominantly white. Even PNB is more diverse than them. The BIPOC dancers like Nadon, Mejia, Furlan, Chan etc are only popular just because they fit Eurocentric views of POC (they have lighter skin and straighter hair) plus Nadon is only half South Asian, Mejia is half Peruvian, so they aren’t full blooded POC. The only POC in recent years that didn’t fit those ideals was Amar Ramasar. The kids who appear on stage for Nutcracker, Midsummer, Sleeping Beauty etc are more diverse than the actual company members.

-They didn’t handle Alexandra Waterbury’s case well. Ramasar should’ve been fired and in prison before the pandemic and from the West Side Story revival (that didn’t do well regardless). It also makes me mad that Alexa Malone (soloist) is still dating him and the fact that he’s now a stager too…like he might mess around with the underaged apprentices/corps and the cycle will start again

-Don’t get me started on people like John Clifford and how he wrote public, sexist comments on how he hates crotch shots because of platter tutus. He and a bunch of other older trust people still defend these beliefs to the death.

Hello, there's a lot in here!

Regarding nepotism, the company definitely has a history of hiring both siblings and relatives. I would extend this to ballet in general, many successful dancers today are from dance families, such as Chloe Misseldine, Daniil Simkin, Maia Makhatelli, Vadim Muntigirov, Dmitri Smilevsky, Issac Hernandez etc. But I don't think that inherently means that the dancers benefiting from that knowledge base (knowing what to do, where to train, how to structure their day, exta tips and coaching etc) are undeserving of there spots. I don't think you can watch Meija dance and think he doesn't deserve to be where he is.

On body shaming. Yes, none of this is positive and none of it is news either. There has been a history of toxic body shaming culture at nearly every major ballet school worldwide. Balanchine companies have had a nasty history but so have numerous Russian, European, and Asian schools. It's not a problem exclusive to SAB/NYCB.

Yes, NYCB typecasts. I'm honestly quite a fan of it because I don't think it's realistic or responsible to expect every dancer to do everything well and it results in dancers on stage in roles that they're confident in and suit their strengths- which generally leads to better performances. I don't think there's a single dancer at City Ballet who has done all three leading roles in Jewels, Peck is not an exception. I don't believe it's height/size over talent, but a complementary mix of both. Some roles have been designated by the choreographer for X skills and others have been historically dominated by dancers with X skills. And like you mention, there are lots of other factors affecting casting besides just height, acting, vulnerability, partnership, and logistics, which all play a role.

I'm not sure I agree with you that the dancers you mentioned get attention because they are POC who fit Eurocentric standards. Chan and Nadon rightfully got attention for breaking barriers and becoming the first Asian principals at the company. Both have spoken at length aobut how their cultural background and upbringing has both helped and hindered their path. I'd argue Meija gets far more attention from his father than he does from his race and Furlan (if we're considering him popular which I probably wouldn't) for his technical merit. I also think you aren't looking at NYCB's soloist rank fairly, they have Black, Asian, and Hispanic dancers at this rank. Of course, the company certainly could be more diverse but they have the self-imposed limitation of hiring nearly exclusively out of SAB. You yourself noted that the school is more diverse, this is a result of several of their scholarship and outreach programs that have been implemented in the past decade or so. Those programs are long-term investments, they are building a more diverse company now - but these dancers are still in the school. And for what it's worth, PNB is not a low bar, it is by far the most diverse major company in the US and has made hiring decisions accordingly. Approximately 50% of the company is POC which is awesome- but this realistically isn't possible at NYCB because they're not going to be hiring from outside as frequently.

Of course, if not following NYCB would make you happier, then by all means do it. But if these issues are what's causing you distress, I don't think the solution is to simply follow other companies- many of these problems exist across the industy.

Regarding the Waterbury Case, I don't disagree with you but the law is complicated. I remeber reading the case when it came out and I think the main problem is that the case wasn't able to get to discovery because she didn't have enough facutal evidence. If that had happened, I imagine things would have looked a lot different. While I absolutley believe her, she was trying to fight too many battles at once, some of which weren't directly hers, and she didn't have hard concrete proof for most of it. Everything got muddled and I don't think she had the best council either. I don't have any doubt that there's so much more here that exists only in the memories of the individuals involved. But that doesn't count in front of a court - it's about what you can prove not what happened. And NYCB's liability is limited because she was neither an employee nor a student at the time of firing.

However, while I have no comment about his personal life, I agree with you about Ramasar's line of work. It's unfortunate and incredibly disappointing how the dance world regularly absolves men like Ramasar (he's not alone) and basically gifts them back their careers. I could list a whole troupe of men who've been given second chances they don't deserve. Winning in court is an uphill battle, especially when the prosecution is often not coming from a place of strength. I just hope that the slow but steady changes happening in the industry now will prevent history from repeating itself.

And Clifford....I don't have the energy to start with. There's a reason NYCB hasn't hired him back , he's not consistently teaching or running a company, and he's just running his mouth on IG.

#nycb #ballet #ballet rant #will not be tagging names obv

[aimer-imaginer-penser]

Gustavo Ribeiro - Miami City Ballet

[dancesinlight]

BANG-O! and Tuesday begins!

Miami City Ballet - Firebird

[hollywoods-angel]

anya taylor joy <3

anya-josephine marie taylor-joy is an actress born in miami, who lived in argentina and then london. she's played a variety of roles, one of my favorites being beth harmon from the queen's gambit.

shortly after she was born anya's family moved to argentina and her first language was spanish. when she moved to london she was really upset- she missed her rural life and hated the city, and in protest she tried to hold off on learning english. at school she participated in different acting productions. she took ballet classes until she was 15, felt like she didn't fit in, and at 17 she was scouted for modeling.

she is a brand ambassador for dior, and models for them. i saw her picture in the mall recently! anyways, she's incredibly beautiful and has a very unique appearance which makes her standout in all of her photos.

anya loves animals, specifically big animals. she loves horses and wanted to be a veterinarian for large animals. anya also enjoys 60s music, specifically the beach boys. she can play ukelele and the electric guitar.

#anya taylor joy #coquette #dark feminine #girlblogging #girlblogger-interrupted

[lovelyballetandmore]

Jordan Martinez | Ethan Rodrigues | Francisco Schilereff | Sean Miller | Miami City Ballet | Photos by Ricky Cohete

#miami city ballet #balletphotography #white tights #jordan martinez #ethan rodrigues #sean miller

[dance-world]

Alex Kaden - Miami City Ballet - photo by Ricky Cohete

#Alex Kaden #alexander kaden #bailarín #danseur #dancer #ballerino #tänzer #boys of ballet #ballet men #dance #ballet #Miami City Ballet

[balanchine-ballet-master]

Suzanne Farrell Teaching

Above: students at Florida State University rehearse Balanchine's Serenade, staged by Suzanne Farrell. Photo by Meagan Helman for the Florida State Univ. News

Suzanne Farrell is Krafft Professor of Dance at Florida State University in Tallahassee. She gave an interview to the FSU News that was published on November 16, 2023.

Legendary ballerina Suzanne Farrell reflects on career, 20 years as Krafft Professor at FSU

BY: ANNA PRENTISS, JAMIE RAGER, JASMINE HUR

Florida State University’s School of Dance Krafft Professor Suzanne Farrell, an internationally recognized New York City Ballet principal dancer, a 2005 Kennedy Center Honoree and the founder of Suzanne Farrell Ballet, has long been regarded as one of the most extraordinary and influential ballerinas of the late-20th century.

Farrell, who performed with the New York City Ballet for 28 years, is considered the last muse and protégé of choreographer George Balanchine, founder of the New York City Ballet.

This year, Farrell set an excerpt of “Divertimento No. 15,” a choreographic piece by Balanchine. This classical ballet was featured in the school’s annual “An Evening of Dance,” which highlighted a diverse lineup of seven live works restaged by retired and current faculty.

“One of my dreams as a dancer was to perform the choreography of George Balanchine,” said Associate Professor Ilana Goldman, who served as the rehearsal director for this work. “When I finally did, it felt sublime, as if I was the physical embodiment of the music. I am so thrilled that our students had the opportunity to not only perform Balanchine’s choreography but to have been coached by his muse, Suzanne Farrell — it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Farrell has been a member of the School of Dance faculty for more than 20 years and continues to work with and mentor students, hosting master classes and workshops at FSU each semester.

“The opportunity to work with a legendary performer like Suzanne Farrell is an amazing experience for our students,” said Anjali Austin, professor and chair of the School of Dance. “Her dedication to our program throughout the past 20 years has made an indelible mark on many.”

In an interview, Farrell re-lived her history with the New York City Ballet, working with Balanchine and how she came to Florida State University to teach.

“Initially, I was not going to teach at a college level,” Farrell said. “I had just been giving young dancer auditions in Miami but came to FSU on my sister’s request and met many nice dancers that made me rethink. It’s a beautiful atmosphere, and I love working here. I give everything when I teach.”

Even early in her career, Farrell thought teaching was not a path she intended to take.

“When I was a young dancer, I thought I had forever,” she said. “Mr. Balanchine once said, ‘One day, you will all teach.’ I thought to myself, ‘I’m not going to teach. All I want to do is dance.’”

That moment of retirement came sooner than Farrell thought, so she began staging and teaching Balanchine’s ballets around the world.

“In a nice way, it extended my dance life,” she said. “I’m not dancing, but I’m still doing what I love to do.”

Farrell noted that the transient nature of a dance career instills a sense of immediacy in a dancer.

“Dance is a young profession; we retire at a young age because the body has to stop,” she said. “Therefore, you have to positively profit from everything you do and every moment you do it. You can’t say, ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’ because before you know it, it’s time to retire.”

Farrell explained, “In ballet, we are our own technology. It’s not like sending someone a text and it’s done — it’s a constant evolution of getting the choreography to where it should be.”

“I like bringing my stories into my teaching because it’s not just the technological aspect, it’s also passing on stories from one person to the next,” she said.

Farrell learned to use visual aspects to provide dancers with a mental image when correcting inaccuracies.

“I’d say ‘move your arms like the leaves when the wind comes, the leaves turn over, they don’t resist.’ Moving with nature is what ballet is all about.”

When asked about the evolution of ballet since she first began her professional career, Farrell highlighted the inheritable legacy left by previous generations.

“We are the beneficiaries of every dancer that came before us. Nobody can do it by themselves,” Farrell said. “There are stories you inherit from someone who maybe danced it first or before you were alive. There’s so much legacy and it’s not just in the past. Just because someone isn’t alive anymore doesn’t mean they are not influential and inspiring in spirit.”

This academic year, the School of Dance is celebrating 90 years of dance, 60 years of dance degrees and 20 years of the Maggie Allesee Center for Choreography at FSU. Recently ranked as one of the top five dance programs in the nation by Backstage Magazine, the School of Dance is dedicated to providing the highest caliber of training to its students.

Suzanne Farrell and George Balanchine, 1963. Photo: Fred Fehl for the Associated Press via the NY Times

#Suzanne Farrell #Balanchine #Serenade #FSU #Florida State Univ. #New York City Ballet #NYCB

[amongtheeswans]

Miami City Ballet Dancers in A Midsummer Night's Dream

#image not mine #aesthetic #soft aesthetic #soft grunge #dark aesthetic #dark academia #fairycore #fairy aesthetic #ballet #dancers #theatre #a midsummer night's dream #ballerina

[eden-west]

Incoming second blog of a VR project I worked on.

This was also made by the same great team I was with before. After Blade Ballet was published we began working on a secret VR title back in 2018. VR was big, and we were playing lots of VR games that were being produced at that time. Many were experimental demos so we were eager to dip our toes into some fun concepts.

We still loved the idea of a 'jetset' styled robot dystopia. This time with it being placed in sci-fi Miami. Citizens in this world are so normalized to giant robots constantly invading the city that they complain when picked up. An alien robot race invades to consistently cause comically evil trouble, and you are tasked as one of the robot pilots hired to defend the city which is dealing with their nuisance.

A lot of my work revolved around the visual development once more. We were trying to make sure that the design of the human made structures and robots looked 'human' and brutalist. While the alien civilization needed to look like it had a foreign technology to it. A lot of the sketches above were based on the alien robots, and some of the alien gun designs.

I also worked on a bit of the human made robots and cars. We knew that VR takes a lot of CPU/GPU, so many of our Miami structures and cars needed to be simple in design. The aliens got more love to make them feel more intimidating.

Later on, I began concepting and making the 3D assets for the item pick ups in the game. We had a lot of fun items we wanted to explore but for the demo we had to keep it basic. The chainsaw sword was clearly our fav, but we also liked the idea of our health item being a radioactive looking robot cake.

This demo only made it to it's infancy. Even though we had a bigger publisher interested in funding us. Our company dissolved from internal struggles before we could show more of it. I regret still to this day that we were only 3 months away from showing a true demo. Fate sadly had other plans. -- If anyone is still reading this far, thank you. Hopefully I gave you some insights to smaller game development pipelines.

#visual development #game dev #indiedev #game design #indie game #indiegamedev #devlog #game development #indiegameart #indie games #gamedevelopment #gamedev #indie game art #digitalartwork #digital 3d #digitalart #robot art #no ai art #support human artists #made by human #unreal engine #ue4 #ue5 #gaming #robot fighting #mecha #robots

[clbdreadeddancer]

Dancer: Rainer Krenstetter | Company: Miami City Ballet | Photographer: Jason Ashwood | Book: Not Without Tears - A Life Lived Onstage | Location: Haulover (clothing optional) Beach