ballet — Blog — Emily Trace

Ashley Wheater: Artistic Director of The Joffrey Ballet

Ashley Wheater MBE may be the only member of the Order of the British Empire to also be named Chicagoan of the Year. Popularity like that stems from creating fully-funded access to dance education for children across the city through the historically diverse Joffrey Ballet—known for daring original works that resonate with contemporary audiences. Wheater sat down with me to discuss what gives Chicago an international reputation as a thriving arts eco-system and how it became even more important during the pandemic to keep this access alive. He also talks about how to create the pipelines that support an equitable, inclusive future for the art form.

Interview, ProfessionalEmily TraceFebruary 14, 2021Ashley Wheater MBE, Ashley Wheater, Joffrey Ballet, the Joffrey Ballet, chicago, Robert Joffrey, ballet, dance, Christopher Wheeldon

An EDI Case Study: Nicholas Rose and the National Ballet of Canada

On June 1st, 23-year-old American ballet dancer, cellist, and classical choreographer Nicholas Rose filmed himself in front of the Walter Carsen Centre to declare, “I have a love for the National Ballet of Canada, but for me to maintain this love I have to let you know when you have failed us.” It started with a belief—deeply entrenched and rarely questioned in either country—that Canada would be an escape from the well-known racism of the United States.

Interview, ProfessionalEmily TraceDecember 22, 2020nicholas rose, National Ballet of Canada, nboc, racism, racism in ballet, ballet, dance, ballet company, black ballet, black artists, racial discrimination, canada, canadian arts, canadian racism, blue riband, emily trace, Walter Carsen Centre, Four Seasons Centre, Jonathan Batista, Samuel Akins, Solomon Golding, Felipe Domingoes, Chloé Lopes Gomes, Gustavo Gimeno, Alexander Neef, Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Movement Ontario, Kevin Ormsby, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, Dance Theatre of Harlem, William Forsythe, Barry Hughson, Guillaume Côté, Karen Kain, BIPOC dancers, bipoc, Siphesihle November, The Nutcracker, Wayne MacGregor, Chroma, Christopher Stowell, John Neumeier, The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, PTSD, Karolina Kuras, mental health, disability discrimination, Tapestry Opera

Fall for Dance North's 2020 Signature Program

In a season when performance venues are purchasing house plants to take the seats of their patrons, the impressive effort that Fall for Dance North put into digitally staging their 2020 Signature Program will be a welcome respite for dance lovers isolating at home. Their six world premieres—some broadcast live from the Fleck Dance Theatre and others prerecorded—are available on demand from now until the 18th, meaning you can stream and restream performances that would otherwise already be the stuff of memory. Embracing the ephemeral has always been a necessary element in dance appreciation, but audiences have a fresh opportunity to go back and experience these works throughout the festival. And the greatest benefit of their remote program? You can exclaim, gasp, sigh, and respond any way you like without disturbing other patrons in a darkened theatre.

Angel's Atlas by Crystal Pite + Chroma & Marguerite and Armand

The theatre’s energy changed as the orchestra went dark for the third and final part of the night’s mixed program, sizzling with an electricity that transcended your usual World Premiere static. Since her first piece for the National Ballet of Canada, Emergence, premiered in 2009, Crystal Pite has become globally renown and sought after.

Pastries in Motion: The National Ballet Presents 'The Merry Widow'

A grandly chosen champagne-soaked farewell role for esteemed principal dancer Xiao Nan Yu, The Merry Widow is a rare piece that gives a company the chance to show off while managing to unite comedy and drama. This effervescent world of forgivable excess is studded with moments of sincere, rapturous yearning between the two leading couples.

Critique, Professional, DanceEmily TraceJune 21, 2019ballet, ballet review, the national ballet of canada, xiao nan yu, Guillaume Côté, naoya ebe, jillian vanstone, the merry widow, Rebekah Rimsay, Pontevedro, Brendan Saye, Danilo Danilowitch, Ronald Hynd, Franz Lehár, Hanna Glawari

The Prayer to Iorene (Excerpt)

“She felt Arcturus’ desire in her bones as deeply as she had that fateful matinee when the vaulted frescoes had split above them. Even if it now inverted towards another.”

Creative, FictionEmily TraceFebruary 3, 2019fiction, jolene, dolly parton, science fiction, fantasy, queer, queer love, science fantasy, ascepiter, ballet, lesbian, myths, mythologicial, iorene, iorenegod

Giselle’s Restless Spirit: The Ballerina’s Hamlet

“While James is decidedly a land mammal, you’d have to visit the aquarium to see anything ripple through reality the way Lunkina does as a Wili…”

Professional, Critique, DanceEmily TraceJune 21, 2016svetlana lunkina, harrison james, giselle, petipa, the national ballet of canada, ballet, ballet review, dance, dance current, the dance current, dance critic

In its Original Russian: Kudelka’s Nutcracker Comes of Age

“Twenty winters on stage, The Nutcracker remains a beloved production that can still make an icy breeze feel like a thrilling, redemptive brush with a gentler world.”

Neumeier’s "Nijinsky": A Premonition of Ballet’s Future

With a mind called mad and a body that was described as the vessel of a god, fin-de-siècle superstar Vaslav Nijinsky elevated and expanded what ballet as an art form could be in the 20th century. And if Neumeier’s pressurized depiction of this man’s life is incorporated into more ballet companies’ repertoires, then he’ll be that transformative once-in-a-century voice for the 21st.

Opinion, CritiqueEmily TraceMarch 25, 2013John Neumeier, Vaslav Nijinsky, Nijinsky, Neumeier, ballet, choreography, the national ballet of canada, L’Aprés-midi d’un faune, Guillaume Côté, Skylar Campbell, Diaghilev, Ballet Russes, review, ballet review, WWI