Dusty Button (surely one of the most delightful names in the business?) has been with Birmingham Royal Ballet for two seasons, but in her teenage years she was also one of the most successful dancers on the US competition circuit. I found out why she decided to complete her training at the Royal Ballet School and stay on to work in England, and the article is in the latest issue of Pointe Magazine, which features ABT’s Maria Riccetto on the cover:
.jpg "Cover of the June/July 2010 issue © Pointe Magazine")
Cover of the June/July 2010 issue © Pointe Magazine
Onstage, Dusty Button defies categorization. The Birmingham Royal Ballet corps member from South Carolina uses her long, swan-like lines with typical English softness but bursts with energy in spiky contemporary work. Once told by a teacher at American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School that she had “too many ingredients” in her soup, Button may be the unlikeliest dancer to find a home in an English company.
Ballet did not start out her favorite genre. Button began dancing at age 7, dividing her time between jazz, tap, hip hop and ballet. Within a few years, she was winning prizes at competitions like Showstoppers and New York City Dance Alliance. “I loved it because it was a way for people from elsewhere to see me dance,” she says. (…)
» Read the full interview in Pointe Magazine
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Marie-Agnès Gillot was the first dancer in the history of the Paris Opera Ballet to be made an Etoile not at the end of traditional full-length ballet, but after a contemporary performance. It was Carolyn Carlson’s Signes, in 2004, and since then Gillot has remained the most peculiar star of the company – with few classical heroines in her repertoire, but instead a wealth of tailor-made creations and avant-garde collaborations. I caught up with her a few months ago for a Reverence interview published in the latest issue of Pointe Magazine, with the lovely Maria Kochetkova on the cover:
Cover of the April/May 2010 issue © Pointe Magazine
You are a choreographer as well as a dancer. What drew you to hip hop for Les Rares Différences, the piece you made for the 2007 Festival of Dance in Suresnes?
My subject was Auguste Rodin. I needed bodies like sculptures—ballet dancers are too lean. Hip hop dancers have an absolutely statuesque upper body. I learned a lot from hip hop, too, especially from the movement dissociations.
What are you currently working on?
I’m putting together the first dance flash mob in France, for a charity. We will have professional dancers performing in a train station.
Who inspires you?
All of my colleagues. I pay a lot of attention to them, and I always find something that I would like to replicate. I love taking a little something from everyone.
Of which accomplishment are you the most proud?
I loved my first Don Quixotes and Swan Lakes. It was a consecration—I was already an étoile, even though I didn’t have the title. The audience and the orchestra were stamping. My dressing room was so filled with flowers I couldn’t sit. (…)
» Read the full interview in Pointe Magazine: ‘The Maverick Star,’ April/May 2010
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Monte-Carlo is home to a hidden jewel – a classically trained company led by an inventive and successful choreographer, Jean-Christophe Maillot. His Roméo et Juliette entered the repertoire of Pacific Northwest Ballet in 2008, and one of the company’s principal dancers, having fallen in love with his style, decided to follow him to France. Noelani Pantastico hasn’t looked back since. I caught up with her on a summer day as the company was getting ready for their annual outdoors festival on the terraces of the Casino, Les Nuits de la Danse.
Cover of the February/March 2010 issue © Pointe Magazine
Do you miss classical tutus?
Not yet. But this morning Sleeping Beauty was on. Dancing Aurora took me to a different level at Pacific Northwest Ballet. That part of my life is done, but it was positive.
Where do you consider home?
I’m still finding myself. I don’t want it to be comfortable here—that was the whole reason I left Seattle.
What qualities do you admire most in other dancers?
Tenacity. In Monte-Carlo, I look up to Bernice Coppieters. She still strives to make each step count. She holds the bar very high for the company.
How do you prepare your pointe shoes?
It’s changed since Seattle. I have to dye my own shoes, and then I glue the insides, very lightly. We do a lot of demi-pointe work, and the shoes need to be softer for me to roll through them easily. (…)
» Read the full interview in Pointe Magazine: “Now, Voyager,” February/March 2010
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Early last year I interviewed Brigitte Lefèvre for Pointe Magazine, and asked the almighty Artistic Director of the Paris Opera Ballet how she went about casting the many works performed by the company. The article was published in the April/May 2009 issue of the magazine, but her answers are now also online on Pointe’s shiny new website, in the archives section:
Cover of the April/May 2009 issue © Pointe Magazine
How do you go about casting each program?
I am in charge of all the casting, but it is really a group effort: I work very closely with the chief ballet master Patrice Bart and the administrator Olivier Aldeano. I try to figure out which dancer is best for each type of choreography, and whether it would be interesting to give someone who has been cast in classical works a chance to venture into something different. I don’t want dancers to become specialized.
How does the hierarchy at POB affect casting?
It sets rules—it is a basis for mutual comprehension. It used to be very rigid, but I think we have succeeded in making it both present and very flexible. When Benjamin Millepied choreographed Triade last year, I didn’t hesitate to entrust a young dancer with one of the main roles. I remain very cautious though, because the company has many étoiles and it is my duty to cast them. Everyone wants to dance, obviously. (…)
» Read the full interview in Pointe Magazine: “Classical to Contemporary”, April/May 2009
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