Clytemnestra Act 2 | GrahamDeconstructed, Oct.

“L’après-midi d’un faune’ with Choreography by Enzo Celli….

ColemanCollective, MADBOOTS, & Manuel Vignoulle / Curated by Gibney Dance Company / May 18 – 20….

Elisa Monte Dance After Dark at Joe’s Pub | May 26 & 27, 2017….

If I had been told this, I wouldn’t be where I © 2012, Los Angeles Times This is today - I speak to 7-year-olds who have been told this. “A lot of people think of it as me playing this race card, but I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t talk about the fact that I’m one of the few black dancers,” she says.Īdds Copeland, “They don’t know until they’ve seen these young girls’ faces, girls who have been told they will never be accepted into this world because of the color of their skin. Never far from her mind is the significance of her presence onstage with one of the world’s top ballet troupes. She also connects with young minority ballet dancers because she is ABT’s first black female soloist in two decades. Seeing promotional photos of herself in the traditionally red Firebird costume and headdress, she said, “reminded me of photos of Gelsey Kirkland when she was just 16, premiering her first ‘Firebird,’ with George Balanchine standing next to her.”Ĭopeland is the rare ballet dancer who has achieved notable status, largely for having been chosen by Prince to appear in a music video and perform with him on tour. “It’s incredible to have a ballet created on you, especially a ballet with so much history,” Copeland says. Natalia Osipova and Isabella Boylston will also perform the role in Costa Mesa. Remembering Kirkland is one reason Copeland is so excited to be one of three dancers for whom Ratmansky created the Firebird role, as well as premiering it on her home turf. Company soloist Misty Copeland, 29, is too young to have seen those versions - but remembers as a young dance student in Southern California being mesmerized by videotapes of fragile ballerina Gelsey Kirkland in the role for New York City Ballet in the 1970s.

This is ABT’s fourth production of “The Firebird,” originally choreographed by Michel Fokine. Ratmansky’s “The Firebird” has its world premiere March 29-April 1 at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

But running - flying? - close behind them is the magical Firebird, namesake of the 1910 Stravinsky classic which is being reimagined by choreographer Alexei Ratmansky for American Ballet Theatre. Misty Copeland, left, and Copeland in Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux.Īrguably, ballet’s famous birds are the swans of “Swan Lake” - Odette and Odile, White Swan and Black Swan, respectively.

Firebird misty