Guest User 10/27/23 Guest User 10/27/23

Gearing Up for World Ballet Day November 1st 2023!

We all deserve to celebrate our passions openly and enthusiastically. World Ballet Day offers us the opportunity to do just that. This November 1st, tune into company livestreams, share your favorite ballet photos on social media, and support your favorite local companies, all for the love of ballet.

By Madison Huizinga, DWC Blog Editor

In preparation for World Ballet Day 2023, (November 1st!) let’s take a glimpse back at past years’ celebrations.

One of the most compelling parts of World Ballet Day each year is undoubtedly the live streams of professional ballet companies’ classes. One that I always look forward to viewing is The Royal Ballet’s company class. Viewers get to experience these seasoned professionals warming up and practicing on the stage of the Royal Opera House, hearing advice and feedback from some of the world’s best instructors. There is a lot that dancers can gain from tuning into these livestreams, from what it’s like to be a part of a professional company to constructive criticism to apply to their dancing.

In many different companies around the world, promotion and live streams were all over social media. Classes were also live-streamed from the Birmingham Royal Ballet, Nationale Opera & Ballet, and more. Be sure to look out for content from these companies and more, come November 2nd.

Apart from YouTube livestreams, dancers often share World Ballet Day content on other platforms, like Instagram. There are currently over 200,000 posts under the hashtag #worldballetday on Instagram. Under the hashtag, I always see dancers in my community, across the country, and around the globe sharing photos and videos of them doing their best ballet moves. If there’s any day to share your favorite dance photos on Instagram, it’s World Ballet Day. And with Tik Tok recently surging in popularity, I’m sure that will be another excellent platform to see some World Ballet Day content from your favorite professional ballet dancers, like Isabella Boylston and Tiler Peck.

It’s that time of the year again! It’s World Ballet Day 2023! This will be the ninth year that the world joins together to celebrate the art of ballet with the world’s leading dance companies. Throughout the day, rehearsals, discussions, and classes will be streamed across six continents, providing viewers with educational tools and inside looks into the biggest ballet performers in the world. The Royal Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, and The Australian Ballet will be in charge of the majority of the programming. People can tune into a variety of social media platforms, including TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook to join the festivities.

Finally, a significant part of World Ballet Day 2021, particularly for The Royal Ballet, was that this was going to be the biggest yet. For example, on YouTube, attached to the livestream of its company class, The Royal Ballet racked up thousands of viewers from across the world. The Royal Ballet continues to participate in World Ballet Day year after year and each year is bigger and better than ever.

A large part of how we can preserve this art form that we all love dearly is by investing in it. Thus, for World Ballet Day 2023, consider donating what you can to local dance companies. ARC Dance, Dance Fremont, Seattle Dance Collective, Khambatta Dance Company, Whim W’Him Contemporary Dance, Spectrum Dance Theater, Coriolis Dance, and Velocity Dance Center are just a handful that you could consider supporting this World Ballet Day.

World Ballet Day Site

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Guest User 10/15/23 Guest User 10/15/23

Our Top 5 Ballet Villains

The clouds are getting darker, the leaves are turning orange, and there’s a chill that’s been lingering in the air. You know what that means: it’s spooky season. For most of us dancers, dressing up in dazzling costumes is just another day in the office. Nevertheless, when Halloween time comes around, I can hardly contain my excitement. So what better way to celebrate the Halloween spirit than to count down some of our favorite ballet villains! From sorcerers and fairies to rats and royalty, this list is chock full of ballet’s best scoundrels. Read on to find out my evil top picks from some ballet classics.

By Madison Huizinga, DWC Blog Editor

5. Rat King

*Photo of the Rat King in The Nutcracker by Liza Voll, from the Boston Ballet*

This list would be incomplete without one of the most iconic ballet villains of all time: the Rat King. The Rat King is a part of the beloved holiday classic The Nutcracker and stirs up havoc by battling The Nutcracker with his evil troupe of rats and mice. With so many variations of The Nutcracker, have come many different interpretations of the villain. In some productions, there’s a Rat Queen, or in the Balanchine version, a multi-headed Rat King. Considering that the Rat King isn’t present throughout the entire production, he’s relegated to the bottom of the list. Nonetheless, The Nutcracker wouldn’t be the same without him!

*Photo of Amy Harris as the Stepmother in Cinderella, photo by Lynette Wills. From The Australian Ballet*

4. Stepmother

From the pages of storybooks to the stages of theatres, the stepmother from Cinderella is a ruthless villain through and through. Much like in the literary and film versions of the story, in the ballet Cinderella, the stepmother forces her stepdaughter Cinderella to be her family’s servant. Something a bit different about the ballet version of the fairy tale is that the stepmother tries to fit into Cinderella’s slipper at the end of the ballet herself. The stepmother may not have any flashy powers or flamboyance to her personality, but her demeanor towards Cinderella is utterly heartless, making her a true villain.

*Photo of Gillian Revie as Carabosse in The Sleeping Beauty, photo by Jeff Busby. From The Australian Ballet*

3. Carabosse

Coming in at number three is Carabosse, the evil fairy from The Sleeping Beauty. Carabosse ranks high on this list as her source of villainy comes from out of sheer pettiness, which makes her character quite amusing. When Carabosse isn’t invited to Princess Aurora’s christening by King Florestan XXIV and the Queen, she is fiercely upset and puts a curse on Aurora to prick her finger on a spindle and die on her sixteenth birthday. How bitter! Fortunately, the Lilac Fairy changes the curse from death to a 100-year slumber, but regardless, Carabosse certainly puts a damper on things with her wickedness.

*Photo of Thomas Whitehead as Rothbart in Swan Lake, photo by Bill Cooper. From The Royal Ballet*

2. Rothbart

Second place goes to Rothbart from Swan Lake, a cunning owl-like sorcerer who curses the maiden Odette to be a swan by day until she can find a man who’s never loved before to love her forever. A complicated and wicked curse indeed. The villain is portrayed in different forms in different productions, including a human form and a reptilian form, but in most, he remains an owl-like creature. Rothbart’s eccentric costume and flair make him one of the more exciting villains to watch on stage.

*Ako Kondo as Myrtha in Giselle, photo by Jeff Busby. From The Australian Ballet*

1. Myrtha

And finally, first place goes to the one and only Myrtha from Giselle. Maybe it’s because Giselle is my favorite ballet (or because it’s one of the spookiest ballets) but regardless Myrtha is one of the most fierce ballet villains of all time. She is the leader of The Wilis, the ghostly spirits of maidens who have been betrayed by their lovers. Considering Myrtha is literally a ghost, she reigns supreme in terms of ballet villains.

Antagonizing as they may be, ballets would be nothing without their villains. They stir up trouble, serve some menacing looks, and allow the heroes to prevail at the end (most of the time). Whether you’re watching some YouTube videos of these favorite villains, or channeling them in your Halloween costumes, we hope you have a hauntingly good spooky season!

World Ballet on YouTube

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