Festival Ballet Providence’s Up CLOSE on HOPE series has often featured intimate duets, trios, or quartets. But the current program of five pieces, two of them world premieres, is expansive in the number of dancers used (up to 12) and scope. [read review]
You're at a party. You're wearing a lampshade on your head. Music's playing. You want to dance.
But you've got a problem. You can't see. You worry about ending up in the punch bowl.
So you poke holes for eyes. It doesn't help much. You still have no peripheral vision. But that doesn't stop you.
You snap your fingers. You sway your head. You shuffle your feet. But the thousands of people watching you want more. They want dynamic dance. [read more]
Thursday December 15, 2005
For Archie, The Stage Isn't a Tough Nut to Crack
Providence Journal
Bryan Rourke
Step on stage. Fame follows.
Well, it should, Mark Fleisher thought. For years, the marketing director at Festival Ballet Providence appeared in its Nutcracker production. He played the conspicuous part of Herr Drosselmeyer, who brings the nutcracker to little Clara. You couldn't miss him. But, somehow, people did. [more]
\Festival’s Romeo is sweet, touching, tragic
Providence Journal
October 22, 2005
You have to see past the sets, which takes awhile. Then Festival Ballet Providence’s production of Romeo and Juliet, which opened last night at Veterans Memorial Auditorium, is sweet, touching and, ultimately, tragic—many times over. [read more]
Saturday December 14, 2002
Magic is reserved in The Nutcracker
Providence Journal
Channing Gray
Festival Ballet's The Nutcracker arrived at the Providence Performing Arts Center last night, wrapped in lavish sets, mounds of falling snow and lots of oh-so-correct dancing. [more]
Saturday November 16, 2002
Festival’s fresh look at an old story
The Providence Journal
Cover of Lifebeat, Section D
Bryan Rourke
In Festival Ballet Providence’s opening production of its 25th season, the old and famous romantic ballet seems fresh - from its set, costumes, music, storytelling and dance. [more]
Saturday November 16, 2002
Festival Ballet's spirited Giselle
The Providence Phoenix
Johnette Rodriguez
To attend a studio rehearsal of a ballet company is to witness the vigilant care each dancer gives her or his body, to experience the humor and humanity twined through the insistent demands of the director and to gain a much deeper appreciation for the physical strength it takes to create this particular art. [more]
June 2001
Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Panel Comments, in response to General
Operating Support proposal and interview.
"It was as exciting to meet the representatives of Festival Ballet
as it was to read their application. Their artistic vision is so clear. Festival
Ballet has embraced the artistic vision and extended it to other aspects of
the organization. That is rare from a mainstream art form. The organization
has also tried to match the artistic quality with the organizational development.
The artistic director believes that diversity has to be in staffing, in programming,
in leadership, on stage, in the schools, etc. Other RI arts organizations should
hear more from him. The organization has a strong administrative record, a strong
artistic director, good planning, a clear implementation plan, and high earned
income."
March 4, 2001
Bill Gale in the Providence Journal
Headline: Ballet is bustling this month, with locals and visitors
Mihailo Djuric, known to everyone at Festival Ballet as Misha, is a most hands-on
artistic director. A leading dancer in his native Yugoslavia, the 44-year-old
Djuric can still move, still demonstrate exactly how he wants a step or a
phrase performed.
December 22, 2000
Eric R. Danton in The Hartford Courant
Headline: A Graceful 'Nutcracker'
It just wouldn't be Christmas without "The Nutcracker." So praise
be to the Festival Ballet of Rhode Island, which swept into The Bushnell Thursday
to save the annual tradition from extinction. The dancers, accompanied by
the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, put on a graceful show... [Jaclyn] Ricci
was agile as Queen of the Mice, and the choreography was well done while she
and her mice tormented Clara.... Eunice Kim and Paul Thrussell, as the Queen
and King, danced beautifully together... ... Act II was primarily a showcase
for Kai Davis as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Thrussell as her Cavalier. Their
coordination and teamwork were breathtaking, as Thrussell twirled Davis about
the stage, lifting her into difficult-looking arcs and executing some impressive
leaps himself.
December 21, 2000
Other Opinion, Diane Hayden, in The Hartford Courant
Headline: Goodbye, Hartford Ballet, Hello, Rhode Island Dancers...
What a treat, then, to find out in early December that not only was "Nutcracker"
being performed at The Bushnell, but with the Hartford Symphony again (and
the Festival Ballet of Rhode Island). So when my daughter asked if I had gotten
tickets, I was able to say "Yes, and front row center."
December 21, 2000
Dan Uhlinger in The Hartford Courant
Headline: Providence Ballet Troupe Rescues Bushnell's 'Nutcracker'
Earlier this year, it appeared that for the first time in decades there would
be no performance of "The Nutcracker" -an annual Christmas tradition
- at The Bushnell. But the venue's loss has turned into a Sugar Plum Fairy's
dream for the Festival Ballet of Rhode Island and about 50 Connecticut children
who will present the Christmas classic tonight. Accompanied by 27 members
of the Hartford Symphony playing the Tchaikovsky score, the Festival Ballet
will give five performances of "The Nutcracker" through the weekend
at The Bushnell.
December 7, 2000
Bill Gale in the Providence Journal
Headline: New Blood, new venues for Festival Ballet
One way to tell whether a local dance company is becoming a regional one is
to see whether they are wanted elsewhere. Another is whether they are attracting
dancers, particularly those hard-to-find male dancers from other places. Festival
Ballet is showing progress on both counts... it will take the Christmas favorite
[The Nutcracker] to Hartford, where the Hartford Ballet once reigned... And
they will be getting Festival's new Russian/Ukrainian connection. Two dancers
[Vladimir Putenko and Genia Krassowskiy] new to the company this season are
in Rhode Island after successful careers in the Ukraine and Germany.
November 4, 2000
Bill Gale in the Providence Journal
Headline: Festival Ballet's Quartet Memorable
often stunning Quartet for the End of Time turned out to be an often stunning
piece, one that... reached deep into feelings of desolation. It was the work
of an artist unafraid to tell what is on his mind. ... it was well performed
by a large cast led by Eunice Kim...
September 22, 2000
Channing Gray in the Providence Journal
Headline: Carmen delivers musically, but falls short theatrically
"But things picked up in the second act...thanks to a troupe of dancers
on loan from Festival Ballet who shook things up..."
April 18, 2000
Christine Temin in The Boston Globe
Headline: Young dancers at 'Top' of form in fresh Grand Studio Program
Mihailo Djuric's Magnificat, choreographed to the Bach, has the desperately
earnest quality of early modern dance. The excerpts from a larger work by
the Yugoslav-born Djuric, the artistic director of Festival Ballet of Rhode
Island, were filled with religious imagery - flying angels, crucifixions -
and were notable for, among other things, a male pas de trois that was both
delicate and angular beautifully danced by James Brown, Chi-Kuang Chu and
Boston Ballet principal Paul Thrussell.
March 11, 2000 |
William K. Gale in The Providence Journal
Headline: Evil overcomes good in well-done Dracula Both (Jennifer Ricci
and Jaclyn Ricci) have lovely moments, displaying their growing technique
and emotional ability. A duet between the two, sisters who are to be parted
by death, is very strong. Eunice Kim, Colleen Dillard and Beth Petkus are
also energy-filled and just right as Dracula's Brides...
February 10, 2000
Adrienne Larsen-Silva in The Cowl
Headline: Alice is wonderful
This was an awesome performance [Yves de Bouteiller's Alice in Wonderland],
and I have to compliment Festival Ballet for making such efforts to introduce
dance to young audiences. An obviously talented company with such impressive
credits, the Festival Ballet is truly doing a service by making themselves
available as role models for aspiring performers.
December 26, 1999
Channing Gray, in the Providence Sunday Journal Headline: A look back at 1999's
cultural roller-coaster ride
Festival Ballet is on the rebound... Festival Ballet continued to get its
act together under its new director Mihailo Djuric...
