World Ballet Day at Madison Ballet

Thank you to the dancers and staff of Madison Ballet for a wonderful studio visit!

It was a real joy to get to spend several hours in the middle of the day with the artists of Madison Ballet. In a way, every ballet day while in production is the same—it begins with class, includes physical therapy, socializing when possible, and is then taken up with rehearsal. And it was nice to observe—and to hear Ja’ Malik say—that every day can and should be World Ballet Day too, in both our celebration of the art form and connection to each other.

We’ll be showing and telling more about our visit in the coming weeks, from time with Artistic and Executive Director Ja’ Malik to fly-on-the-wall perspectives on rehearsals of some of the most beautiful dancing from The Nutcracker: the Sugar Plum / Cavalier Grand pas de deux and the Waltz of the Flowers.

Stay tuned for updates, and I expect some of what we saw yesterday will come up when we get to chat with company artist Michaela King next month in the December 4th edition of At the Barre: Ballet Salons at Leopold’s…