The Sleeping Beauty Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts (145 Queen Street West) Runs through March 18 $25–$177 When you experience something as magical as the National Ballet of Canada’s The Sleeping Beauty, you’re likely taking many aspects of the production for granted. From wigs and costumes to choreography all the way up to [...]

Love Lies Bleeding The Sony Centre (1 Front Street East) Nov. 8 to 12, Tuesday to Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Saturday matinee at 3 p.m. $48.10–$156.60 When one chooses to see a ballet based on the music of Elton John and Bernie Taupin, one cannot be surprised to see [...]

At Torontoist we love Q&As and profiles, but sometimes asking a whole bunch of people the same set of questions can be even more revealing. So that’s what we decided to do. Some thoughts from Canada’s best-known prima ballerina—though she retired from that role in 1997—as she prepares to launch the 2011/12 season as artistic [...]

Every Saturday, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters—good and bad—that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today. He awoke on June 30, 1974, still feeling the effects of a vodka-fuelled celebration the night before, at an isolated Caledon Hills farmhouse owned by someone he hadn’t met until yesterday. By now [...]

This Alice gets a particularly elaborate unbirthday. Jillian Vanstone as Alice, Robert Stephen as the Mad Hatter, and Jonathan Renna as the March Hare. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Four Seasons Centre (145 Queen St. West) June 4–12 and June 23–25 The Luminato festival is a lot of things: international, diverse, grand, bold, large in scale, [...]

Top: A glimpse of some of Alice’s “wonderland.” Bottom: Inside the prop studio, flamingos patiently waiting to make their debut. WHERE: Kennedy and Lawrence WHEN: Friday, April 29, around noon WHAT: Sneaking backstage is every show-goers biggest wish, and to mark the opening of their new production studio the National Ballet invited the media to [...]

Photo courtesy of the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts. When we set out to attend Friday evening’s performance of the Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet’s production of Swan Lake, it was with a mixture of excitement and skepticism. After all, one can’t thumb one’s nose entirely at a world-famous, centuries-old ballet company known for its flawless [...]

Naoya Ebe and Shino Mori. The National Ballet of Canada will host the Ninth International Competition for the Erik Bruhn Prize at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts this Saturday. Made possible by an endowment from the late Erik Bruhn, considered one of the twentieth century’s greatest male classical dancers, the Bruhn Prize [...]

Gregory Oh leads his ensemble while the Halorinas dance at The Music Gallery on Sunday night. If you wanted to stage a ballet, but instead of things like dancers and costumes and balletic training all you had were a bunch of laptops and some copies of the video game Halo, you’d be justified in giving [...]

Every Saturday at noon, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters—good and bad—that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today. Maple Leaf Gardens ice show, between 1938 and 1947. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1257, Series 1057, Item 6666. When Augustus Bridle, critic for the Toronto Star, called the Toronto Skating [...]

When Phase 1 of the National Ballet School was completed just north of Jarvis and Carlton Streets, the “Grand Jeté” project was lauded for its modern but neighbourhood-appropriate design, as well as its restoration of incorporated heritage structures like the former Havergal Ladies’ College and Northfield House. Once the flagship school was complete, a less [...]