A little over a month ago I was pleasantly surprised to receive a video from Jacques Berlinerblau in which he interviewed Septime Webre of the Washington Ballet. If you recall, I mentioned Berlinerblau in this post when he wrote a post at The Chronicle called “My 6-Year-Old Son Takes Ballet—You Got a F#$%^$#@ Problem With That?” I read his witty description of his son’s start in dance and his first experience of being teased and bullied for choosing this art form and was inspired to write a long post of my own in response.
Now Berlinerblau made a video about men in ballet based on a very interesting interview with Webre, which he was kind enough to share with me for this blog. Webre was appointed artistic director of The Washington Ballet in June 1999 after six years as artistic director of American Repertory Ballet in New Jersey. Much in demand as a choreographer, he has created works that appear in the repertoires of many companies in North America, including Pacific Northwest Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, North Carolina Dance Theatre, Ballet Austin, Atlanta Ballet, Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet and Colorado Ballet, among many others. As a dancer, Weber was featured in works by George Balanchine, Paul Taylor, Antony Tudor, Alvin Ailey, and Merce Cunningham, as well as in principal and solo roles from the classical repertoire. A former member of the board of directors of Dance/USA, Mr. Webre sits on the board of the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington, and has been honored by Young Audiences of the District of Columbia and has received a number of fellowships for his choreography. Webre is the seventh son in a large Cuban-American family, and he graduated from the University of Texas with a B.A. in History/Pre-Law.
If you’d like to read what Berlinerblau wrote in conjunction with the video, click here. If you just want to watch the video, here it is. Enjoy. I did.
the link to the related article does not seem to work?
Yes, it is. Hover over the word “here.” It changes color. Click.