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Ballet

Ballet
From Hong Kong to New York and beyond, find out what's happening in one of the most graceful and elegant - and punishingly hard to learn - forms of dance.
last updated:
9 September, 2024
Monica Barbaro plays Bob Dylan’s love interest Joan Baez in A Complete Unknown. Photo: AP
Fame and celebrity

Meet Monica Barbaro, who plays Joan Baez in the new Bob Dylan biopic

The actress plays Joan Baez – Bob Dylan’s love interest – opposite Timothée Chalamet in A Complete Unknown, and worked with a vocal coach to nail the Queen of Folk’s singing voice.

Hong Kong economy

Letters | Hong Kong must give high-calibre talent a reason to come

Style Edit

Style Edit: Ferragamo celebrates 70 years of its signature ballet flat

Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Hong Kong Ballet’s The Butterfly Lovers is a triumph of choreography

Created in-house, this version of the classic story blends ballet with Chinese dance, and has an incredible score and amazing choreography.

Lai Pengxiang in a scene from Hong Kong Ballet: the Butterfly Lovers. Photo: Conrad Dy-Liacco/Hong Kong Ballet
What to do in Hong Kong

5 of the best things to do this weekend in Hong Kong, October 18-20

From the Hong Kong Ballet to the Asian Film Festival and World Shochu and Awamori Festival, our pick of the best things to do this weekend.

What to do in Hong Kong

5 must-see performances in Hong Kong this weekend, October 18-20

Our top five picks include performing arts shows as part of HKPAX, a new ballet and a concert featuring American jazz legend Wynton Marsalis.

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Hong Kong

Inside Hong Kong Ballet’s dramatic reimagining of an old Chinese folk tale

As part of its 45th anniversary celebrations, Hong Kong Ballet has enlisted a who’s who of the creative world for its vivid interpretation of a classic folk tale.

Choreographer Ricky Hu Songwei directed the dance programme for Hong Kong Ballet’s new show, The Butterfly Lovers. Photo: Hong Kong Ballet
Performing arts in Hong Kong

Crouching Tiger art director on his new Hong Kong Ballet project

Oscar-winner Tim Yip talks about designing the set and costumes for Hong Kong Ballet’s The Butterfly Lovers and his fascination with dance.

Fashion

How Hong Kong Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker changed this fashion designer

‘In fashion, people always think that Paris or New York are best, but one thing I always think we forget is our own culture,’ says fashion designer Mountain Yam

Performing arts in Hong Kong

Explainer | What’s on at HKPAX, Hong Kong’s performing arts ‘mega event’

Hong Kong Performing Arts Expo, meant to promote the city as a global hub of culture, will feature a week of dance, theatre and networking.

Hong Kong artists Anna Lo and Rick Lau will perform at HKPAX. Photo: HKPAX
Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Hong Kong Ballet’s The Wizard of Oz is a real spectacle for the family

The Wizard of Oz by the Hong Kong Ballet is big and bold, with special effects, spectacular designs and energetic dancing, but the music and story structure lack emotion.

Zoe Loo as Dorothy and Natalie Lu with a puppet of Toto the dog in Hong Kong Ballet’s The Wizard of Oz. Photo: Conrad Dy-Liacco; courtesy of Hong Kong Ballet
Performing arts in Hong Kong

Profile | Hong Kong dancer so good she skipped a step on way to ballet’s top tier

Tirion Law talks about her surprise promotion to principal dancer of the National Ballet of Canada and her upcoming Hong Kong performance with another of the city’s international stars, Lam Chun-wing.

Performing arts in Hong Kong

Hong Kong Ballet artistic director on ‘over the top’ The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz has been a favourite of Septime Webre since his childhood. His version of the tale of Dorothy and her friends for Hong Kong Ballet leans towards the ‘outrageous’, he says.

Performing arts in Hong Kong

Bronte, Bizet, Nureyev, TS Eliot at Hong Kong Arts Festival 2025

Carmen as it was originally staged, Wuthering Heights as music theatre, Andras Schiff and his chamber orchestra, and rarely heard Beethoven are among highlights of the 2025 Hong Kong Arts Festival.

Director Emma Rice’s music theatre version of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is among highlights of the 2025 Hong Kong Arts Festival. There are treats for opera, ballet and classical music fans too, and a hip hop version of TS Eliot’s The Waste Land. Photo: courtesy of HKAF
Icons and Influencers

Hong Kong-born designer Alain on how Alainpaul’s Joyce debut is a homecoming

The brand’s co-founder Alain talks dance, bending the rules, and the influence of the late Louis Vuitton artistic director Virgil Abloh

Alainpaul cofounders Alain and Luis Philippe. Photos: Handout
Fashion

Romeo and Juliet changed her life – qipao designer on the power of ballet

Contemporary qipao brand Qipology founder Julie Liu talks to the Post about watching the ballet Romeo and Juliet when she was around 10 and wanting to be a fashion designer because she liked the costumes.

Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Swan Lake lead dancers stunning, but Hong Kong Ballet production has flaws

Ye Feifei has never danced the Odette/Odile role better, and guest dancer Matthew Ball was her ideal foil, in Hong Kong Ballet’s new Swan Lake. But the production is marred by some questionable choices.

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Fame and celebrity

Who is Benjamin Millepied, Natalie Portman’s ex-husband – and did he cheat on her?

After months of media speculation about Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied’s marriage being strained, the pair have officially called it quits – here’s what you need to know about him

Natalie Portman and French choreographer Benjamin Millepied have called time on their marriage. Photo: AFP

Are ballet dancers anorexic? Insiders bust myths, describe them as athletes

Ballet dancers are both artists and athletes, insiders say, and ballet similar to a competitive sport. That dancers are thin is a consequence of their training, not anorexia, they explain.

Books and literature

‘Do you get aroused?’ A retired dancer aims to demystify ballet

David McAllister, former principal dancer with The Australian Ballet, and its longest serving artistic director, helps people peek behind the curtain with his new book, ‘Ballet Confidential’.

China-Russia relations

China-Russia cultural bond flourishes with ballet, theatre and music

Amid flurry of performances in China, Russia looks to be seen in a positive light in the face of Western condemnation over the Ukraine invasion: analysts.

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Russian performance companies, such as the Eifman Ballet Company of St Petersburg, pictured, are increasingly appearing in China amid boycotts and sanctions in the West. Photo: Handout
Fame and celebrity

Who is Mick Jagger’s 36-year-old girlfriend and baby mama, Melanie Hamrick?

Mick Jagger has eight kids with five different women – so who is his current girlfriend and baby mama to his youngest child? Here’s what we know about Melanie Hamrick

Ballerina Melanie Hamrick is 44 years younger than her rock star boyfriend Mick Jagger. Photo: @melhamrick/Instagram
Performing arts in Hong Kong

Profile | ‘I wanted to create’: Hong Kong Ballet choreographer Ricky Hu on his calling

Ricky Hu Songwei, Hong Kong Ballet’s award-winning choreographer-in-residence, talks to the Post about studying in in China and New York and finding his artistic voice after switching to choreography.

US-China relations

American Ballet Theatre ‘excited’ about return to China in November

‘For us, it’s a joyful experience,’ says artistic director Susan Jaffe, on the company’s first visit to the country since 2013.

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Performing arts in Hong Kong

How is the Hong Kong Ballet bringing dinosaurs to life? Collaborator explains

Hong Kong Ballet’s new production, Sam and her Amazing Book of Dinosaurs, leans into digital technology to bring the story to life – one of the show’s collaborators explains how.

A scene from “Sam and her Amazing Book of Dinosaurs”. The Hong Kong Ballet’s new production leans into digital technology to bring the story to life. Photo: Hong Kong Ballet
Books and literature

50 Shades of Grey meets ballet in Mick Jagger’s partner’s steamy debut novel

Melanie Hamrick’s new erotic fiction book First Position delves into the sex-filled world of ballet and was inspired by 50 Shades of Grey and Black Swan.

Melanie Hamrick, the long-time partner of Mick Jagger, says that with her erotic fiction novel First Position she wants to give a view of what ballet is like “behind the gilded curtain”. Photo: AP
United States

‘Epic and intimate’ Like Water for Chocolate ballet opens in New York

As the ballet adaptation of Laura Esquivel’s 1989 novel Like Water for Chocolate opens in New York, choreographer Christopher Wheeldon talks about its challenges and the purpose behind his work.

Performing arts in Hong Kong

Why Royal Ballet principals love dancing La Bayadère with Hong Kong Ballet

Principal dancers at the UK’s Royal Ballet Marianela Nunez and Vadim Muntagirov relish being in Hong Kong for two performances of La Bayadère with the Hong Kong Ballet.

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