Paul McCartney’s Ocean’s Kingdom

“Like the rest of my generation, I grew up being a huge fan of the Beatles so I was thrilled to meet him. After I got to know him a bit, and knowing of his great love of composing classical music, I asked if he might be interested in doing something for New York City Ballet, and I am ecstatic that he has agreed to write a score for us.” - Peter Martins

“I am always interested in new directions that I haven’t worked in before. So I became very excited about the idea… What was interesting was writing music that meant something expressively rather than just writing a song. Trying to write something that expressed an emotion – so you have fear, love, anger, sadness to play with and I found that exciting and challenging.” - Paul McCartney

By Juliana Araújo

The winter season in New York City Ballet began Sept. 13, 2011 at Lincoln Center. Among the traditional ballets such as Swan Lakeand the works of Balanchine, the great news of the moment is Ocean Kingdom, the new ballet  choreographed by Peter Martins and with music composed by Paul McCartney, who invited his daughter Stella McCartney to create the costumes for the piece.

First Position: A Ballet Documentary

Photo First Position

By Juliana Araújo

First Position is a documentary that portrays the backstage of the Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP), which is one of the largest ballet competitions in the world of ballet, where the main prize is a scholarship to a school of the winner’s choice.

Within approximately 90 minutes, the filming crew portrays the participants’ physical, emotional and financial difficulties. During the shooting, the film director, Bess Kargman, followed six young dancers of various nationalities between 9 to 19 years old, including interviews with parents, ballet teachers and choreographers.