The National Elite Basketball League (NEBL) will be tipping off its sixth season this Friday with a huge game slated at the Belize City Centre. Defending champions, Belize Hurricanes, will be hosting their southern rivals, Griga Dream Ballers, with a lot of bad blood that needs to be settled on the court. Last year’s semi-finals matchup between these two teams went to a decisive game 3, forcing a monstrous season opener. Mirage Smart Belize Hurricanes will be show-casing their two big men, Belizean American Tyrie Orosco and American big man Jordan Daniels as they join forces with Devin Daly, Brian White, Akeem Watters and Glency “Coope” Lopez in a quest to get back to the big dance this season. The home fans have pledged to pack the Civic Centre on Friday to witness the unveiling of their championship banner and to root for their home team. The hype is built around the high flyers who have committed to give the fans a huge treat, where dunks and dishes will be in abun
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Before we explain why Ashton Edwards is such a groundbreaking ballet dancer, give us a second to define some ballet terminology. You ve probably heard the phrase on pointe, which refers to the style of ballet in which dancers support all their weight on the tips of their toes. It s also a style we see performed almost exclusively by women dancers.
But Edwards, who is gender-fluid, is currently training on pointe as a student at Seattle s Pacific Northwest Ballet. That s a big deal, because training on pointe, and ballet dancing in general, is usually very binary, Edwards explained in an interview with K5 News in Seattle. Men have their own separate training for jumps and turns. For men to be on pointe at a professional ballet school right now, hasn t really happened.
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Ashton Edwards is an 18-year-old ballet student with the Pacific Northwest Ballet s elite Professional Division in Seattle. He s been studying classical ballet since age four.
The way that ballet dancer Ashton Edwards leaps through the air is pure art. The fact that he does it in pointe shoes is a rare feat.
Ballet traditionally has very divided roles for men and women. Men need power to lift their female partners. Women are prized for their delicate precision and the ability to seemingly defy gravity.
But ideas about ballet are changing.
Ashton Edwards is an 18-year-old ballet student with the Pacific Northwest Ballet s elite Professional Division in Seattle. He has been studying classical ballet since he was 4 but always in male roles.
The all-male ballet troupe shatters gender stereotypes with premiere of Breaking Ground Rachel Howard December 17, 2020Updated: December 19, 2020, 12:42 am
Evan Ambrose and Duane Gosa rehearse a pas de deux from “Swan Lake,” part of Ballet22’s inaugural streaming performances. Photo: Ballet22
Over the summer, as the isolation of the pandemic wore on, Roberto Vega Ortiz posted a video of himself dancing in satin pointe shoes on Instagram, with the hashtag #maleballerinas. Soon, men from around the world were posting videos with the same hashtag, sharing footage of themselves sometimes bare-chested and sometimes in tutus dancing en pointe in Mexico, Germany, Brazil, Chile and throughout the U.S.
The program, titled Breaking Ground, premieres December 11, will include a modern take on the
Sugar Plum Pas de Deux from
The Nutcracker; Juntos, a neo-classical work by Cincinnati Ballet Soloist Joshua Stayton; and a world premiere by Artistic Director of Boca Tuya, Omar Román de Jesús. We were able to produce our first digital performance by flying in dancers and choreographers from around the country to safely quarantine together for the rehearsal and filming process, said Executive Director Thereasa Knudson.
The roster of performers includes: Evan Ambrose (formerly Alabama Ballet), Gilbert Bolden III (New York City Ballet), Ashton Edwards (Pacific Northwest Ballet Professional Division), Duane Gosa (Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo), Christopher Kaiser (Oregon Ballet Theatre), Donghoon Lee (Diablo Ballet, formerly Korea National Ballet), and Roberto Vega Ortiz (Diablo Ballet, formerly Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo).