David Hallberg Returns After Long Absence
The Australian Ballet website has great photos by Kate Longley of David Hallberg’s return to the stage in Coppélia last week. David has been out for the past two and a half years with a foot injury. As David explains in an Australian Ballet interview, he had a tear in his deltoid ligiment that emerged over a nine-month period and needed two surgeries. To get back in shape, he worked with the Australia Ballet rehabilitation team consisting of body conditioning specialist Paula Baird-Colt and rehab specialist Megan Connelly.
We started over completely, at square one. After a very thorough assessment, the first step was to build strength, to overhaul my entire body, especially from the waist down. I didn’t do any ballet, I didn’t go into any studios, I didn’t put tights on. I was with Paula for five hours a day, just building, building, building. She taught me a whole encyclopaedia of exercises. It was a very slow, very incremental, very methodical process, so there was no danger of error, nothing left to chance. By the time I was ready to go into ballet with Megan, I had built a completely different support system. Megan restructured everything in terms of the way I used the strength I had built once I began to apply it to my dancing. With both Paula and Megan, it was slow, methodical work boiled down to every last detail.
In ABT’s Met schedule there is one open male lead slot in Giselle and three in Swan Lake. Hopefully David can fill a few slots in the spring, which would be a welcome addition after missing two ABT seasons.
Polina Semionova Expecting
Polina Seminova’s Facebook page has a beautiful photo of an expecting Polina, cradling and reflecting on her baby bump. Congratulations Polina!
In an NY1 interview from 2013, she mentioned her goal of having a family and her admiration of dancers returning to the stage after having children. Curently Polina is listed as a Guest Principal Dancer at the Mikhailovsky Ballet but not on the roster at ABT or Berlin Opera Ballet. She joined ABT as a Principal Dancer in 2012 and gave stunning performances in Don Quixote and Swan Lake among others. Her turning abilities and control are amazing. Polina is one of my favorite dancers and I hope she returns to ABT. Maybe with David Hallberg in the 2018 Met Season?
Above Photo: Polina Semionova and David Hallberg, ABT La Bayadere, May 26, 2012