English National Ballet Is Streaming Frida Kahlo Ballet ‘Broken Wings’ For Quarantined Fans
The life of Frida Kahlo has seen many stages. It’s been documented and analyzed in novels, essays, research papers. Depicted on screen and plays. Now, the English National Ballet is doing her colorful life justice with some “on pointe” treatment.
The world-class ballet company has launched ENB At Home, and as part of its new streaming series, will be releasing the Frida Kahlo-inspired production Broken Wings.
As part of their ENB streaming service, the company will showcase a new dance performance on its Facebook and YouTube channels for free for 48 hours. The first one to air will be tonight on Wednesday, April 22. First recorded at Sadler’s Wells in London in 2016, ‘Broken Wings’ will star lead principal (and ENB artistic director) Tamara Rojo as the painter. In the recorded ballet, Rojo appears alongside Irek Mukhamedov, who plays the role of Kahlo’s husband and fellow artist Diego Rivera.
The story, which is choreographed by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, tells the story of the Mexican artist’s life which was often riddled with pain and heartbreak.
More of the streaming program will be revealed as time goes on. In the meantime, English National Ballet and various other ballet houses are currently closed. For now, many are running online ballet classes for fans self-quarantining at home.
Frida Kahlo was a visionary Mexican artist born on July 6th,
1907 and passed on July 13, 1954. She lived a short, but quite eventful, 47 years of life. While Kahlo lived in Paris, New York, and San Francisco, Kahlo is known for being fiercely proud of her Mexican heritage, using dress to evoke political meaning.
To this day, her work inspires and resonates still with the queer, female and non-gender-conforming experiences.
