FASHION Magazine

“This photo captures the essence of spring: everything is vibrant and new,” says Maarten Sluyter, FASHION’s current art director. “You can almost smell the fresh air. The model featured, Liisa Winkler, studied ballet, and she brings an air of elegance and spontaneity to this shot. Her pose evokes a sense of playfulness and highlights the voluminous skirt. I love that her hair isn’t perfectly in place; it goes with the natural setting and seems to mirror the leafy trees. This is what living in the moment looks like.”

Can’t face another blah session on the elliptical? From trapeze to monkey movements, we offer six ways to spice up your routine.

1. TAKE IT TO THE ZOO
Spend an hour at Aeküus in Montreal (aekuus.com) and your body will have a light-bulb moment. You’ll find yourself bounding from one corner to the next like a monkey, with one hand on the ground and the other overhead, or crawling inches from the floor like Spider-Man scaling a building. The exercises originate from basic calisthenics and expand into endless variations, many of which are animal-inspired quadrupedal motions. You’ll start with posture, breathing and fundamental movements (walking, falling, sitting), then increase the intensity and incorporate elements such as martial arts, J-Kae band work and jump rope. “After a year and a half with us, you’re basically capable of training by yourself,” says co-founder Julien Karl. Demonstrating an advanced technique, he grabs the outer edge of a staircase, each hand on a different step, and lifts his legs parallel to the floor. Sold.

Wonderland was unleashed upon the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts (and its surrounding area) last night for The National Ballet of Canada’s annual Mad Hot fundraising gala. This year, the Ballet took its theme from the wildly popular premiere of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon. After a gala performance—including selections from the work as well as Passacaglia, No. 24 and The Dying Swan, danced by principal dancer Greta Hodgkinson, who is celebrating her 20th year with the company—guests including Karen Kain, Galen Weston Jr., Alexandra Weston and actress Lisa Ray wined, hors d’œuvre’d and wandered the transformed building, which housed an extra-long mirrored dining table filled to the brim with traditional tea fare, a hookah-smoking caterpillar, and multiple bars serving “White Rabbit” cocktails in teacups. Across the street on the Osgoode lawn, six Alices played croquet with flamingos.

This spring, Calgary designer Paul Hardy hit the barre. Known for his ultra-feminine, unstructured looks, Hardy is designing the costumes for the Alberta Ballet’s Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, a performance inspired by and set to the music of Canadian songstress Sarah McLachlan.

By Jennie Jin We feel a bit of ballet mania in the air–maybe it’s just our excitement for Black Swan. In Vancouver, we can feed our obsession at the first Canadian location of U.S. fitness studio The Bar Method (837 Beatty Street, 604-681-6188, vancouver.barmethod.com). The studio features an hour-long workout that mixes Pilates, yoga, and […]

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Blame Kanye’s short film Runaway, which put the spotlight squarely on a flock of ballerinas in black tutus, or Natalie Portman’s much-hyped turn as a scarily focused prima ballerina in Black Swan, but we’re currently obsessed with all things ballet-related.

Dancer and certified fitness instructor Jennifer Nichols (extensionmethod.com) leads you through a one-hour ballet bootcamp that is hard work but fun–a great way to relive the glory of those under-10 ballet-class days. Watching Nichols gracefully lead the class is almost worth the (very reasonable) price of admission. At 99 Sudbury, Toronto  (99sudbury.ca), Fridays, at 6.30 […]

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Lovely in…their ballet best

Where: Toronto Fashion Week at Nathan Phillips Square

Why: For sporting glammed up ballet basics–because if you can’t wear a tutu or hot pink tights during Fashion Week, when can you?

We’ve got a larger image after the jump.