FASHION Magazine

In honour of the upcoming world premiere of Rufus Wainwright’s Hadrian (on the Canadian Opera Company stage in October), the COC dedicated the theme of this year’s #Operanation to the gods of ancient Rome. The 14th annual Operanation transformed the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts into a coliseum of wonder. The atrium filled […]

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Arguably the “most” favourite of favourite ballets, Swan Lake has been a serious crowd-pleaser long before it became synonymous with Natalie Portman/Mila Kunis’s portrayal of the (in)famous characters. Premiered by the Bolshoi Ballet in 1877 in Moscow, the show has had more than a century to evolve into various renditions, and the one presented at […]

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Last Thursday opera lovers, patrons of the arts and faces who frequent Toronto’s party circuit came together to support the Canadian Opera Company for Operanation 9: Sweet Revenge. Attendees reflected the event’s theme of high-brow-opera-meets-pop-culture-concert well: Women in floor-length evening gowns navigated the many staircases of the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts with ease—proving there’s no architectural challenge a mermaid dress can’t master—while others used the Centre’s sprawling steps as seating throughout the night.

Actress Gabrille Miller looked stunning in a peplum’d dress from Lucian Matis Fall 2012 while Nelly Furtado had two costume changes throughout the night, starting with a gown by Denis Gagnon and later switching into a Holy Tee dress. On the third floor a group of Argo players attracted many eligible ladies—perhaps the popularity of The Bachelor Canada has given the CFL a new social standing?

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The National Ballet of Canada must be feeling quite royal this year because it’s celebrating a diamond anniversary (that being 60 years) of pliés, and toasted as such at last night’s glittering Diamond Gala. The special edition of the company’s annual Mad Hot gala featured five performance works, including premieres of two spellbinding works, Polar Night (choreographed by Robert Binet and danced by real-life couple Heather Ogden and Guillaume Côté) and Silence Screams Venom (choreographed by Côté and danced by Greta Hodgkinson alongside Giorgio Galli, Keiichi Hirano, Patrick Lavoie and Christopher Stalzer) and finishing off with the most glittering of all: an excerpt from George Balanchine’s Diamonds, complete with the entire company decked out in jewel-encrusted costumes.

After the performances, the full house, including the ballet’s artistic director Karen Kain, Rufus Wainwright and Jorn Weisbrödt and the fabulously feathered Lynda Prince (who was overheard giving Kain posing directions) mingled all around the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. The designer-clad doyennes, Victoria Webster, Trinity Jackman, Cleophee Eaton and Amy Burstyn-Fritz, made Katrantzou/Erdem/McQueen sightings seem as simple as it could be with vodka cocktails and rock candy stir sticks in hand.

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To mark the National Ballet of Canada’s 60^th anniversary, Canadian artists, designers and community groups have come together to pay a very fitting homage to the company’s milestone with an exhibit of 60 unique tutus.

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.