pointework

Jinling grafts vestiges of Chinese opera moves gliding walks, acrobatic tumbling and contortionist postures to much of what's now called "contemporary" dance—a hybrid of ballet's vocabulary without its pointework, alongside generic modern dance moves.

From Controversial Epic to a Generic Flower 2012

The ballerina has all the eye-catching accoutrements -- the strange marvel of pointework, the focal target of the tutu.

Larissa Archer: Lines Ballet's Resin Breaks Down Ballet's Conventions Larissa Archer 2011

ABT's female dancers, top-level and lesser, all appeared to relish the choreographer's variously fleet and rigorous pointework demands for her momentum-gathering "In the Upper Room" from 1986, to music by Philip Glass.

ABT's City Center Season Worked Best With Ballet Robert Greskovic 2011

The ballerina has all the eye-catching accoutrements -- the strange marvel of pointework, the focal target of the tutu.

Larissa Archer: Lines Ballet's Resin Breaks Down Ballet's Conventions Larissa Archer 2011

The ballerina has all the eye-catching accoutrements -- the strange marvel of pointework, the focal target of the tutu.

Larissa Archer: Lines Ballet's Resin Breaks Down Ballet's Conventions Larissa Archer 2011

In place of the familiar swan maidens — female dancers in white tutus aiming for Russian "soul" through pattering pointework and achingly arched torsos — Mr. Bourne presents 14 bare-chested, barefoot male dancers.

Fair Feathered Friends Robert Greskovic 2010

Elsewhere, seeing the accomplished ballet dancer triumph in the often unorthodox challenges of Ms. Tharp, partly due to the choreographer's pointework detailing, I began to wonder if some Cunningham stager Patricia Lent was in charge of "Duets" here would countenance somehow working pointes into Cunningham's footwork.

ABT's City Center Season Worked Best With Ballet Robert Greskovic 2011

When New York City Ballet danced Cunningham's work decades ago, the modern-dance maker allowed for the option of pointework.

ABT's City Center Season Worked Best With Ballet Robert Greskovic 2011

The ballerina has all the eye-catching accoutrements -- the strange marvel of pointework, the focal target of the tutu.

Larissa Archer: Lines Ballet's Resin Breaks Down Ballet's Conventions Larissa Archer 2011

Her authority in creating pointework passages for her female dancers, most notably in the symphony's second, "Playful Pizzicato," movement, sparkles with the insights of someone who learned such clear yet intricate footwork by performing the illuminating complexities of Balanchine ballets, the bedrock works of NYCB.

NYCB Goes Back to Core Values 2009