Other years have been more exciting, I think, but this one has had its share of remarkable performances, including a few thrilling ones. Here, in no particular order, are the ones that really stood out, for one reason or another.
Tag - Cameron Grant
★★★★✰ On the second night the program was offered, Mearns was stunning, but the remaining three pieces, by three different companies were, to varying degrees, engaging, although hers was a tough act to follow.
★★✰✰✰ After viewing Ashton on a bill with works by Ricardo Graziano and Christopher Wheeldon, I’m not worried about Ashton’s relevance nor his resonance with a future audience. ...Both the Graziano and Wheeldon posed some problems from what some might consider a “female” perspective.
★★★★✰ Even in stillness, Taylor dancers hold immense power in their bodies, the energy potential within them more nuclear than solar.
Passing it On: Wendy Whelan Stages her first ballet, Alexei Ratmansky's Pictures at an Exhibition, for Pacific Northwest Ballet.
★★★★✰ New York City Ballet’s seemingly endless stream of new talent has a source, and that source is the School of American Ballet...
★★★★✰ After watching two of the four programs, a few things stand out. Firstly, it is clear that this is no simple gala, despite the format; there is a strong personal esthetic and philosophy at work behind the programs.
★★★★✰ The pleasure, above all, in watching this company is their fearless super-charge of energy and their commitment as the inheritors of Balanchine’s ballets.
★★★★✰ Vienna Waltzes is a sure-fire hit. It seduces on many fronts: the ridiculously flattering gowns by Karinska (her last for the company), the sumptuous music, the multitudes of dancers...
★★★★✰ Some nights at the ballet you just get lucky: all the works are beautiful and the program is well balanced, and each of the casts is led by a ballerina who seems just right for the role.
New York City Ballet's second bill in Washington was all about 21st-Century Choreographers, with works by Alexei Ratmansky, Christopher Wheeldon, Justin Peck and Peter Martins.
'Rōdē,ō: Four Dance Episodes premiere: It turns out that this combination of male vigor, Copland, and Peck is a felicitous one.
More from the NYCB Winter Season with Marina Harss reviewing 2 bills made up of 6 works: Concerto Barocco, The Goldberg Variations, Symphonic Dances, The Cage, Andantino and Cortege Hongrois...
The Washington Ballet hit all the right marks with its 70th anniversary season opening program at the Sidney Harman Hall in October.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, is there a ballet choreographer working today who is more imaginative, more wholly himself, than Alexei Ratmansky?
Justin Peck has gone from unknown corps-member to choreographer-of-the-moment in a blink of an eye. (He created his first piece for the company in 2012; this is his sixth.)
In many ways, Jewels is Balanchine’s choreographic résumé – a retrospective and a vivid showcase of his aesthetics and creative genius...
Jeu de Cartes, by Peter Martins, is jaunty and busy, a cross between the pas de deux in Balanchine’s Rubies, the trios in Danses Concertantes, and the non-stop action of Martins’ Fearful Symmetries....