"George Balanchine" tag
Hee Seo in Romeo and Juliet.© John Grigaitis. (Click image for larger version)

American Ballet Theatre – Romeo and Juliet – New York

American Ballet Theatre are dancing Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet. Marina Harss reviews 2 casts: Polina Semionova / David Hallberg and Roberto Bolle / Hee Seo…

Sarasota Ballet's Jamie Carter and Christine Peixoto in Les Patineurs.© Linda Spillers. (Click image for larger version)

Ballet Across America – Sarasota, Washington and Pennsylvania Ballet – Washington

I am happy to report that the biggest discovery of the second program was The Sarasota Ballet, a company founded in 1991 and currently directed by former Royal Ballet dancer Iain Webb…

Mark Morris Dance Group perfoms Excursions at Libbey Bowl on June 7, 2013 in Ojai, California.© Timothy Norris. (Click image for larger version)

Mark Morris Dance Group at the Ojai Music Festival – California

The festival elects a guest director each year; Morris is the first choreographer to get the job. The seemingly ubiquitous Morris has now taken to calling the current season “my festival”; he’s only half kidding…

Oregon Ballet Theatre's Damian Drake, Paul DeStrooper and Alison Roper in Almost Mozart.© Blaine Truitt Covert. (Click image for larger version)

Ballet Across America – Richmond Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theater, Boston Ballet – Washington

It’s a celebration of American ballet from coast to coast and a vivid snapshot of its diversity of style and repertory.

The Company in Justin Peck's In Creases.© Paul Kolnik. (Click image for larger version)

New York City Ballet – In Creases (new Peck) quad bill – New York

Creases revealed, once again, Just Peck’s ability to create strikingly imaginative patterns and formations onstage.

The Raven Girl and the Raven Prince (Sarah Lamb, Eric Underwood) in Wayne McGregor's Raven Girl.© Dave Morgan, courtesy the Royal Opera House. (Click image for larger version)

Royal Ballet – Raven Girl, Symphony in C – London

At this stage, Raven Girl seems a work in transition. Its longueurs need tightening, an inexplicable ‘19th century couple’excised, solos for important characters expanded, and more light thrown on the goings-on.

Sarah Lamb in Raven Girl.© Dave Morgan, courtesy the Royal Opera House. (Click image for larger version)

Gallery – Royal Ballet in Raven Girl / Symphony in C

6 pictures by Dave Morgan…

Julie Kent in A Month in the Country.© Marty Sohl. (Click image for larger version)

American Ballet Theatre – A Month in the Country premiere and bill – New York

Has there ever been a more sensitive, sympathetic chronicler of that inner flutter brought on by the onset of love than Frederick Ashton? It seems unlikely, on the evidence of ABT’s premiere of A Month in the Country…

Misa Kuranaga and Boyko Dossev in George Balanchine's Coppélia © The George Balanchine Trust.© Rosalie O'Connor. (Click image for larger version)

Boston Ballet – Coppélia – Boston

Boston audiences were very lucky in their first two Swanildas. Opening night, Misa Kuranaga was a vision of loveliness…

© Dance Open

International Ballet Festival 2013 – Dance Open – St Petersburg

The 12th International Ballet Festival – Dance Open – was held over 4 days in St Petersburg. Margaret Willis (our Ms Expressivity) was there to report on much ballet and not a little award giving…

Julie Kent and Roberto Bolle in Marcelo Gomes' Apothéose.© Marty Sohl. (Click image for larger version)

American Ballet Theatre – Spring Gala – New York

Symphony in C, a luminous outpouring of legs and arms, crisp geometries, bobbing rhythms, and articulate patter-like conversations for the feet, is a vivid reminder of why one goes to the ballet at all. Luminosity and classical logic, laced with wit and intelligence.

Irina Dvorovenko in "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue", On Your Toes.© Joan Marcus. (Click image for larger version)

City Center – On Your Toes – New York

Along the way, the show strings together some memorably ravishing songs and knock-out dance numbers while having fun…

Jeffrey Cirio in Wayne McGregor’s Chroma.© Gene Schiavone. (Click image for larger version)

Boston Ballet – Chroma, Serenade, Symphony in C – Boston

Chroma: Perhaps it’s meant as a kind of sherbet to clear the palate between the Balanchine pieces… In short, I found the ballet dazzling but soulless.

Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild in Christopher Wheeldon's A Place for Us.© Paul Kolnik. (Click image for larger version)

New York City Ballet – Spring Gala with Wheeldon premiere – New York

But ‘A Place for Us’ (new Wheeldon) feels like a bauble, not quite a jewel.

Janie Taylor and Anthony Huxley in George Balanchine's Ivesiana.© Paul Kolnik. (Click image for larger version)

New York City Ballet – Who Cares?, Ivesiana, Tarantella, Stars & Stripes – New York

But stuck in the middle of all this brightness was Ivesiana, like a ghost at a birthday party. It is a most unsettling ballet.

Christopher Wheeldon rehearsing his new Cinderella.© Erik Tomasson. (Click image for larger version)

Christopher Wheeldon – Choreographer

Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon is currently at the San Francisco Ballet preparing for the American premiere of his Cinderella. He has a rehearsal in forty-five minutes so we quickly set off to discuss his latest full-length ballet and many other things…

Veronika Part and Roberto Bolle in Symphony #9.© Rosalie O'Connor. (Click image for larger version)

American Ballet Theatre – Symphony in C, Moor’s Pavane, Symphony #9 – Washington

…with choreographic masterpieces by George Balanchine and José Limón and a Washington D.C. premiere of Alexei Ratmansky’s new work, this ABT program was in every way a balletomane’s dream come true.

Polina Semionova in Romeo and Juliet.© and provided by HK Leisure & Cultural Services Department(Click image for larger version)

American Ballet Theatre – Hong Kong Arts Festival Season – Hong Kong

The season began with a high-energy mixed bill which showed the company on sparkling form.

Dance Theatre of Harlem in Return.© Matthew Murphy. (Click image for larger version)

Dance Theatre of Harlem – April 2013 Revival bill – New York

Johnson has a challenge on her hands. So much potential and so much talent; but what is the mission?

NYCB in George Balanchine's Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3.© Paul Kolnik. (Click image for larger version)

New York City Ballet – Swan Lake, Allegro Brillante, Tsch Suite No. 3 – Washington

The revitalizing impact of Balanchine’s choreography on Tchaikovsky’s music was particularly evident in the all-Tchaikovsky, all-Balanchine program presented by New York City Ballet at the Kennedy Center Opera House during the last week of March.

DanceTabs © 2013 All Rights Reserved

© All here is copyright DanceTabs and the author concerned. Do not steal our words or pictures please. Thank you.