New York City Ballet – Stars & Stripes, Fearful Symmetries, The Times Are Racing – Saratoga Springs
★★★✰✰ Stars and Stripes premiered in 1958, and the Russian emigree demonstrates his affection for the quintessential writer of om-pah music in his adopted country by subverting the common association that marching is all about knee action.
New York City Ballet – American Rhapsody, The Four Temperaments, The Times Are Racing – Washington
★★★✰✰ To watch works created by the 29-year old Justin Peck, resident choreographer of New York City Ballet, is to experience what it feels like to be young.
New York City Ballet – Square Dance, Tarantella, Odessa, Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes – Washington
★★★★★ Alexei Ratmansky’s Odessa left me breathless. The dancing (I saw both casts) was phenomenal on all levels: assured, expressive, and thoroughly dramatic.
Washington Ballet – Lilac Garden, The Dream, Frontier (premiere) – Washington
★★★✰✰ Ethan Stiefel’s Frontier, his first significant commission, had all the right ingredients… Yet the ballet, with its space travel theme, didn’t leave much of an impression…
Ballet Across America – Opening Night Celebration 2017 – Washington
★★★★✰ Ballet Across America – a festival that showcases the stylistic, creative and geographical diversity of American ballet – returned to the Kennedy Center this month…
Washington Ballet – Giselle – Washington
★★★✰✰ On Friday night, the title role was danced by EunWon Lee, a new name on the Washington Ballet’s roster…
Suzanne Farrell Ballet – Danses Concertantes, Gounod Symphony, Stars and Stripes – Washington
★★★★✰ Watching this immensely entertaining program one realizes that even a minor Balanchine ballet is still a great ballet.
Royal Swedish Ballet – Juliet and Romeo – Washington
★★★✰✰ The production nevertheless intrigues the eye and is fueled by the exceptional dancing of the company’s talented and dedicated dancers.
Washington Ballet – Hamlet – Washington
★★✰✰✰ There is, however, one undeniably compelling personage in this somewhat flat production of Hamlet – the quiet and fragile Ophelia, as portrayed by Venus Villa…
New York City Ballet – La Sylphide, Bournonville Divertissements – Washington
★★★✰✰ In his staging of La Sylphide, Martins not only removes the intermission, thus shortening the performance time, he also accelerates the pace of the events. It feels as if the story rushes at you with…
New York City Ballet – Works By Balanchine, Martins, Peck and Wheeldon – Washington
★★★✰✰ The first of two mixed programs that New York City Ballet presented at the Kennedy Center Opera House in March offered a wide variety of works…
Washington Ballet – PRISM, State of Wonder, and In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated – Washington
★★★✰✰ All the pieces on the program were united by a common thread – the athleticism, authority and technical prowess of the company’s dancers…
Mariinsky Ballet – Raymonda – Washington
The Mariinsky Ballet brought Raymonda to Washington where Oksana Khadarina saw the opening night and gave it ★★★. A night later the performance got ★★★★ – different ballerinas, different result…
American Ballet Theatre – The Sleeping Beauty – Washington
★★★★✰ “Ratmansky’s new staging is a Beauty like you have never seen before: it uncovers the original ballet’s genuine beauty, which faded over the years under the clutter of modern revisions.”
National Ballet of Canada – The Winter’s Tale – Washington
★★★★✰ Despite the monumental levels of snow in Washington nothing was going to stop Oksana Khadarina from seeing the National Ballet of Canada in Christopher Wheeldon’s “The Winter’s Tale”. And in two casts as well…
Interview: Karen Kain – Artistic Director, National Ballet of Canada
The much admired Karen Kain has been directing the National Ballet of Canada for 10 years now – Oksana Khadarina catches up with her as the company prepare to visit Washington with Christopher Wheeldon’s “Winter’s Tale”…
Suzanne Farrell Ballet – Walpurgisnacht Ballet, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Emeralds – Washington
Suzanne Farrell Ballet’s new program, “Balanchine, Béjart, and the Bard,” presented at the Kennedy Center Opera House at the end of October, was dedicated to the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. It offered an appealing mix of four ballets
Interview: Suzanne Farrell – Artistic Director
We talk to Farrell about her summer program, her approach to teaching aspiring ballet dancers, her studies and work with George Balanchine and also about her her company and its new season at the Kennedy Center, which runs 30 Oct – 1 Nov 2015.
Kathleen Breen Combes – Principal, Boston Ballet
I was told my body type wasn’t really ideal, and during high school I had ballet teachers who said that maybe I should consider pursuing college because my body wasn’t suitable for classical ballet…
The Royal Ballet – Don Quixote – Washington
At 42, Acosta is still a powerful presence. A much-loved artist around the world, he is undoubtedly one of the greatest male dancers of his generation.
