"New York City Ballet" tag
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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…

Maria Kochetkova and Joan Boada in Possokhov's Francesca da Rimini.© Erik Tomasson. (Click image for larger version)

San Francisco Ballet – Criss-Cross, Francesca da Rimini, Symphony in Three Movements – San Francisco

Program 7 made me think a lot about this tricky issue of programming because this bill is a weird sandwich made with a delectable gourmet filling between slices of bland Wonder bread.

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.

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.

Lil Buck and Yo Yo Ma in in Philip Glass's Orbit (world premiere), part of A Jookin' Jam Session.© Erin Baiano. (Click image for larger version)

Lil Buck – A Jookin’ Jam Session – New York

When he begins to move, you are not just impressed by what he’s doing – which is impressive enough – but also touched by the quiet joy and purity of expression that emanates from his body and eyes.

Peter Boal.© Angela Sterling. (Click image for larger version)

Peter Boal – Pacific Northwest Ballet – Artistic Director

So how long does he see himself staying on the far side of America? “Well, I am just about to sign another six year contract,” he grinned…

Blakeley White-McGuire in Martha Graham's Imperial Gesture.© Charles Eilber. (Click image for larger version)

Martha Graham Dance Company – “Fall and Recovery” Gala – New York

Even more than with other choreographers, the costumes and sets are essential elements of Graham’s dance imagination. Think of Martha’s stretchy sack-dress in Lamentation, or the prickly metal tree-dress by Noguchi in Cave of the Heart. They are extensions of the dancers’ bodies, and of Graham’s Jungian world-view.

Edward Watson in Alexei Ratmansky's 24 Preludes.© Dave Morgan, by kind permission of the Royal Opera House. (Click image for larger version)

Royal Ballet – Apollo, 24 Preludes, Aeternum – London

This triple bill, with two world premieres, shows how ably choreographers 85 years apart can refresh the language of classical ballet without distorting it beyond recognition.

Teresa Reichlen.© Paul Kolnik. (Click image for larger version)

Teresa Reichlen – New York City Ballet – Principal

Teresa Reichlen – known as Tess by friends and colleagues – is an immediately striking dancer: tall, pale, preternaturally serene. She could be a Madonna in a painting by Botticelli.

Seth Orza, Carla Körbes, Maria Chapman, Lesley Rausch (front-back) in Apollo.© Lindsay Thomas. (Click image for larger version)

Pacific Northwest Ballet – Concerto Barocco, Apollo, Agon – New York

In New York one can begin to feel proprietary about Balanchine, to form the illusion that his choreography is a local specialty, the province of a select group of dancers, all of them employees of New York City Ballet. But this is mere local pride.

Sara Mearns in Serenade.© Paul Kolnik. (Click image for larger version)

Sara Mearns – New York City Ballet – Principal

Sara Mearns has been New York City Ballet’s reigning Swan Queen since her breakout performance in 2006, when she was only nineteen years old and a member the corps de ballet. It was a performance of surprising intensity, edged with danger.

Carla Körbes and Karel Cruz in Giselle.© Angela Sterling. (Click image for larger version)

Carla Korbes – Pacific Northwest Ballet – Principal

Now thirty-one Carla Korbes has grown up to become one of America’s most remarkable ballerinas. Her recent performance of Terpsichore’s duet with Apollo at the Guggenheim was one of the most touchingly natural and innately musical interpretations I’ve seen.

Justin Peck in N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz by Jerome Robbins.© Paul Kolnik. (Click image for larger version)

New York City Ballet – N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz, Waltz Project – New York

N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz is certainly not Robbins’ finest or most original work but perhaps because of its relative straightforwardness, it reveals much about what is so remarkable about this choreographer.

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