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…
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.
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…
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.
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.
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 – 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…
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.
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.
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.
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 – 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 – 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…
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.
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 – 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.
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 – 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 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.
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.
