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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
New York City Ballet – Paz de la Jolla premiere and bill – New York
It’s a good thing indeed when a visit to the ballet turns out to be a night full of surprises, all of them good.
New York City Ballet – Divertimento from Le Baiser de la Fée quad bill – New York
Is there a ballet more deceptive than Balanchine’s Divertimento from ‘Le Baiser de la Fée’? If so, I’m not aware of it.
New York City Ballet – Serenade, Mozartiana, Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2 – New York
I’m not yet fully convinced of the wisdom of New York City Ballet’s thematic seasons, organized around the music of a single composer….
23rd International Ballet Festival of Havana, 2012
The festival was as intensive as ever, with three performances running on seven days, four on one day, some concurrently. The range and quality of dance overall was impressive.
Natalia Makarova Honoured at The 35th Annual Kennedy Center Honours
The Honors are America’s highest award for those whose creative triumphs influenced and enhanced American culture. This is a celebration of their outstanding careers and extraordinary talents and appreciation of their unyielding commitment and contribution to the arts.
New York City ballet – George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker – New York
When something is beautifully made it never gets old. So it is with Balanchine’s Nutcracker, first performed by New York City Ballet in 1954 and honed to near-perfection over the years.
American Ballet Theatre – Drink, Cruel World, Stars/Stripes, Rodeo, Pavane, Upper Room – New York
The highlight of the gala was the seventieth-anniversary performance of Agnes De Mille’s Rodeo, preceded by a short film describing its creation, with archival footage of the hilariously histrionic, diminutive choreographer.
New York City Ballet – Two Hearts, Year of the Rabbit, Les Carillons – New York
There should be more nights like this at New York City Ballet.
Fall For Dance Festival – Program 4: Shivalingappa, PNWB, Melnick, Ka Leo O Laka – New York
Every Fall For Dance program is a bit of a pot luck, which is part of the festival’s charm. This year it has been expanded to twelve of performances (each costing $15, up from $10 last year)…
New York City Ballet – Stravinsky/Balanchine Firebird quad bill – New Work
The highlight of the program was the seldom-performed Divertimento from “Le Baiser de la Fée”. It is a deceptively shadowy work, a fairy tale in the guise of a conventional divertissement.
New York City Ballet – Apollo, Orpheus, Agon – New York
What is there to say about Orpheus, except that it seems to slip deeper into the recesses of time? I’ve read that at the première, the critic and poet Edwin Denby was so moved by it that he sat dumbfounded during intermission, unable to stand. It is difficult to imagine such a reaction today.
New York City Ballet – Concerto Barocco, Kammermusik No. 2, Firebird, Symphony in C – Saratoga Springs
After the dreary bombast of Alexei Ratmansky’s recent Firebird for American Ballet Theatre, the Balanchine/Robbins version, with its blessedly shorter score (Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite), heavenly Chagall designs and the great Ashley Bouder in one of her first great roles, was a welcome palliative.
New York City Ballet – A Midsummer Night’s Dream – New York
In the second act, storytelling gives way to pure dance, the highpoint of which is one of the most delicate, poetic pas de deux ever made – an allegory of love, danced by an unidentified couple. It is a Balanchinean vision of absolute trust and partnership…
New York City Ballet – Spring Gala – New York
I think it’s safe to say that neither of the new works knocked the planet off its axis…
