Who but Frederick Ashton could turn a marital spat into one of the most delightful, touching works in the ballet repertoire? His 1964 The Dream is precisely that...
Tag - American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre’s Swan Lake is looking tired ...bogged down by reams of flavorless dancing.
Few nineteenth-century story ballets are as satisfying as Giselle, with its simple and poetic plot, compact structure and starkly contrasting moods. This week I watched four Giselles, with four distinctly different casts...
To fully enjoy Ashton, one has to be willing to acquiesce to one’s own softer impulses, a sense of wonder and perhaps a little nostalgia, and to surrender the loveliness of small things.
David Hallberg is a rarity in today’s classical ballet. Tall, lean and strikingly handsome, with pure classical line and impeccable dancing prowess, he is a genuine danseur noble.
Smythe’s Harlem was a riot of imagination, movement and color. The choreography blended together three seemingly unmixable styles of dance – classical ballet, jookin’ and flamenco...
Margaret Willis has been busy: in St. Petersburg at the Dance Open Festival Gala and 2 days later in Moscow at the Soul of Dance Ballet Gala. And important awards were given at both...
Both as a tribute to Ashton and as a coming-out party, it’s hard to imagine how the festival could have gone better. The ballets are in good hands.
The gala formula really worked. An eclectic selection of dances – six duets and three short ballets – offered something for almost every taste...
The Sunday matinee performance I attended had all the prerequisites for huge success, featuring world-class principals Paloma Herrera and Ivan Vasiliev, plus a superb supporting cast.
Twyla Tharp loves Americana. She’s made dances to Shaker hymns and to the crooning voice of Frank Sinatra, and whipped up steps to the super-sophisticated piano tunes of Willie “The Lion” Smith. So it’s no surprise...
...an unusual choice of bill. Unusual firstly as the work of two women choreographers, and secondly in that it gives audiences a rare chance to see ballets from the extremely interesting and creative period of the 1940’s and 1950’s, now sadly neglected.
The company embraces the turn-of-the-20th-century Cecchetti Method, more concerned with anatomic integrity than with razzle-dazzle. Cecchetti’s motto is “purity of line, simplicity of style.” You get the idea.
The best all-round piece of the evening is Hans van Manen’s Variations for Two Couples, from the exquisitely concise choreography by this still-relevant master...
Anna-Marie Holmes’s latest staging of Le Corsaire has proved to be a triumph for English National Ballet...
I have yet to see a less than full-throttle performance, even when a choreographer’s style does not quite fit the company’s technique...
So far this season I’ve seen three “traditional” Nutcrackers: Ratmansky’s version for American Ballet Theatre, Gelsey Kirkland’s, and the familiar and much-loved 1954 staging by George Balanchine for New York City Ballet. All three have their charms...
Novels are treacherous terrain for choreographers. So much of what draws us into a book and imprints itself in our imagination ...is almost impossible to convey in the language of the body.
This was an evening not to be missed. Newly appointed Artistic Director, José Manuel Carreño, made sure that the quality of the eighteen guest artists for Ballet San Jose’s Gala Performance would tantalise even the most skeptical dance fan.
On Sunday, American Ballet Theatre’s two-week fall season draws to a close. By most measures, it’s been a success...