New York City Ballet – Serenade, Mozartiana, Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2 – New York
★★★✰✰ One of the earliest things I appreciated about Balanchine is that he made me feel okay about liking Tschaikovsky (as NYCB likes to spell it)…
New York City Ballet – Divertimento No. 15, Episodes, Vienna Waltzes – New York
★★★★✰ Divertimento’s aura still shines; you want to see it again, to figure out its fluid, almost magical transitions. It’s a shame it will only be performed four times this season; it takes more than that for the audience, and the dancers, to really get to know it.
New York City Ballet – Serenade, Hallelujah Junction, Duo Concertant, Western Symphony – New York
★★★★✰ Balanchine himself once said that Serenade is “many things to many people.” If it is one thing to City Ballet, it is the single ballet which they are expected to do perfectly every time.
San Francisco Ballet – Prog 1: Serenade, RAkU, Lambarena – San Francisco
America’s oldest ballet company, San Francisco Ballet, opened its eighty-second season with a triple bill that encapsulates the uniquely varied repertory developed by artistic director Helgi Tomasson…
New York City Ballet – Jewels: Emeralds, Rubies, Diamonds – Washington
In many ways, Jewels is Balanchine’s choreographic résumé – a retrospective and a vivid showcase of his aesthetics and creative genius…
The Royal Ballet – Jewels: Emeralds, Rubies, Diamonds – London
Fascinating to see the Royal Ballet’s production of Balanchine’s Jewels not long after the Bolshoi’s account at the Royal Opera House in summer. Unlike the Russians, the Royal Ballet dancers understand the different period conventions of the three ‘acts’…
Bolshoi Ballet – Jewels: Emeralds, Rubies, Diamonds – London
The Bolshoi’s glorious rising star, Olga Smirnova, was imperious…
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.
Nancy Reynolds – George Balanchine Foundation – Director of Research
An in-depth interview with the lady who helps bring Balanchine back…
