American Ballet Theatre – New Romantics: New American Romance, Garden Blue, A Time There Was – New York
★★★✰✰ The emphasis here was on new. This was a night to check in on the creative efforts of two emerging voices on the ballet scene – Gemma Bond and James Whiteside.
American Ballet Theatre – Balanchine, Bennett & The Beach Boys bill – New York
★★★★✰ In programs like this one, ABT really looks like an American company, steeped in American popular music and the relaxed attitude of popular dance. It’s a mode that suits the company well.
American Ballet Theatre – Fall Gala and The Masters bills – New York
★★★★✰ The fewer the speeches, the better the gala – this universal truth seems to have bypassed the organizers at American Ballet Theatre…
American Ballet Theatre – Manon – New York
★★★★★ As someone who cries easily, it’s a wonder that Manon remains a favorite ballet of mine… Misty Copeland and Cory Stearns were passionate and persuasive in their respective roles as Manon and Des Grieux.
American Ballet Theatre – Gala with The Seasons premiere + Ratmansky Trio bill – New York
★★★★✰ It’s impossible not to be impressed by the range of these works, from introspective and conversational (Symposium) to brilliantly classical (The Seasons) to dramatic (Dnieper).
American Ballet Theatre – Fall Gala + Symphonie Concertante & Garden Blue 3bills – New York
★★★✰✰ The fall season is too brief, particularly because it always feels as though it takes the company a few days to warm itself up. The dancing at the gala on Oct. 17 was a little slapdash, but by Friday things had begun to settle.
American Ballet Theatre – Whipped Cream – New York
★★★★✰ The audience laughs, the company looks great, the orchestra… sounds full and vibrant, and you leave the theatre with a rare feeling of joy. Lightness of spirit and complexity of execution in one delightful package.
American Ballet Theatre – Her Notes, Symphonic Variations, Other Dances, Serenade After Plato’s Symposium – New York
★★★✰✰ The program opened and closed with the most recent works: Jessica Lang’s Her Notes and Alexei Ratmansky’s Serenade after Plato’s Symposium. Both premiered at ABT in 2016, and both are works whose inspiration largely comes from their scores.
American Ballet Theatre – The Gift, Songs of Bukovina, Thirteen Diversions – New York
★★★✰✰ In between the speeches and the short films came the dancing. The main attraction was the new Ratmansky work, Songs of Bukovina…
American Ballet Theatre – Tchaikovsky Spectacular bills – New York
★★★✰✰ Ratmansky’s Souvenir d’un Lieu Cher turned out to be a mysterious little ballet, a double pas de deux that captures, …the complex history of a quartet of characters.
American Ballet Theatre – Don Quixote – New York
★★★★✰ Don Q is pure entertainment, the kind of extroverted spectacle that the ballet is so very good at.
Ballet Across America – Opening Night Celebration 2017 – Washington
★★★★✰ Ballet Across America – a festival that showcases the stylistic, creative and geographical diversity of American ballet – returned to the Kennedy Center this month…
American Ballet Theatre – Swan Lake – New York
★★★✰✰ Murphy is a sensual Odette, something made all the more effective by Stearns’ tenderness.
American Ballet Theatre – Shostakovich Trilogy – New York
★★★✰✰ Shostakovich Trilogy is a rich work, containing too much to take in at a single sitting. It reveals some of its secrets, but not all.
American Ballet Theatre – Spring Gala – New York
★★★★✰ It isn’t often that a gala program proves satisfying, but this one was the exception.
Gemma Bond – Harvest: Being, Manner, Depuis le Jour, Then and Again – New York
★★★✰✰ ” Bond’s strength, for now, lies in a kind of old-fashioned insistence on beauty and her ability to coax sensitive, generous performances out of her dancers.”
Daniil Simkin – INTENSIO – New York
Just before intermission Simkin included two film-and-performance works by Alexander Ekman. Simkin and the City, which went viral with the Internet-savvy dance crowd a couple of years ago, always gets a good chuckle.
American Ballet Theatre – After You, Le Spectre de la Rose, Valse Fantaisie, The Green Table, Valse Fantaisie, Company B – New York
A highlight of the season is the return of Kurt Jooss’s The Green Table, made in 1932. This meditation on the folly of war in eight scenes has lost none of its punch…
Fall For Dance Festival at City Center – Programs 1 and 2 – New York
For twelve years, the Fall for Dance festival has been going strong, and one can see why. No other dance series offer such an expansive, egalitarian and uncomplicated glimpse of what’s going on in dance…
Ethan Stiefel – Freelance director, choreographer…
Following 3 years directing Royal New Zealand Ballet, Ethan Stiefel is now back in New York – which is where Marina Harss caught up with him…
