
Washington Ballet – Lilac Garden, The Dream, Frontier (premiere) – Washington
★★★✰✰ Ethan Stiefel’s Frontier, his first significant commission, had all the right ingredients… Yet the ballet, with its space travel theme, didn’t leave much of an impression…

Washington Ballet – Balanchine, Ratmansky, Tharp bill – Washington
★★★✰✰ Their hunger for dance – that sense of palpable excitement to be onstage and in the moment – was particularly evident during the company’s premiere of Ratmansky’s Seven Sonatas.

Washington Ballet – Hamlet – Washington
★★✰✰✰ There is, however, one undeniably compelling personage in this somewhat flat production of Hamlet – the quiet and fragile Ophelia, as portrayed by Venus Villa…

Washington Ballet – Tour-de-Force: Balanchine! bill – Washington
The gala formula really worked. An eclectic selection of dances – six duets and three short ballets – offered something for almost every taste…

Washington Ballet – Jazz/Blues Project: Bird’s Nest, PRISM, Blue Until June – Washington
Val Caniparoli’s Bird’s Nest – the first dance of the evening – is a vivid proof that ballet and jazz are meant for each other

Washington Ballet – Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises – Washington
…Webre saves the best for last. …watching the bare-knuckle boxing brawl in the end of the ballet, instigated by the disgruntled Robert Cohn, is worth the price of admission alone.