But altogether, this was an evening of historical curios that lacked consistent vibrancy.
Tag - Igor Stravinsky
After twenty-six years in Miami, Edward Villella is back in New York, just across the East River from his old stomping grounds in Bayside Queens. He was an unlikely danseur, a scrappy kid...
...what joy to see a performance turn into a kind of rave, ...to feel the music overflow the boundaries of convention and habit and feel, well, intensely alive.
It’s a celebration of American ballet from coast to coast and a vivid snapshot of its diversity of style and repertory.
It’s a virtuoso accomplishment by all the collaborators. ...But Stravinsky’s score in this melodramatic recording, conducted by Kent Nagano, is too huge for a single figure.
No-one could have expected this to be another once-in-a-lifetime explosion of genius but this is nevertheless a ground-breaking work.
The vernal equinox having passed, here was my first sighting of The Rite of Spring in this the Centenary year of Stravinsky’s great masterpiece...
Possokhov’s Rite of Spring is a mixture of mostly good choices with a few that seem rather odd to me.
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.
Closing the program is Kurt Jooss’s anti-war ballet from 1932,The Green Table, one of the greatest pieces of choreography ever created and still relevant after more than 80 years.
An in-depth interview with the lady who helps bring Balanchine back...
Is there a ballet more deceptive than Balanchine’s Divertimento from ‘Le Baiser de la Fée’? If so, I’m not aware of it.
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....
Dance is a difficult thing to experience outside of the theatre, but for the sustainability of the artform it has to find a way to make itself more widely available.
The company premiere of The Prodigal Son was the centerpiece and highlight of the Suzanne Farrell Ballet’s second all-Balanchine program at the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater - a program that also included Divertimento No. 15 and Slaughter on Tenth Avenue.
The company danced Serenade well but the very simplicity in its choreography, created as it was initially for students, ironically makes it hard to produce a perfect performance...
“It’s very special to dance. And it’s even more special to dance a Balanchine ballet” - Suzanne Farrell
I’ve noticed two troubling trends this season at New York City Ballet. Perhaps they are connected. The first is the creeping tendency toward stolid tempi from the pit...
Waltz is about big ideas in 'Continu' but if you don't pick up on them there is not a lot of choreography to keep you going.
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.