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.
Christopher Hampson, Scottish Ballet’s Director, on celebrating the companies 50th anniversary in 2019 & future plans
Scottish Ballet have just announced plans for their Fiftieth Anniversary in 2019, including three world premieres – we have the full press release and touch-base with CEO/Artistic Director Christopher Hampson about the celebrations and what happens beyond…
Fall for Dance 2018, Program 1 – Boston Ballet, Sara Mearns, Caleb Teicher & Co, Cie Hervé Koubi – New York
★★★★✰ On the second night the program was offered, Mearns was stunning, but the remaining three pieces, by three different companies were, to varying degrees, engaging, although hers was a tough act to follow.
Northern Ballet – The Kingdom of Back, Mamela…, The Shape of Sound – Leeds
★★★★✰ A good night of new work for Leeds coupling a rising star from outside with local and much-loved company talent.
Mark Morris Dance Group – Love Song Waltzes, I Don’t Want to Love, The Trout – New York
★★★✰✰ How striking Morris’ dancers are, how diversified in form and unique in expression and cohesive as a troupe — ever present and responsive to each other.
Alain Platel & Fabrizio Cassol – Requiem pour L. – London
✰✰✰✰✰ I have to ask how one associates a star rating with a performance in which the largest, continuing visual image is a close-up, slow motion film of an actual death.
New York Theatre Ballet – Septet, Rondo, Concertino, Wings/A Petroushka Collage – New York
★★★✰✰ New York Theatre Ballet’s director, Diana Byer, is known for dusting off the dance history books, and giving a dose of challenging revivals. This time NYTB joins may companies around the country and indeed, the world, in celebrating Jerome Robbins’ centennial…
New York City Ballet – All Balanchine No. 1 & 2, 21st Century Choreographers bills – New York
★★★★✰ After much tumult over the holidays, New York City Ballet has begun its first post-Peter Martins season. If you’re just catching up, the company’s “ballet master in chief” – ie artistic director – of over thirty years retired on New Years Day, in the midst of an investigation into allegations of physical abuse and sexual harassment.
Svetlana Zakharova – Amore: Francesca da Rimini, Rain before it Falls, Strokes Through the Tail – London
★★★✰✰ Happy for Zakharova who ultimately curated an interesting night, very happy to see her retinue of Bolshoi dancers and happy to see Donlon provide such final good cheer.
Twyla Tharp Dance – The Raggedy Dances, The Fugue, Entr’acte, Dylan Love Songs – New York
★★✰✰✰ It all sounds terribly promising, and yet the evening falls as flat as a soufflé left in the oven for too long.
San Francisco Ballet and School – Student Showcase, Promotions and Company Joiners
San Francisco exists in its own world, out here on the distant West Coast. The San Francisco Ballet, though, just became more global than ever, with new 2017-18 members joining from around the world. The company school, which presented its annual Student Showcase 31 May through 2 June at YBCA Theater, draws international students as well…
American Ballet Theatre – Whipped Cream – New York
★★★★✰ Alexei Ratmansky’s new ballet for ABT, Whipped Cream, is like a Viennese confection: so layered and airy that it takes a moment to fully take in the flavor of its many ingredients.
Washington Ballet – Kylián, Peck, Forsythe – Washington
★★★✰✰ Forsythe’s emblematic In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated was created 30 years ago. Still, the ballet retains its explosive spirit and irresistible urgency, as well as its ability to thrill.
Interview – Robert Barnett, former New York City Ballet dancer and longtime Artistic Director of Atlanta Ballet
Robert Barnett joined New York City Ballet in 1949. In those early years he worked closely with Balanchine and Robbins particularly before going on to direct Atlanta Ballet. Now 91 he is still actively involved in dance and passing on all he knows…
San Francisco Ballet – Haffner Symphony, Fragile Vessels (premiere), In the Countenance of Kings – San Francisco
★★★★✰ The company’s first regular-season commission from Czech choreographer Jiří Bubeníček, “Fragile Vessels”, is a 40-minute meditation on love, loss and reconciliation.
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.
BalletX – Show Me, Gran Partita, Big Ones – New York
★★★✰✰ The 10 dancers who graced the Joyce stage represented a powerhouse of talent and technique, on par with some of the best dancers at much larger companies – BalletX is worth checking out.
RAWdance – Double Exposure – San Francisco
★★★★✰ Sixteen choreographers, 13 new works, 2 dancers, 70 minutes, 4 years in the making. That’s the equation for Double Exposure, premiered by the San Francisco contemporary-dance duo RAWdance on Thursday, July 28. It’s an epic production that is greater than the sum of its parts.
SFDanceworks – Concerto Six Twenty-Two, Lickety Split, Joe & Ida, Portrait, Z – San Francisco
★★★✰✰ With this first season, Sofranko has proved himself a good curator of choreographic and dance talent, with a preference for loveliness in movement and movers.
