New York City Ballet – All Robbins No. 1 – Bernstein Collaborations bill – New York
★★★✰✰ One of Robbins’ great talents was sniffing out the style of his time, but this inevitably places a date stamp on his work.
New York City Ballet – Concerto Barocco, Agon, The Four Temperaments – New York
★★✰✰✰ Last week, on Thursday night, with the exception of The Four Temperaments, the company’s thoughts appeared to be elsewhere…
English National Ballet – Voices of America bill – works by Forsythe, Robbins & Barton – London
★★★★✰ Altogether, a cunningly judged programme that shows off the company at its most engaging…
Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel (choreography by Justin Peck) – New York
★★★★✰ One of the most attractive things about the production is the way it brings together various worlds: ballet, Broadway, and opera.
Interconnections: Thoughts on “Nick Mauss: Transmissions” at the Whitney in New York
Whiteny PR about the exhibition: “Artist Nick Mauss (b. 1980) presents Transmissions, a multidisciplinary work exploring the relationship between modernist ballet and the avant-garde visual arts in New York from the 1930s through ’50s.”
Paul Taylor American Modern Dance – David H. Koch season – New York
★★★★✰ Even in stillness, Taylor dancers hold immense power in their bodies, the energy potential within them more nuclear than solar.
San Francisco Ballet – Robbins: Ballet & Broadway quad bill – San Francisco
★★★★✰ There’s nothing like watching a woman crush a man’s neck with her thighs to make you go hmm, maybe that whole #MeToo thing has legs.
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…
San Francisco Ballet – Serenade, The Chairman Dances, Rodeo – San Francisco
★★★✰✰ Not all, but many pas de deuxs have a romantic subtext, whether intentional or not. But in Rodeo Peck has crafted a pas de deux celebrating introductions and the process of getting to know another person.
New York City Ballet – Dance Odyssey, The Red Violin, Russian Seasons – New York
★★★✰✰ Like Walker’s first work for the company “Dance Odyssey” shows a lot of promise. It has warmth and humor, a good grasp of stage geometry and a sensitive musicality.
Interview – Emily Molnar, Ballet British Columbia’s artistic director, on their work and UK tour
Next month (March 2018) Ballet British Columbia, or Ballet BC as they are commonly known, tour the UK. Diane Parkes talks to artistic director Emily Molnar about the company and the works they are touring which includes a piece by the ultra-hot Crystal Pite…
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.
Memorable Performances of 2017 – New York
Six Performances That Stayed with Me in 2017 – Marina Harss with her personal selection of New York dance memories this last year.
Suzanne Farrell Ballet – Forever Balanchine: Farewell Performances – Washington
★★★★★ As artistic director of her own troupe, Farrell was able to take her devotion to Balanchine and her aspiration to promote and preserve his legacy to a new level. For nearly 20 years, Washington audiences have enjoyed an annual mini-festival of Balanchine’s works…
Miami City Ballet – The Nutcracker – Los Angeles
★★★✰✰ The MCB dancers exude Balanchine brio and delight in performing his intricate steps, but they had to give their all to keep up with the youngsters.
Feature – Suzanne Farrell Ballet’s Final Performances in Washington
This season the Suzanne Farrell Ballet is bidding farewell to its audiences with final performances at the Kennedy Center Opera House, December 7-9. There will be two programs, each featuring a selection of George Balanchine’s choreographic gems…
New Adventures – Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes – New York
★★★★✰ It’s always exciting to discover a new side of an artist. For this, and for an immensely entertaining show, we have to thank Matthew Bourne.
BalletCollective – The Answer, Orange, The Last Time This Ended, Translation – New York
★★★✰✰ What’s different about Schumacher’s dances isn’t so much the end result as the process. He always commissions new music and builds the ballet up from the bottom, with the help of an external source of inspiration.
Fall for Dance – New works by Michelle Dorrance, Kyle Abraham, Sara Mearns and Honji Wang, Mark Morris – New York
★★★✰✰ I caught all four new works: an expanded version of Michelle Dorrance’s Myelination, Kyle Abraham’s Drive, the Sara Mearns and Honji Want collaboration No. 1, and Mark Morris’s solo Twelve of ‘em for David Hallberg.
