★★★★✰ Sara Mearns, who made her name as Swan Queen at the age of nineteen, is still the most thrilling Odette around.
Tag - New York City Ballet
★★★★✰ There is no limit to how often one can see Ailey’s 1960 masterpiece Revelations. The elation is always the same.
★★★★✰ After watching two of the four programs, a few things stand out. Firstly, it is clear that this is no simple gala, despite the format; there is a strong personal esthetic and philosophy at work behind the programs.
★★★★✰ Watching this immensely entertaining program one realizes that even a minor Balanchine ballet is still a great ballet.
★★★★✰ A second look at Alexei Ratmansky’s Serenade after Plato’s Symposium confirms the impression formed last season. It is a fascinating work that represents a new direction for the choreographer.
Interview - Sébastien Ramirez and Honji Wang are about to collaborate with composer, and Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist, Nitin Sawhney at the Royal Albert Hall. We wanted to know more about the dynamic and well connected pair...
★★★✰✰ One of this recurring festival’s strongest selling selling points is the serendipity of its pairings. You pay $15 and get a grab-bag of dance in return. You’re bound to like something.
★★★★✰ 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.
★★★✰✰ The pattern is set: the company commissions works from three or four choreographers, often quite young, and pairs them with prominent designers. The works are short, and are introduced by filmlets...
★★★★✰ Revelations is always a joy, however often one sees it. Ailey’s choreography, influenced by his mentor, Lester Horton, and Martha Graham, is a reminder of how potent that modern dance technique could be.
★★✰✰✰ So bravo for Danilian. All the dancing at the gala was very fine – who could expect any less from these dancers? One can (and should) question his taste but it’s clear that he’s willing to go out on a limb...
★★★✰✰ Twyla Tharp is a kind of dance wizard – steps pour out of her like torrents in a waterfall.
★★★★✰ The pleasure, above all, in watching this company is their fearless super-charge of energy and their commitment as the inheritors of Balanchine’s ballets.
★★★★✰ Each spring, the School of American Ballet, New York City Ballet’s breeding-ground, holds a series of “Workshop” performances to show off the crème de la crème of its upper-level students.
★★★★✰ But the kids are just one element of what makes Midsummer tick. Another is the intelligence and efficiency with which the ballet tells its story.
★★★✰✰ IDFB is great for Birmingham and I hope those in and around the city filled their boots.
★★★★✰ Balanchine himself once said that Serenade is “many things to many people.” If it is one thing to City Ballet, it is the single ballet which they are expected to do perfectly every time.
★★★✰✰ Esa-Pekka Salonen is conducting London's Philharmonia Orchestra in a Stravinsky festival, the first concert of which included a collaboration with Karole Armitage's company on "Agon" - famously originally choreographed by Balanchine...
★★★★✰ Vienna Waltzes is a sure-fire hit. It seduces on many fronts: the ridiculously flattering gowns by Karinska (her last for the company), the sumptuous music, the multitudes of dancers...
★★★✰✰ It wouldn’t be spring without ballet galas. This week it was New York City Ballet’s turn. On the program were two new works, by Christopher Wheeldon and the relatively unknown Nicolas Blanc, the latter a veteran of the New York Choreographic Institute.