"Jewels"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
September 24, 2026

“Jewels” is famously described as a full-length abstract ballet, but that doesn’t mean it’s about nothing, and many of the dancers in this performance gave such detailed and nuanced attention to their performances that there were hints of narratives and emotional arcs that illuminated their dancing in fascinating ways.  The was especially true in "Rubies", where Alexa Maxwell, in her debut

"Jewels"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
September 23, 2026

NYCB opened its Fall season with a week of performances celebrating the 60th anniversary of the ever-popular “Jewels”, a nod perhaps to its traditional gift of diamonds.  “Jewels” is about more than diamonds, though, it is about mood and atmosphere and in this performance “Emeralds” gleamed the brightest.  Its low-key, slightly melancholy nostalgia will probably never evoke the raucous cheers that

Book: "Clara Gibson Maxwell: Dancing on the Edge"
By Larisa Oancea
The Film Gallery, 2026

Somewhere in the middle of "Clara Gibson Maxwell: Dancing on the Edge," Larisa Oancea quotes her subject's guiding principle: "Context is content." It happens to be a fitting motto for a book that traces a choreographer who has spent decades in conversation with philosophy, architecture, jazz, literature, and somatic practice — and it sets the tone for a biography as restless and wide-ranging as

“Meanwhile”
CARVALHO
Brooklyn, NY
August 8, 2026

Since its summer performance series began, CARVALHO, a contemporary art gallery in Brooklyn, New York, has carved out a special place in the city’s art scene. By combining dance with large-scale installation, curator and gallery founder Jennifer Carvalho has successfully given a gallery home to some of the dance world’s most exciting talent—and seems to have drawn in new dance audiences in the process.

CARVALHO’s latest offering, a

“Swan Lake”
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
July 18, 2026

At the closing performance of American Ballet Theatre’s 2026 summer season, Catherine Hurlin and Isaac Hernández stripped the myth out of "Swan Lake" and danced the leads like two people who could plausibly live down the street from you. Whether the choice was calculated or simply fatigue setting in on a long season, the effect was a unique, if not wholly compelling, reading of the

“Don Quixote”
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
July 7, 2026

Though it was promoted as a new production, Susan Jaffe’s new staging of “Don Quixote” for American Ballet Theatre proved to be more of a touch-up, and mostly in the wrong spots. It may have tied the ballet more closely to its titular character – something no one had really complained was missing over the last century – but Jaffe, working together with Susan Jones, missed

Program B: American Heartbeat - County and Western
"Home (Excerpt 1)", "Deck of Cards", "Home" (Excerpt 2"), "Songs that Tell a Story", "Home" (Excerpt 3)", "Going Away Party"
Program C: American Mavericks - West Coast Composers
"Prelude and Prelude", "Jenn and Spencer", "Pacific", "Grand Duo"
Mark Morris Dance Group
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY 
July 21, 2026 (Program C), July 23, 2026 (Program B)

Programs B and C of Mark Morris’s all-American music season had distinctly different approaches.

“Swan Lake”
American Ballet Theatre
The Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 19 and July 18 (matinee), 2026

Much has been written about the splendor of Chloe Misseldine's dancing in American Ballet Theatre's "Swan Lake" over the past couple of years, including the debut that led to her onstage promotion, but little of it prepares one for the nuance of the live experience. In her third season dancing the dual roles of Odette/Odile, Misseldine has refined

Program A: Soul of America--Jazz and Pop
"Pizzica", "Three Preludes", "Dancing Honeymoon", 'You've Got To Be Modernistc"
Mark Morris Dance Group
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY 
July 14, 2026

Mark Morris is honoring the American semisesquicentennial—a long word meaning 250th anniversary—with a long look at his works choreographed to American music.  The first of the three programs saluted earlier popular composers, primarily Louis Moreau Gottschalk (“Pizzica”), George Gershwin “Three Preludes”, and the early

"Sylvia"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
July 10, 2026 matinee and evening and July 11, 2026 matinee and evening

The high-class circus of “Don Quixote” week was followed by the stylish exaltation of Ashton’s “Sylvia”; both ballets are joyful explosions of dancing with large casts which allow ABT to show off its many dancers, but “Sylvia”, with its cohesive and coherent style is first-class art as well as first-class entertainment.  The

"Don Quixote"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
July 3, 2026

It was only July 3rd, but the audience seemed primed for an evening of fireworks when Jake Roxander made his highly anticipated complete “Don Quixote” debut—he had danced Act III in the all-hands-on-deck emergency “Don Quixote” the previous Wednesday.  The applause began during the overture (so great to hear Minkus getting his due for the wonderfully danceable score) and continued all

"Don Quixote"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
July 1, 2026, matinee

Cy Doherty first performed the Don in 2022 as an apprentice, creating a remarkably vivid picture, both comic and tragic, of a befuddled but sincere visionary searching for an ideal.  He was equally vivid in this performance, though the new production has turned the iconic dreamer into a silly old man who just wants a young wife.  The traditional ballet is about the