Marianne Adams - danceviewtimes

American Ballet Theatre

Swan Next Door

“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

American Ballet Theatre

All the New Things, In All the Wrong Places

“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

American Ballet Theatre

Not Your Average Bird

“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

Game of Thrones

"Mary, Queen of Scots”
Scottish Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
June 4, 2026

In a regrettably brief five-performance run, Scottish Ballet brought New York a work that was, above all else, generously inventive — a history play filtered through a dying mind, where fact and fever dream shared equal billing. While the life of Mary Stuart is not a topic of any kind of regular discussion in these lands, the love, care and detail with which the

New York City Ballet

Filling The Stage

"Opus 19/The Dreamer,” “Standard Deviation,” “Symphonie Espagnole”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
May 17, 2026 (matinee), May 28, 2026

For her much-promoted sophomore piece at NYCB – “Symphonie Espagnole” to Éduard Lalo’s eponymous music – Tiler Peck said she wanted to go big, filling the stage with dancers. By coincidence or design, the two works accompanying the buzzed-about creation – Jerome Robbins's "Opus 19/The Dreamer" and Alysa Pires's "Standard

New York City Ballet

In Balanchine's Shadow

"Divertimento No. 15,” “Zakouski,” “Composer’s Holiday,” “Heatscape”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
May 26, 2026

If nothing else, a program that started with George Balanchine's enthralling "Divertimento No. 15" and ended with Justin Peck's "Heatscape" showed how far away from its foundation the company has traveled with its repertory. The distance was thrown into sharp relief by what came between: Peter Martins's "Zakouski," which felt experimental by comparison, and

New York City Ballet

Two Ways of Listening

"Concerto Barocco,” “The Goldberg Variations”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
May 16, 2026

There is a particular clarity that comes when NYCB programs its two founders together, and when they share a single composer, the company's bedrocks come into clear focus. The All Bach evening set Balanchine's stripped-down, mathematically precise “Concerto Barocco” against Robbins's studied and at times theatrical “Goldberg Variations” – one choreographer distilling Bach's nuance in movement,

Faster, Higher, Stronger

"La Bayadere (Pas D’Action),” “Variations For Three,” “An American in Paris,” “Saudade,” “Cornbread,” "Cerulean Skies," “Grand Pas Classique,” “The Weeping Willow,” “Bernstein in a Bubble”
ABT Studio Company
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY
May 13, 2026

In a program of varied works, the ABT Studio Company showed a bench of talent ready to outjump, outturn and technically eclipse the main company’s roster. The artistry and emotional range of these young dancers still need work, but the

The Royal Ballet

Missing Alchemy

“Untitled, 2023,” “Yugen,” “Quantum Souls”
Wayne McGregor: Alchemies
The Royal Ballet
The Royal Opera House
London, United Kingdom
May 1, 2026

Most creators, even of the genius sort, cannot produce exclusively masterpieces, and The Royal Ballet’s evening of three Wayne McGregor works titled “Alchemies” was an example of that humbling notion: a sampling of ballets from the creative incubator that generates great art, united by musical experimentation and abstraction, but ultimately unable to fully alchemize into gold. On

Steps Toward the Infinite

“Quinto Elemento: The Fifth Element”
Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY
April 21, 2026

The program presented by Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana at The Joyce Theater was no doubt not intended to coincide with humanity's historic return to the Moon — NASA's Artemis II lunar flyby, which carried astronauts farther into space than any humans had traveled in over fifty years, completed just weeks before opening night — but its celestial themes resonated all the more

Six Strings, One Soul

“Vuela”
Ballet Flamenco Sara Baras
Flamenco Festival
New York City Center
New York, NY
March 5, 2026

With truly great artists, it is often impossible to pinpoint the precise source of their magic. Is it the way Sara Baras's fingers slow as they curl into floreo – that signature hand flourish of flamenco – the way she fires off rhythms with machine-gun precision, or the way she suspends motion entirely, lifting her skirt in breathless anticipation before the movement arrives?

A Story For Another Time

“Romeo & Juliet Suite”
L.A. Dance Project
Festival: Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels
Park Avenue Armory
New York, NY
March 2, 2026

You could see what Benjamin Millepied was going for with his version of “Romeo and Juliet.” An immersive, hybrid-medium reimagining of the greatest love story ever told – Sergei Prokofiev’s score abridged, every corner of Park Avenue Armory's Gothic grandeur weaponized, plot trimmed to its central characters and live performance spliced with real-

See all