Mary Cargill

"Raymonda Variations", "Cortège Hongrois (excerpt)", "Schubert Symphony", "Glass Pieces (excerpt)"
School of American Ballet Workshop
Peter Jay Sharp Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
June 7, matinee, 2025

With the exception of the opening “Raymonda Variations”, with its pas de deux and sparking female variations, this year’s SAB workshop featured ensembles, so not many individual dancers stood out. What did shine was beautifully cohesive dancing and a warm spirit—the anonymous couples all looked at each other, the

"A Midsummer Night'sDream"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
May 31 evening,  2025

Adorable dancing bugs start and finish Balanchine’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, performed by very well-trained SAB students with a minimum of cuteness.  Of course there were oohs and aahs from the enthusiastic audience when they fluttered on, but they danced with a sweet-natured concentration and had no “Hi, Grandma” vibes.  The rest

"Glass Pieces", "Chiaroscuro", "Cool", "Pas de Deux from 'Stars and Stripes'"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
May 25 matinee, 2025

Andrew Veyette gave his last performance this afternoon, after 25 years with the New York City Ballet, 18 of those as a principal.  I first noticed him as the lead in “Two Birds with One Wing”, a ballet choreographed by Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux for the 2006 Diamond Project.  

"Divertimento from 'Le Baiser de la Fée'", "When We Fell", "Chiaroscuro", "Odesa"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
May 24 matinee, 2025

The program, officially called Eclectic NYCB, showed works from four very different choreographers (Balanchine, Kyle Abraham, Lynne Taylor-Corbett, and Alexei Ratmansky), but each piece used an element of darkness, either as a theme or a background, or both.  The result, thanks to some interesting choreography and some extraordinary

"Beneath The Tides", "Solitude", "Mystic Familiar"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
May 17, evening 2025

This program grouped three ballets choreographed in the last two years which pointed, presumably, to the future. Alexei Ratmansky, currently NYCB’s artist in residence, was the senior, with “Solitude” which was choreographed in 2024, while Caili Quan’s (“Beneath the Tides”) and Justin Peck’s (“Mystic Familiar”) works both premiered in 2025.  It

"In G Major", "Sonatine", "Pavane", "Errante", "La Valse"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
May 15, 2025

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of NYCB’s Ravel Festival, the company has put together a program of five ballets set to the composer’s music, one by Robbins (“In G Major”) and four by Balanchine (three rarely seen brief works, ”Sonatine”, “Pavane”, and”Errante”,  and his stylish 1951 “La Valse”).  

"Paquita", "A Suite of Dances", "After the Rain" 'Brandenburg"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
May 1, 2025

Though still rare, non-Balanchine evenings are being programed at NYCB with more frequency (though Balanchine is referenced in the "Minkus Pas Trois" which opens "Paquita", the dance is a revision of Petipa's original).  The evening’s program featured older works by NYCB stalwarts Jerome Robbins, Christopher Wheeldon, and Alexei Ratmansky, whose reworking

"Scotch Symphony" "Belles-Lettres", "Glass Pieces"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
April 26, 2025, Evening

This program featured three ballets by three choreographers created in three decades each separated by about thirty years; this variety made for a very lively and interesting evening.  Balanchine’s “Scotch Symphony” (1952) is an oblique take on Bournonville’s nineteenth-century Romantic work set to Mendelssohn, Justin Peck’s “Belles-Lettres” (2014) is a neo-romantic swoon

Pearls, White and Pink

"Apollo", "Ballo della Regina", "Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux", "Chaconne"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
April 25, 2025

The trend of City Ballet’s marketing department naming programs with poetically descriptive titles seems to have slightly run out of steam, and this program was named somewhat prosaically All Balanchine I.  There were, though, hints of a theme, as the pearl in the original “Ballo della Regina”

Swimming with the Muses

"Apollo", "Ballo della Regina", "Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux", "Chaconne"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
April 23, 2025

It may have been a coincidence, but there were references to swimming in three of the ballets on view in the glorious all-Balanchine program )“Apollo”, “Ballo della Regina”, and “Chaconne”), and three of the ballets have indelible echoes of their originators— Merrill Ashley in “Ballo” Violette Verdy in “Tschaikovsky

Shallow Waters

"Swan Lake"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
February 22, 2025 matinee

Peter Martins’ unique take on the ever-popular “Swan Lake” returned for a two-week visit, its first since 2020, with all of its peculiarities intact; the day-glow costumes of Act I, the drab scenery, and the general dramatic confusion were all on display.  It also displayed a number of debuts, most notably a new Swan Queen in

"Divertimento No. 15", "Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux", "Carnival of the Animals" 
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
February 14, 2025

This evening’s performance began with two of Balanchine’s gloriously classical works, the celestial “Divertimento No. 15” to Mozart and the  whipped cream “Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux” and ended with anthropomorphic animals of Christopher Wheeldon’s “Carnival of the Animals”; both the opening and closing ballets were stuffed