Mary Cargill

"The Nutcracker"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
December 6, 2016

Tolstoi's remark about happy families, it seems, could have been written about the Stahlbaums, and he might have added that happy ballets are all alike, too, a celebration of innocence, wonder, and stability flanked by majestic, musical choreography. In the New York City Ballet's "Nutcracker" Tuesday night, Zachary Catazaro and Gretchen Smith were the warm, generous couple overseeing the cosy hustle-bustle

"Apollo", "Leaves are Fading pax de deux", "Lamentations", "Fandango", "Lil Buck @ City Center: a Jookin' Jam Session"
Vail Dance Festival: ReMixNYC
New York City Center
New York, NY
November 4, 2016.

Damian Woetzel, a former NYCB dancer of explosive energy, has directed the summer dance festival in Vail, Colorado for the last ten years and he brought his eclectic, imaginative, and thoughtfully curated approach to New York's City Center for a brief visit. The dances ranged from Balanchine's

"Le Corsaire"
Boston Ballet
Boston Opera House
Boston, Massachusetts
October 29, 2016, matinee

"Le Corsaire" originally set sail in Paris in 1856 and moved to Russia with Marius Petipa in 1858, where it went through several revisions. The last Petipa version was done in 1899 and it has added a lot of cargo since then.  Unlike "The Sleeping Beauty" the swashbuckling tale, tangentially related to Byron's poem, has no definitive version and its melodramatic plot is basically a

"Monotones I and II", "Serenade after Plato's Symposium", "Prodigal Son"
American Ballet Theatre
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
October 26, 2016

American Ballet Theatre's now traditional Fall season is a treat for its audience, which gets to see interesting one-act ballets, full of fine dancing from the corps and soloists (as well as the principals), with few tutus in sight. The October 26 program stood out for its varied and interesting choreography and its well-

"Rondo Capriccioso", "Symphonic Variations", "Daphnis and Chloe"
American Ballet Theatre
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
October 20, 2016

The music for ABT's Fall gala was French and so was the main event, the American premier of Benjamin Millepied's "Daphnis and Chloe", choreographed for the Paris Opera Ballet in 2014.  It was well-received in Paris, but perhaps it is a case of vive la différence, since the ballet, though strongly and enthusiastically

 "Aureole", "Dust", "Piazolla Caldera"
Taylor 2 Dance Company
Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts
Pace University
New York, NY
October 15, 2016

Paul Taylor established Taylor 2 in 1993 to perform versions of his works on smaller stages which might not accommodate the larger company. The company tours widely and also works in arts programs in schools, so the dancers in the six-member group are seasoned and accomplished performers. Many of Taylor's larger works are redone for

"Dances at a Gathering", "Firebird"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
October 14, 2016

"Dances at a Gathering", Jerome Robbins' marathon exploration of Chopin, was paired with the Russian "Firebird"; two American ballets with an Eastern-European heritage. "Dances" works best when the dancers react as a community, rather than performing a series of dances. This feeling is illusive, and, in this performance, came in fits and starts. There were late substitutions and some debuts

"Antique Epigraphs", "She Holds Out Her Hand", "Short Memory", "Song Before Spring"
New York Theatre Ballet
Danspace Project
St. Mark's Church
New York, New York
October 6, 2016

The New York Theatre Ballet is a chamber group renowned for its recon- structions of older, smaller, infrequently seen works which has in recent years broadened its approach with a series of programs called "Legends & Visionaries" which combine older works with new ones, often created for the company.

Something Old, Something New

"Valse Fantaisie", "Confianza", "And So It Goes...", "Tessellations", "Spring Waters", "Suite Saint-Saëns"
Joffrey Ballet Concert Group
New York Live Arts
New York, NY
May 26, 2016

The Joffrey Ballet Concert Group is made up of pre-professional students form the Joffrey School in New York, and the dancing was polished, detailed and stylish. The program ranged from the swirling romanticism of Balanchine's "Valse Fantaisie" to three premieres and the style from classical ballet to

"Valses Nobles et Sentimentales", "Tweedledum and Tweedledee", "The Walk to the Paradise Garden", "Friday's Child", "Sinfonietta/2nd Movement", "Façade"
The Sarasota Ballet
Joyce Theater
New York, NY
August 8, 2016

"A Knight of the British Ballet", the title of the Sarasota Ballet's week-long Joyce program, refers to Sir Frederick Ashton, Britain's great choreo- grapher. Iain Webb, Sarasota's director, had danced in a number of Ashton's works as a member of the Sadler's Wells

"The Winter's Tale"
National Ballet of Canada
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
July 29, 2016

Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale" is a play about jealousy, madness, grief, regret, and redemption, combined with a complicated plot and questionable geography (the sea cost of Bohemia plays an important role). The National Ballet of Canada, as part of the Lincoln Center Festival, appeared in Christopher Wheeldon's 2014 co-production with the Royal Ballet and Canadians; the choreographer 

" First", "The Saloneers", "thunder rolling along afterward", "Walk Me Through"
New Dances: Edition 2016
The Juilliard School
Peter Jay Sharp Theatre
Lincoln Center
New York, NY
December 7, 2016

Juilliard Dance presented new works choreographed for each of their four classes.  Since the choreographers (John Heginbotham for the 2020 class, Katarzyna Skarpetowska for the 2019 class, Pam Tanowitz for the 2018 class, and Matthew Neenan for the 2017 class) needed to use all of the dancers, the