Mary Cargill

"After You", "Company B", "Piano Concerto #1"
American Ballet Theatre
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
October 29 2015

ABT's two-week Fall season featured no tutus and lots of opportunities for the dancers to shine. The Thursday night program was especially rich, showing off three choreographers exploring different types of groups; none of them used ballet's traditional hierarchies. Mark Morris' "After You" looks richer at each viewing. The dancers moved gently through the music with open chests and a

"After You", "Le Spectre de la Rose", "Valse Fantaisie", "Company B"
American Ballet Theatre
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
October 24, 2015, matinee

ABT's Saturday matinee sandwiched two military works (Mark Morris' new "After You" to Hummel's "Military" septet and Paul Taylor's "Company B" to World War II favorites by the Andrews Sisters) around a frothy center.  Despite its martial title, Hummel's music is light, bouncy and friendly and Morris met it on equal terms. The twelve

"Harlequinade", "N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
October 17, 2015, matinee

New York City Ballet's Saturday matinee celebrated youth with works by two venerable choreo- graphers: Balanchine with his 1965 "Harlequinade", a reworking of Petipa's 1900 ballet, and Jerome Robbins' 1958 "N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz".  "Harlequinade" retells the old story of young love outwitting the grownups using several Commedia dell'arte characters.  Columbine's doddering old father is trying

Fall for Dance, Program 3
"Eu danço—8 Solos no Geral", "Pheromones", "Maninyas", "Brandenburgs"
Companhia Urbana de Dança, Fang-Yi Sheu and Herman Cornejo, Houston Ballet, Paul Taylor Dance Company
City Center
New York, NY
October 6, 2015

The annual Fall for Dance at City Center offers a brief taste of different types of dancing on each program, almost guaranteeing that the audience with enjoy at least one piece. The audience is adventurous and appreciative and the dancers respond,

"Liebeslieder Walzer", "Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
October 1, 2015

For its first non-gala program of the Fall New York City Ballet honored Balanchine, and its audience, with two of the choreo- grapher's most potent works: "Liebeslieder Walzer" and "Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3". "Liebeslieder Walzer" is an ensemble piece which works only when all four couples (Sterling Hyltin and Jared Angle, Ashley Laracey and Justin Peck, Sara Mearns and Ask

"Unsaid", "In Passing", "Rouge et Noir"
The Ashley Bouder Project
Joyce Theater
New York, NY
August 8, 2015

The Ashley Bouder Project is a collaboration between the ballerina, several dancers from the New York City Ballet, musicians and choreographers.  The company also stresses production values and the lighting and designs were imaginative and colorful--a refreshing change from the seemingly ubiquitous grey and black of most modern ballet.  The opening work, "Unsaid" (choreographed by the Miami City Ballet dancer

"Wild Swans", "Don't Tread on Me or My String Quartet", "SI-8 and SI-9", "Exit Wounds...And Then They Come Home", "Arranged", "Allegro con Brio", "Sur"
Chamber Dance Project
Joyce Theater
New York, NY
August 6, 2015

The Chamber Dance Project, directed by Diane Coburn Bruning, iw a small dance company with a strong musical component. "Chamber" refers to the music as well as the dancers, and the four musicians, two violins, a viola and a cello played on stage for

"The Peony Pavilion"
The National Ballet of China
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
July 8, 2015

"The Peony Pavilion" was written in 1598 and the love story, basically a mixture of "Romeo and Juliet" and "Orpheus and Eurydice," is a mainstay of Chinese opera. The Lincoln Center Festival showcased the 20  hour version in 1999, an explosion of colorful costumes, singing and acrobatics. This year, the Festival presented another take, a two-hour distillation by the National Ballet

"Cinderella"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 29, 2015

ABT's final week is devoted to Sir Frederick Ashton's "Cinderella", a glorious combination of lyricism, virtuosity and comedy, both high and low. Cory Stearns was the opening night Prince; he had been scheduled last year but was injured so this was his New York debut. Even though, like his cousin in "The Sleeping Beauty", he Prince doesn't arrive until Act II, he dominated the evening with his

"The Dream", "Song of the Earth"
The Royal Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
June 24, 2015

by Mary Cargill 
copyright © 2015 by Mary Cargill

The Royal Ballet made a rare appearance in New York, opening their brief season with works by their two knights, Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan. They danced the same program in their 1976 visit, and since then "The Dream" has become familiar thanks to ABT's sparkling production, but the darker "Song

"The Sleeping Beauty"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 10, 2015, evening

At three plus hours, including two shortish intermissions, ABT's new "Sleeping Beauty" is long by today's standards, but in ballet heaven, it would be even longer, with the entr'acte music playing for a real panorama, more processions in the last act, and a grand transformation, à la the 1999 Mariinsky version, in the last act.  Three hours is too short

Lydia Johnson Dance
"Barretts Mill Road: A Remembrance", "What Counts", "Untitled Bach", "Giving Way"
The Ailey Citigroup Theater
New York, NY
June 11, 2015

by Mary Cargill 
copyright © 2015 by Mary Cargill

Finances being what they are, Lydia Johnson's small company danced to recorded music. Even so this ballet-based, contem- porary-inflected company is musically incisive and nuanced.  Johnson's tastes are eclectic and this performance had music ranging from Bach and Mozart to modern jazz. Her company wears