Mary Cargill

"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

"Scotch Symphony", "Sylvia: Pas de Deux", "Firebird"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
February 13, 2025

In January 2001, I was at a matinee performance of NYCB, expecting a pleasant afternoon watching the light, spun-sugar of “La Source” when the soloist bounded on with the most exuberant and musically incisive heel-to-the-head leaps I had ever seen.  The entire audience gasped and leant forward as if pulled by a magnetic

"Paquita", "In the Night", "Symphony in Three Movements"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
February 7, 2025

The New York City Ballet fielded a completely new cast of Ratmansky’s new version of Petipa’s “Paquita”, showing yet again, how rich the company currently is.  It was followed by Robbins’ “In the Night” with yet more debuts, and closed with Balanchine’s majestic “Symphony in Three Movements”.  

Allegra

"Paquita", "In the Night", "Symphony in Three Movements"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
February 6, 2025

 "Paquita", Alexei Ratmansky's new ballet, was to have been danced as the middle ballet, but, due to an injury, this evening’s program had been rearranged, and the program opened with the main attraction.  Unity Phelan, who was already dancing in the first two ballets, had to replace Ashley Laracey in “Symphony in

"Scotch Symphony", "Sylvia: Pas de Deux", "Firebird"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
February 5, 2025

In her gracious introductory speech to the evening’s program, Wendy Whelan honored Maria Tallchief, born 100 years ago.  Balanchine choreographed the three ballets performed, “Scotch Symphony”, “ “Sylvia Pas de Deux”, and “Firebird”, for her.  These works showed her impressive range,  from the lyrical “Scotch Symphony”, the rigorously classical “Sylvia”

"Dances Concertantes", "The Cage", "Concertino", "Stravinsky Violin Concerto"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
January 24, 2025

The evening featured four ballets set to Stravinsky, two by Balanchine (“Dances Concertantes” and “Stravinsky Violin Concerto”) and two by Robbins (“The Cage” and “Concertino”).  Though they shared the same composer, the ballets were all different, and it made for a varied evening.  

“Dances Concertantes” started life in 1944 for the

"Concerto Barocco", "Allegro Brillante", "Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
January 23, 2025

This all-Balanchine evening showed off three ballets, each with its own distinctive flavor; “Concerto Barocco” has a luminous white and black simplicity, “Allegro Brillante” is a bright and golden celebration of classical technique, and “Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet” with its haunted-ballroom mauve setting, is an elegiac valentine to a lost (and somewhat imaginary) world.  There were two

"Arden Court", "The Word", "Syzygy"
Paul Taylor Dance Company
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
November 21, 2024

This all-Taylor program included works showing some of Taylor’s frequent  themes, from the bright, cheerful “Arden Court”, through the dark and somber “The Word”, and finishing with the bursting energy of “Syzygy”, all danced with an impressive power.  The works, for all their differences, had Taylor’s confident and imaginative use of structure to reinforce