Mary Cargill

Taylored Style

Paul Taylor Dance Company

Taylored Style


Program A: "Polaris", "Tablet", "Cloven Kingdom"
Program B: "Tablet", "Churchyard", "Esplanade"
Paul Taylor Dance Company
Joyce Theater
New York, New York
June 19, 2025  (Program A) and June 21, 2025, evening (Program B)


The Paul Taylor Dance Company faces the same problem that all companies built around a founding choreographer face when that choreographer is no longer around—how to keep the company fresh without ignoring the past.  Michael Novak, the current director, has been looking both

By Mary Cargill
Heart and Soul

American Ballet Theatre

Heart and Soul


"Swan Lake"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 11, matinee 2025


After last year’s New York debut in “Swan Lake”, the critics all raved about Chloe Misseldine’s performance and her on-stage promotion to principal.  I didn’t see it so wondered if her 2025 “Swan Lake” would live up to the hype.  The answer is “No”—it far exceeded it.  Not since the old Royal Ballet’s performances

By Mary Cargill
Group Effort

Group Effort


"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

By Mary Cargill
The Bugs Are Out

New York City Ballet

The Bugs Are Out


"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

By Mary Cargill
One of the Boys

New York City Ballet

One of the Boys


"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.  

By Mary Cargill
Dark Times

New York City Ballet

Dark Times


"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

By Mary Cargill
Mountains and Valleys

New York City Ballet

Mountains and Valleys


"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

By Mary Cargill
Reveling in Ravel

New York City Ballet

Reveling in Ravel


"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”).  

By Mary Cargill
Old Friends

New York City Ballet

Old Friends


"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

By Mary Cargill
Variety Show

New York City Ballet

Variety Show


"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

By Mary Cargill
Pearls, White and Pink

New York City Ballet

Pearls, White and Pink


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”

By Mary Cargill
Swimming With the Muses

New York City Ballet

Swimming With the Muses


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

By Mary Cargill