"Swan Lake"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 28, 2012
Angel Corella gave his final performance at ABT last night, and during the curtain calls, amidst the flowers, the wreaths, and applauding company members, showed the cheering audience one last glorious set of turns a la seconde. It was a charming and generous gesture from a dancer who combined warmth, skill, and intelligence to become one of ABT's most, and the word
"Romeo and Juliet"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 20, 2012
Another couple got their chance to charge through "Romeo and Juliet" when the real-life couple Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg (both from the Royal Ballet) danced the crowd-pleaser. MacMillan gives his lead dancers lots of opportunities to stamp their own interpretations on the roles, and Cojocaru and Kobborg have had many years to work on their characters. The ballet tends to glow
"Thirteen Diversions", "Apollo", "The Firebird"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 11, 2012
A new work must answer the question "Is this ballet necessary?", and the answer to Alexei Ratmansky's rechoreographed "Firebird" (originally, and unforgettably done in 1910 by Michael Fokine), is, sadly, no. Ratmansky has shown a rare gift for characterization and comedy in "The Bright Stream", but characterization (that is, human characters) and comedy are not in Stravinsky's shimmering,
"Twinkliana","Les Petite Riens", "Cortege Hongrois"
School of American Ballet
Peter Jay Sharp Theater
New York, New York
June 2 2012, matinee
The annual SAB performance opened with Sean Lavery's "Twinkliana", set to Mozart's "12 Variations". This charming exercise was performed by younger students, who looked assured and engaging, showing how much variety can be found dancing on demi-point. "Les Petite Riens", Peter Martins' 1987 ballet, also do Mozart, is also basically an exercise, a formal, pleasant excursion
"The Bright Stream"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
May 31, 2012
Alexei Ratmansky's "The Bright Stream", to Shastokovich's boisterous, danceable music, returned in all its delicious silliness. Yes, high-jinx on a Soviet collective farm might seem to be an odd basis for a good-hearted, loving comedy, but the stylized plot, with its disguises, its tricks, its straying husbands and forgiving wives, is one that Mozart would recognize. There is a formal underpinning
"La Bayadère"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
May 23, 2012
ABT's season is showing a company in transition, as many of its male pricipals leave--Jose Manual Carreno last year, Ethan Stiefel and Angel Corella this year, leaving only a few men tall and elegant enough to be princes. The answer, at least this year, is to import a number of guest stars, avoiding last year's situation, where Marcelo Gomes did a number
"Mes Oiseaux", "Liebeslieder Walzer", "Symphony in C"
New York City Ballet
The David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
May 19, 2012
Even in the pure-dance air of the New York City Ballet, costumes are important, and the recent triple bill showed a variety of dressings. The first ballet, Peter Martins' new "Mes Oiseaux", was dressed by the dress designer Gilles Mendel, and featured three girls (Lauren Lovette, Ashly Isaacs, and Claire Kretzschmar, all corps dancers)
"Giselle"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
May 16, 2012, matinee
ABT's sturdy and vivid production of "Giselle" featured a young cast for the Wednesday matinee; two soloists (Hee Seo as the poor wili and Simone Messmer as Myrta) and a youngish principal, Cory Stearns in his New York debut as the duplicitous Albrecht. These dancers have only performed their roles a few times, but imagination, understanding, theatrical intelligence, not to mention technique to burn, gave this performance a
"Serenade", Kamermusik No. 2", "Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
May 2, 2012
One sure sign that spring is here is opening night of the New York City Ballet, and this season opened with a generous serving of Balanchine. The corps in "Serenade", the curtain raiser, looked very well rehearsed, dancing with a delicate urgency and a coherent, but not overly drilled, precision. Janie Taylor was an unusual waltz girl, more
Barcelona Ballet
"Bruch Violin Concerto no. 1", "For 4", "Pálpito"
New York City Center
New York, NY
April 17, 2012
The financial crisis in Europe has affected much more than the stock market, as the Corella Ballet, founded in 2008 by Angel Corella, has seen its official funding shrink. He has moved the company to Barcelona and rechristened the company, but the impression left from his first visit to New York, in 2010, of a fine, well-trained, and
"Pilot", "Allegretto", "II", "Midnight Oil", "Just Passing", "Morning Will Break"
Columbia Ballet Collaborative
Miller Theatre
Columbia University
New York, New York
April 13, 2012
The Columbia Ballet Collaborative was founded in 2007 by a group of professionally trained dancers who were studying at Columbia University. The original founders have graduated, but the idea has taken root, and the current group (again made up of dancers attending Columbia or Barnard College, many with professional experience) meets regularly to take
Avi Scher & Dancers
Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater
New York, New York
April 7, 2012
Avi Scher's third season, like his earlier ones, featured essentially a pick-up company, augmented by some big names; Herman Cornejo, of ABT fame, was the biggest this season. But there was no pick-up feeling about the dancers, as they seemed to dance for and with each other. Scher has the ability not only to make his dancers look good, he also