Mary Cargill

"The Sleeping Beauty"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 14, 2010

Few classical ballets have the impeccable documentation and performing tradition as this most glorious of Petipa's works.  The Royal Ballet based its version on notes smuggled out of Revolutionary Russia, and these notes are now available for anyone in the Harvard Library.  Petipa's impeccable architecture and magnificent musicality are there for the asking, as the monumental 1999 Kirov reconstruction

"Serenade", "Who Cares?", "Chaconne"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
June 13, 2010

Philip Neal gave his farewell performance at NYCB Sunday afternoon to an appreciative audience, who applauded his every entrance.  These entrances, like his career, were understated, elegant, and devoted to the art.  He had originally been scheduled to perform what looked like a tag-team arrangement of Balanchine's boisterous "Who Cares?", but the final program saw him in "Serenade"

"Birthday Offering", "Thaïs Pas de Deux", "Awakening Pas de Deux", "The Dream"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
June 10, 2010
New York, NY

ABT continued its 70th birthday party with a real bash, dancing Sir Frederick Ashton's 25th birthday homage to company soon to be Royal as well as his "Dream" of a ballet celebrating Shakespeare's 400th birthday.  "Birthday Offering" is a set of classical dances to selections of Glazunov, who apparently was

"Don Quixote"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
Lincoln Center
New York, NY
June 3, 2010

 American Ballet Theatre celebrated Alicia Alonso's ninetieth birthday with a production of "Don Quixote"  with different casts in each act.  There was a strong Latin tinge, with the guest Natalia Osipova for spice.  The evening opened with a short film of Alonso, including a wonderful bit of her in the old TV series "This is

"Swan Lake"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
June 21, 2010

Kevin McKenzie's bizarre version of the perennially popular "Swan Lake" landed in New York again, with all of its misguided aspects intact.  The traditional version, the one the music illuminates, is a mysterious fairy tale about the malign power of nature and the impossibility of real choice in an irrational world.  It is, in effect, the opposite of "The Sleeping Beauty", where nature is basically kind,

"Dances Concertantes", "Estancia", Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
May 29, 2010

Christopher Wheeldon's new ballet "Estancia" is based on an old score and its original story.  The flavorful music, by Alberto Ginastera, was commissioned by Lincoln Kirstein for Balanchine in 1941 when America Ballet Caravan was visiting Argentina , but, since the company was disbanded, Balanchine passed up the opportunity.  It is hard to imagine what he would have

"Why I Am Not Where You Are", "Namouna, a Grand Divertissement"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater 
New York, NY
April 29, 2010

The Spring Gala featured two new ballets, both to French music, and both, according to interviews published in the playbill, based on stories.  The evening opened with an intriguing film (by former NYCB dancer Kirstin Sloan) focused on the designs that the architect Santiago Calatrava has done for several of the new

"Soiree Musicale", "Capriol Suite", "Three Virgins and a Devil", "Suite from Mazurkas"
New York Theatre Ballet
Florence Gould Hall
New York, NY
April 23, 2010

The New York Theatre Ballet is the small group affiliated with the school founded by the famous Cecchetti teacher Margaret Craske, and it gives regular performances of chamber ballets, works which would be lost on larger stages.  Though the company performs new works, it is best known for its scrupulous and honorable

"Aureole", "3 Epitaphs", "Company B", "Esplanade"
Taylor2
Joyce Theater
New York, NY
April 16, 2010

Taylor2, a group of six young dancers established by Paul Taylor in 1993 to bring his works to broader audiences, is in residence at the Joyce, sharing a season with other Two's, Ailey and ABT.  Taylor2 has provided many dancers to the larger company, but this is is no sense a student venture; the dancing was spectacular, warm, gracious, and daring.  The

"Excursions", "Enjoy Your Rabbit", "Five Songs for Piano", "Navarasa", "Ah, Mio Cor", "Solid Ground"
Columbia Ballet Collaborative
Miller Theatre
Columbia University
New York, NY
April 9, 2010

The Columbia Ballet Collaborative, founded in 2007 by a group of Columbia students who had been professional dancers, presented six ballets by young choreographers.  The Collaborative is of course, a part-time venture, but the presentation was completely professional, well-rehearsed, and elegantly danced.  The choreography was of the contemporary

"No Matter What", "Mystery in the Wind", "Little Stories", "Touch", "Utopia", "Inner Voice"
Avi Scher & Dancers
Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater
New York, NY
April 3, 2010

 25-year old Avi Scher made his New York debut as a company director with the help of a number of extraordinary dancers.  His aim, he explained in his opening welcome, is to present top-level dancers in intimate venues at affordable prices.  He has put together a

"String Sextet", "Walpurgisnacht", "Sunny Duet", "Solea", "DGV:Dance A Grand Vitesse"
Corella Ballet Castilla y Leon
New York City Center
New York, NY
March 17, 2010

This very young company (the first rehearsal was in April 2008) made an impressive debut at City Center.  Angel Corella, one of ABT's most popular male phenoms, founded it to develop classical ballet in Spain, and there are many Latins in the company, along with a number of Slavic dancers, and some