Mary Cargill

"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

"The Nutcracker"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
November 29, 2024

New York City Ballet’s version of “The Nutcracker” is a straightforward, uncomplicated story which eschews any subtext about good and evil; it is a timeless and magical recreation of the childhood most of us dreamed about having, with parties, presents, and good cheer.  And of course, good dancing, especially in the second act, and the opening night was

"Aureole, Vive La Loïe" "Recess", "Funny Papers"
Paul Taylor Dance Company
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
November 8, 2024

There was a lot of light and cheer in the evening’s dances, including the premiere of Jody Sperling’s homage to Loïe Fuller, an early modern dancer whose voluminous costumes and imaginative lighting inspired thousands of Art Nouveau lamps.  It opened with Paul Taylor’s “Aureole”, his light-filled vision of a world full of Handel

"The Traitor", "Scherzo", "The Quake that Held Them All", "Two Ecstatic Themes", "Missa Brevis"
Limón Dance Company
Joyce Theater
New York, New York
November 6, 2024

The Limón Dance Company’s Joyce season presented a generous program, with revivals of three significant Limón works, “The Traitor”, “Scherzo”, and “Missa Brevis”, The first and final pieces emphasized Limón’s spiritual qualities and command of movement, while “Scherzo” was a delicious playful romp.  The company also offered a solo by

"Crime and Punishment"
American Ballet Theatre
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
October 30, 2024

As Oscar Wilde wrote “all bad poetry is sincere”.  The same can be said for all forms of art, as unfortunately Helen Pickett’s “Crime and Punishment”, ABT’s new ballet, shows.  In a recent interview in the “New York Times” Pickett described her fascination with Dostoevsky’s famous novel and talked about her dedication in turning

"The Kingdom of the Shades", "Sylvia Pas de Deux", "Pas de Deux from Great Galloping Gottschalk", "Neo", "In the Upper Room"
American Ballet Theatre
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
October 26, matinee 2024

The theater’s dry ice machine got a good workout during this matinee as three of the five works used the fog machine to great effect.  “The Kingdom of the Shades”, the white act from the full length nineteenth century

"La Boutique", "Mercurial Son", "Études"
American Ballet Theatre
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
October 8, 2024

ABT opened it’s Fall season with two premieres, Gemma Bond’s “La Boutique” and Kyle Abraham’s “Mercurial Son”, and Harald Landers’ 1948 “Etudes”, a salute to classical ballet that ABT first danced in 1961. Though “Etudes” does have an homage to the grand nineteenth century ballets, especially the works of the Danish choreographer August Bournonville, and “La

The National Ballet of Ukraine and the Shumka Dancers
Classical pas de deux and Ukrainian folk dances
New York City Center
New York, NY
October 15, 2024

Twenty four dancers from the National Ballet of Ukraine and the Canadian based Ukrainian folk dance troupe Shumka are on a grueling three-week, seven-state, sixteen-city tour to raise money for the war effort.  The gala format (including a Don Q pas de deux) showed off their dancers and was generally

"Mozartiana", "Monumentum pro Gesualdo", "Movements for Piano and Orchestra", "Concerto DSCH"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
October 8, 2024

This exciting program, called by the Marketing Department simply “Balanchine and Ratmansky”, does not need any other description to entice the viewer.  In addition, it had one of the most anticipated debuts of the season, as the tall and lovely Mira Nadon danced “Mozartiana”, the final ballet Balanchine created for

"Coppélia"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
October 5 evening, 2024

NYCB has scheduled “Coppélia” over successive weekends, a marketing triumph, it seems, for the theater has been packed (even the fifth ring was open for this performance), filled with excited families; the children especially loved the shivering knees in Act II.  But for all its rollicking humor, “Coppélia” lexists in a village of elegant, sophisticated dancers, and few City

"Mozartiana", "Monumentum pro Gesualdo", "Movements for Piano and Orchestra", "Concerto DSCH"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
October 4, 2024

The four ballets, three by Balanchine and one by Alexei Ratmansky, on this program were all abstract, yet each one had a distinctive flavor and emotional resonance; plotless yet nuanced, they all echoed and amplified their scores. Any story or even hint of narrative was up to the viewer to provide, yet