Mary Cargill

Who Cares?/Western Symphony/Stars and Stripes
New York City Ballet
New York State Theater
May 25, 2004 

The Fourth of July came early this year, with three of Balanchine’s most rousing closing ballets on one program—not one of the most balanced of evenings, but, if it seemed like a meal of popcorn, it was applauded to the hilt by a very happy audience.

Who Cares? had two debuts, Ashley Bouder as the red girl, and

La Bayadère
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, New York
May 14, 2004 

American Ballet Theatre’s version of the great Russian ballet, "La Bayadère", is now twenty-five years old, and it remains a strong and lush production. The sets and costumes, by Pierluigi Samaritani and Theoni Aldredge are vibrant and danceable, and evoke the nineteenth-century opulence without seeming to be overly heavy or a dated pastiche. And since I am someone who heart sinks

Dances at a Gathering/Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet
Dances at a Gathering/Union Jack
New York City Ballet
New York State Theater
May 11, 2004 and May 15, Matinee, 2004 York City Ballet

Dances at a Gathering, Jerome Robbins’ lyrical, moving, funny, profound, and very fragile ballet, returned this season, with several debuts, and looks in fine shape. Damian Woetzel and Benjamin Millepied (in his debut) danced the boy in brown; both had been very good as the bounding boy in

Valse Fantaisie, Continuo, Vivaldian Chat, A Glimpse, Reflections
BalletNY
Symphony Space
New York, NY
January 8, 2004

The Fugate/Bahiri BalletNY (formerly DanceGalaxy) presented a varied program of old and new, lyrical and dramatic works. If some of the experiments were less successful, the company, basically a pick-up group of dancers with various backgrounds and performance histories, looked well-rehearsed and engaging.

The 1967 version of Balanchine’s Valse Fantaisie (to Glinka—the music was taped) opened the program.