"Of Love and Rage"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
June 20, 2022

ABT's newest full-length ballet, by Alexei Ratmansky, is based on the world's oldest surviving novel, "Callirhoe" written in the First century A.D. by the Greek Chariton, described in a 1935 article as "a melodrama of no slight vigor".  It is certainly not a household story, but has elements of Romeo and Juliet (including a false death) and  the

"Swan Lake"
The National Ballet of Canada
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
Toronto, Canada
June 10, 2022 

Karen Kain’s “Swan Lake” has been a long time coming. Originally scheduled to premiere in June 2020, the new production was pushed back two years due to the pandemic. It marks the end of Kain’s long career as artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada, from 2005 to 2021. This “Swan Lake” is a collaborative effort. Kain

Program A: "Fibers", "Images and Reflections", "Hope is a Thing with Feathers", "Profiles", "Aureole"
Program B: "Tracer", "Events II", "A Call for Softer Landings", "Profiles", "Aureole"
Paul Taylor Dance Company
Joyce Theater
New York, New York
June 17, 2022 (Program B) and June 18, 2022 matinee (Program A)

The Taylor Company's brief Joyce season was a history lesson of sorts, featuring several early Taylor works, some not seen since their original performances, and a possible glimpse of the future, with

"Don Quixote"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
June 14, 2022

ABT's colorful version of the long-after Petipa ballet "Don Quixote" showcased three of its exciting younger dancers (Skylar Brandt at Kitri, Cassandra Trenary as Mercedes/Queen of the Dryads, and Gabe Stone Shayer as Espada), along with one of its most thrilling stars, Herman Cornejo, as Basilio.  Now 40, Cornejo is not going to be dancing Basilio for much longer and the

"Don Quixote"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
June 15, 2022

"Don Quixote" as a ballet tends to ignore the poor fellow, using him as a hook to hang all those dances on, so it was surprising to see how the tall, lean Cy Doherty commanded attention in the opening scene, staring at the vision of Dulcinea with a befuddled but awestruck sincerity as his creaking, aged body reached for her in vain.  

"Signs", "A Suite for Kay", "Circus Polka", "Symphony in C", fourth movement
School of American Ballet Workshop
Peter Jay Sharp Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
June 4, 2022 matinee

This SAB program, attended by a packed and enthusiastic audience, was a bit more piecemeal than usual, with only one complete work, Giana Reisen's premiere "Signs".  ("Circus Polka", Jerome Robbins' charming bonne bouche for young dancers, hardly counts as a work.)  "A Suite for

"Wall"
Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company
Courtyard of the National Portrait Gallery
Washington, DC
May 19 2022 (evening)

There was no printed program for this dance premiere. Yet some credit information could be had from the Internet announcement for the event, Burgess had based his choreography on a magical realist novel by Mexican author Octavio Paz (1914 - 1999). Nevertheless, it wasn't the story or an aspect of plot that captured my attention first and foremost but the scenery:

ICONS Choreographic Institute Thesis Dance Concert 2022
Dance Loft on 14
Washington DC
May 15, 2022 (matinee)

It is not surprising that there were resemblances among the dance works shown on this program. Vladimir Angelov was, after all, the teacher of all the choreographers and performers who were being presented. Angelov's pupils seem to think that dance is an unfolding of the human body - as if were a piece of clothing that had been wrapped up and needed to

“Don Quixote”
Royal Danish Ballet
Copenhagen, Denmark
5 March 2022

According to the handout program, on opening night May 2022, Nikolaj Hübbe claimed that Marius Petipa´s “Don Quixote” is one the greatest Russian Classics.  I myself will not go that far. However, I will support that “The Don” provides both classical and comical dancing and acting. 

“Don Quixote” arrived at The Royal Danish Ballet in 1983 and became a great hit, as well as having a significant

"Divertimento No. 15", "Afternoon of a Faun", "Allegro Brilliante", "The Four Temperaments"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
April 27, 2022

The three Balanchine ballets in this program varied musically and sartorial (tutus for "Divertimento", chiffon for "Allegro" and leotards for 
"The Four Temperaments") but all three showed Balanchine's mastery of geometric shapes to create a hierarchy, with the corps and soloists weaving through the music and around the

"Don Quixote"
Marius Petipa, Alexander Gorsky, Kevin McKenzie and Susan Jones
American Ballet Theatre 
Opera House
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
Thursday, 31 March 2022

It was fun, this production of a 19th-Century Russian ballet. Not sophisticated humor but shrewd slapstick. Danill Simkin blazed as the barber Basillo so that people in the audience asked whether it wasn't Baryshnikov. No, it was Simkin indeed in the barber boy role. As his love Kitri, Isabella Boylston

Farewell Celebration for Kevin McKenzie
American Ballet Theatre
Kennedy Center Opera House
March 29, 2022

Two things happened in Washington, at the Kennedy Center's Opera House on Tuesday evening, March 29. One was a farewell celebration for American Ballet Theatre' artistic director Kevin McKenzie. He has been in charge of the company for about 3 decades but will be retiring at the end of the current season. Who will succeed him has not  yet been announced. The&