“Quinto Elemento: The Fifth Element”
Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY
April 21, 2026

The program presented by Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana at The Joyce Theater was no doubt not intended to coincide with humanity's historic return to the Moon — NASA's Artemis II lunar flyby, which carried astronauts farther into space than any humans had traveled in over fifty years, completed just weeks before opening night — but its celestial themes resonated all the more powerfully within

"Symphony in C", "Agon", "Firebird"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
April 24, 2026

This all-Balanchine program had a packed and enthusiastic audience, saluting several debuts and two farewells—Megan Fairchild, who danced the first movement of “Symphony in C”, is retiring at the end of the season and Taylor Stanley, who performed the sarabande in “Agon”, has announced his 2027 retirement. The company seemed to sense the audience’s excitement, and the dancing was

"Lady Macbeth"
The Royal Danish Ballet
The Royal Theatre, The Opera
Copenhagen, Denmark
April 24, 2026

Friday night renowned choreographer Akram Khan fulfilled his promise to former artistic director of the Royal Danish Ballet Nikolaj Hübbe to create a new full-length work for the company.

Khan and his team have spent the past four months working with the dancers in the studio perfecting his take on the Shakespeare drama “Macbeth,” transforming the dramatic material of power, betrayal and downfall into

Directed, choreographed, and performed by Vangeline
Costumes by Machine Dazzle
Music by Ray Barragan Sweeten
Lighting by Ayumu "Poe" Saegusa
LaMama Moves! Festival at LaMama Experimental Theater, New York
April 18, 2026

Butoh artiste Vangeline continues to amaze. Last year she was synching brain waves with a male Japanese dancer in a piece (which I didn’t see) called Man/Woman. This year she has dispensed with punctuation and partner, and become a complete being —male and female, animal, vegetable

"Giselle"
The Royal Danish Ballet
The Royal Theatre, The Old Stage
Copenhagen, Denmark
March 27, 2026

In the play bill introduction of "Giselle," one of the cornerstones of Romantical ballet from 1841, the artistic director of The Royal Ballet, Amy Watson, pondered whether Albrecht is evil by nature or just a privileged and bored male out to have some fun. On this night, the latter seemed to be the case, as in the first act when Albrecht dismissed his servant

“Pinocchio”
The National Ballet of Canada
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
Toronto, Canada
Mar. 13, 2026

Ballet (and opera) have been thrust into the public discourse after a certain celebrity recently made comments that these art forms are dying and “no one cares” about them. It was perfect timing for the National Ballet of Canada to promote their revival of Will Tuckett’s 2017 full length “Pinocchio”. Unlike more traditional or classical ballets, “Pinocchio” is punchy, high tech

"Raymonda: Grand Pas Hongrois", "Firebird"
American Ballet Theatre
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
March 21, 2026, matinee

There were feathers in both ballets danced at the Saturday matinee—lots of feathers in Ratmansky’s “Firebird” and a feather in Raymonda’s hair in Susan Jaffe’s new staging of the Grand Pas from Petipa’s “Raymonda”. The feathers in “Firebird” (costumes by Galina Solovyeva) had a flashy exoticism, so appropriate for Ratmansky’s post modern take on the

"Mozartiana", "Neo", "Firebird"
American Ballet Theatre
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
March 18, 2026, evening

There were three very strong women, supported by three very fine men, in this performance.  Chloe Misseldine and Michael de la Nuez made their debuts in Balanchine’s  celestial “Mozartiana”, Christine Shevchenko, with James Whiteside, made her debut in Ratmansky’s “Neo”, a witty and physical pas de deux , and Catherine Hurlin and Daniel Camargo made their second appearances in Ratmansky’

"Othello: A Dance in Three Acts"
American Ballet Theatre
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
March 10, 2026

ABT’s quest for seat-filling full-length ballets has in recent years focused on works based on literary works (“Crime and Punishment”, “Jane Eyre”, Virginia Woolf, “A Winter’s Tale”, etc.), with often disappointing results. There are few choreographers around who can spin choreographic gold from complex sources and “Don Quixotes” don’t turn up very often.  Of course, the balletic

"Mozartiana", "Nuages", "Firebird"
American Ballet Theatre
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
March 14, 2026, matinee

The sold out audience enjoyed two ballets plus one brief pas de deux, each with its own distinct atmosphere and music.  Appropriately, nuages is French for clouds, which were floating in the background of the ballet Jiří Kylián set to Claude Debussy’s dreamy “Trois Nocturnes”. “Mozartiana”, to Tchaikovsky’s “Suite no. 4”, based on themes by Mozart, is another of Balanchine’

“Vuela”
Ballet Flamenco Sara Baras
Flamenco Festival
New York City Center
New York, NY
March 5, 2026

With truly great artists, it is often impossible to pinpoint the precise source of their magic. Is it the way Sara Baras's fingers slow as they curl into floreo – that signature hand flourish of flamenco – the way she fires off rhythms with machine-gun precision, or the way she suspends motion entirely, lifting her skirt in breathless anticipation before the movement arrives? Whatever it

Winter Season
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
Balanchine, Robbins, Peck and Ratmansky in Repertory
January 21, 24, 29 and February 1, 5, 12, 18 and 27, 2026

Originally established at City Center in 1955, seven years after the company’s founding, Winter Season is a special time, the heart of New York City Ballet’s year. The long nights are good for the theater and as it is for nature itself, this is a

"Maldonne"
Leïla Ka
Co-Presented with Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Festival
New York Live Arts
New York City
February 27 and February 28 (matinee), 2026

French choreographer Leïla Ka is not one to shy away from the depths and vulnerability of womanhood. Co-presented with Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels at New York Live Arts, Ka’s "Maldonne" stretches the definition of femininity, utilizing five dancers and 40 dresses to

“Romeo & Juliet Suite”
L.A. Dance Project
Festival: Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels
Park Avenue Armory
New York, NY
March 2, 2026

You could see what Benjamin Millepied was going for with his version of “Romeo and Juliet.” An immersive, hybrid-medium reimagining of the greatest love story ever told – Sergei Prokofiev’s score abridged, every corner of Park Avenue Armory's Gothic grandeur weaponized, plot trimmed to its central characters and live performance spliced with real-time cinematography beamed

Gala Flamenca
Flamenco Festival
New York City Center
New York, NY
February 26, 2026

The Flamenco Festival opened its 25th year at City Center with a gala featuring four of the dance form's greats – Eva Yerbabuena, Manuel Liñán, El Farru, and the young Juan Tomás de la Molía – painting a story of rich traditions and deep passions over a series of individual vignettes.  Running at over two hours with no intermission, it was a formidable tale poignantly punctuated by

“Ebony Magazine: to a Village,” “Clear As Tear Water,” “Gatekeepers,” “Upside Down”
Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY
February 25, 2026

Program A of Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE's weeklong run at The Joyce Theater was, at its heart, a celebration – of collaboration, of community, and of Wunmi Olaiya (who goes by Wunmi), the London-born, Lagos-raised musician and designer whose music, costumes, and creative vision have been woven into the EVIDENCE aesthetic for decades. The evening honored

“BIPED,” “Mycelium”
Lyon Opera Ballet
Festival: Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels
New York City Center
New York, NY
February 21, 2026

In a three-night engagement at New York City Center, Lyon Opera Ballet presented two substantially contrasting works that nonetheless formed an unexpectedly coherent program: Merce Cunningham's landmark "BIPED" paired with Christos Papadopoulos's "Mycelium" – works opposite in structure, atmosphere, and era, yet united by a shared exposition of what happens to the human body when it is asked

Trinity Irish Dance Company
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY
February 17, 2026

The Riverdance phenomenon may have faded from public consciousness, but Trinity Irish Dance Company wasted no time at The Joyce Theater in proving that Irish dancing is not only alive and well — it is more of the present moment than ever. In a program of nine works including two world and one New York premiere, the company tapped, twisted, and slapped infectious rhythms with an energy that