"Otherwhere", "Leaven"
Tom Gold Dance
Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan
New York, NY
October 20, 2025
Tom Gold Dance was established in 2008 by the former New York City Ballet soloist, Tom Gold, and the revolving cast (made up of dancers with various backgrounds, including current and former NYCB dancers) has been performing Gold’s choreography in smaller venues with regular New York seasons. Keeping a small company going for so long can’t have been easy, but the dances
“The Barre Project, Blake Works II,” “Thousandth Orange,” “Swift Arrow,” “Time Spell”
Turn It Out with Tiler Peck and Friends
New York City Center
New York, NY
October 16, 2025
Tiler Peck’s intimately curated show – Turn It Out with Tiler Peck and Friends – made a brief but powerful return at City Center with an assortment of four ballets that showcased every performer's strengths while cleverly avoiding their weaknesses. Above all else, the program was a celebration of musicality itself
"Chaconne", "The Emperor Jones", "Jamelgos"
Limón Dance Company
Joyce Theater
New York, NY
October 14, 2025
In his affable introduction to the week-long Limón season at the Joyce celebrating the company’s 80th anniversary, Dante Puleio, the Artistic Director, dedicated the performances to his predecessor the late Carla Maxwell, who died this year. She directed the company from 1978 to 2015, one of the early pioneers in maintaining a modern dance company which had been build around a
“Voices,” “Composer’s Holiday,” “Herman Schmerman Pas de Deux,” “Foreseeable Future”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
October 10, 2025
There is no such thing as too much new dance, but that does not always lessen one’s longing for the old. For its last program of the fall season, New York City Ballet presented three works from the last decade, including a premiere from its Fall Gala this season by Jamar Roberts, and William
“Forseeable Future”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
October 9, 2025
Jamar Roberts is an American modern dance choreographer, associated most often with Alvin Ailey and his new work for City Ballet, entitled “Forseeable Future” is entirely true to that tradition. It’s a theater piece by a ballet company and in no way dependent on classical dance. Neither too bad nor too good, not unpleasant to watch, physically broad in
“Confetti,” “Valentine,” “Sea Shadow,” “Light Rain”
Arpino Dance Festival, Program 2
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY
October 7, 2025
If there was one overarching theme of the Arpino Dance Festival, particularly in the second program, it was the choreographer’s unapologetic commitment to experimentation and entertainment. That such a vision could materialize on the Joyce's intimate stage, and given the participating dancers' complex schedules and the festival's logistical demands, is a testament to Arpino Foundation’s leadership’s curatorial
"Voices", "Composer's Holiday", "Herman Scherman Pas de Deux", "Forseeable Future"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
October 9, 2025
The current City Ballet practice of programming ballets by themes meant that the evening, called “Contemporary Choreography I”, had no tutus, limited point shoes, fantastic dancing, and a gradually diminishing audience. Contemporary, in this case, ranged from 1993 (William Forsythe’s “Herman Schmerman pas de deux”) to yesterday (Jamar Roberts’ “Foreseeable Future”
“Signs,” “Red Angels,” “Zakuski,” “Heatscape”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
October 4, 2025
Although the program was titled Eclectic NYCB, the combination of “Signs,” “Red Angels,” “Zakuski,” and a new to the company this season Justin Peck ballet – “Heatscape” set to Bohuslav Martinů’s music – registered more as an assortment of stripped-down, thematically minimalist styles than an eclectic curation. The takeaway: this type of dance is comfort-territory for the company, even when the
"Shadowboxing in Blue"
Danse Theater Surreality
Directed by Lauren Hlubny and Kyra Hauck
Haven Boxing, Brooklyn
October 4, 2025
No one who has watched a championship boxing match, and seen the fighters fall into each other's arms at the final bell, can doubt the emotional range and depth of boxing. No sport is a better metaphor for life, in all its glory and humiliation.
Shadowboxing is something else. It's punching the air, the only target being an
“Confetti,” “L’air d’Esprit,” “Round of Angels,” “Birthday Variations”
Arpino Dance Festival, Program 1
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY
October 1, 2025
Two years after Gerald Arpino’s centennial celebration, New York audiences got a chance to delight in the works of this co-founder of The Joffrey Ballet. Though the company he helped build decamped to Chicago decades ago, the Arpino Dance Festival's opening program brought his distinctive spirit home through dancers assembled from companies nationwide, and
“Square Dance”, “Episodes”, “Western Symphony”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
September 20, 2025, matinee
New York City Ballet’s second all-Balanchine program of the Fall season showed two variations on bouncy American square dances (the serenely classical “Square Dance” from 1957 and the raucous “Western Symphony” from 1954), sandwiching the austere, angular “Episodes” (1959) to selections of Anton Webern—something for everyone. I do miss the old weekly smorgasbord programming
“Donizetti Variations”, “Ballade”, “Swan Lake”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
September 16, 2025
New York City Ballet opened its Fall season with an all Balanchine evening, showing three variations of love, both lost and found, all set to nineteenth-century music. There were two standards, “Donizetti Variations” and “Swan Lake”, and one rare revival, the 1980 “Ballade”, set to “Ballade for Piano and Orchestra” by Gabriel Fauré. “Donizetti Variations” has
"The Muir", "You've Got To Be Modernistic", "Silhouettes", "Mosaic and United" (Program A)
'"The Argument", "Northwest", "Ten Suggestions", "Going Away Party" (Program B)
Mark Morris Dance Group
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY
July 16, 2025 (Program A) and July 24, 2025 (Program B)
Choreographers use music in many ways; it can provide atmosphere, humming along politely in the background, it can be a floor supporting the dancers, it can hint at a narrative, or it can weave
“Swan Lake”
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
July 17 and 19, 2025
In a move full of risk and opportunity, American Ballet Theatre bookended its Met season with two blocks of its production of “Swan Lake,” now in its 25th year. The immortal classic, even in ABT’s flawed rendition, remains a tried-and-true blockbuster, but more crucially serves as an unforgiving vehicle for showcasing and assessing a company’s talent. While all eyes this
“Sylvia”
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
July 10, 2025
“Sylvia” was American Ballet Theatre’s marquee offering this season, at least if you were trying to draw a conclusion from the company’s marketing and the sheer saturation of this ballet across the media. Presented by ABT for the first time in almost a decade, this Frederick Ashton ballet had many debuts, some misses, and a truly mesmerizing partnership in Chloe Misseldine as Sylvia and
"Sylvia"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
July 8, July 9 matinee, July 10, July 11, 2025
ABT presented Sir Frederick Ashton’s luminous ballet “Sylvia” after a 10-year hiatus, which meant that most of the dancers had to start from scratch to absorb the elegant style and fiendishly difficult choreography of the multi-layered ballet; their work certainly paid off, as the audience cheered wildly at the curtain calls. Ashton created the ballet in 1952
“The Winter’s Tale”
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
July 3, 2025
Christopher Wheeldon’s “The Winter’s Tale,” set to original music by Joby Talbot, graced the stage during American Ballet Theatre’s Met season only seven times, but it was clear that this addition to the company’s repertory is a worthy one. Set to Shakespeare’s story but danced with Wheeldon’s modern language, it is precisely the kind of vehicle the company
"The Winter's Tale"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
July 1, 2025
ABT has added Christopher Wheeldon's “The Winter’s Tale”, based on the Shakespeare play, to its repertoire. Wheeldon is quoted in the program as saying that he got the idea to choreograph the work, often categorized as a “problem play”, from the theatrical director Nicholas Hytner, who said it might work better “if there’s no one actually talking” which is rather like
Giselle"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 26, June 28, matinee, and evening, 2025
ABT’s sturdy production of “Giselle” was given ten times this season, with ten different Giselles scheduled (Catherine Hurlin’s illness gave Devon Teuscher two performances). Though “Giselle” is one of ABT’s more frequently performed works, this meant that each dancer has very few opportunities to explore and experiment with their approaches, so it was impressive to see how
“Anna Karenina”
The National Ballet of Canada
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
Toronto, Canada
June 13, 2025
When “Anna Karenina” appeared on the National Ballet of Canada’s season schedule, it was a surprise that it was not the John Neumeier version that the company co-produced in 2018 alongside the Bolshoi Ballet and Hamburg Ballet. Instead, the NBoC announced that it would present the North American premiere of Christian Spuck’s 2014 version, originally created for Ballet Zürich
Program A: "Polaris", "Tablet", "Cloven Kingdom"
Program B: "Tablet", "Churchyard", "Esplanade"
Paul Taylor Dance Company
Joyce Theater
New York, New York
June 19, 2025 (Program A) and June 21, 2025, evening (Program B)
The Paul Taylor Dance Company faces the same problem that all companies built around a founding choreographer face when that choreographer is no longer around—how to keep the company fresh without ignoring the past. Michael Novak, the current director, has been looking both
“Woolf Works”
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 17, 2025
In a full lineup of classics or classical-feeling story ballets, Wayne McGregor’s “Woolf Works” to Max Richter’s music stood as American Ballet Theatre’s one edgy and daring offering this season. Rooted in literary works by Virginia Woolf and wholly embedded in McGregor’s signature pliant style, this ballet showcased the company at its versatile best, with deeper and more seasoned interpretation from how
"Swan Lake"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 11, matinee 2025
After last year’s New York debut in “Swan Lake”, the critics all raved about Chloe Misseldine’s performance and her on-stage promotion to principal. I didn’t see it so wondered if her 2025 “Swan Lake” would live up to the hype. The answer is “No”—it far exceeded it. Not since the old Royal Ballet’s performances
"Raymonda Variations", "Cortège Hongrois (excerpt)", "Schubert Symphony", "Glass Pieces (excerpt)"
School of American Ballet Workshop
Peter Jay Sharp Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
June 7, matinee, 2025
With the exception of the opening “Raymonda Variations”, with its pas de deux and sparking female variations, this year’s SAB workshop featured ensembles, so not many individual dancers stood out. What did shine was beautifully cohesive dancing and a warm spirit—the anonymous couples all looked at each other, the