"Mary, Queen of Scots”
Scottish Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
June 4, 2026

In a regrettably brief five-performance run, Scottish Ballet brought New York a work that was, above all else, generously inventive — a history play filtered through a dying mind, where fact and fever dream shared equal billing. While the life of Mary Stuart is not a topic of any kind of regular discussion in these lands, the love, care and detail with which the

"Kismet", "Emma Bovary"
The National Ballet of Canada
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
Toronto, Canada
May 29, 2026

The National Ballet of Canada’s summer season opened with the world premiere of Jera Wolfe’s “Kismet”, his first mainstage work for the company, and the return Helen Pickett’s 2023 psychological drama “Emma Bovary”. Both works examine the concepts of choice, destiny and free will in fresh and nuanced ways. 

Wolfe, a Toronto native of Métis heritage,

"Proof of Light", "Cortège Hongrois (Czardas)," "Scherzo la Russe", "Who Cares?"
SAB Workshop
Peter Jay Sharp Theater
New York, NY
June 6, 2026, matinee

The 2026 SAB Workshop showcased four ballets and three distinctive styles.   There were two folk-inflected works, Balanchine’s czardas from “Cortège Hongrois”, set to Glazounov’s sumptuous music from "Raymonda", and his “Scherzo à la Russe” to Stravinsky, inspired by Russian women’s folk dances.  The performance ended with Balanchine’s “Who Cares?

"Opus 19/The Dreamer,” “Standard Deviation,” “Symphonie Espagnole”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
May 17, 2026 (matinee), May 28, 2026

For her much-promoted sophomore piece at NYCB – “Symphonie Espagnole” to Éduard Lalo’s eponymous music – Tiler Peck said she wanted to go big, filling the stage with dancers.  By coincidence or design, the two works accompanying the buzzed-about creation – Jerome Robbins's "Opus 19/The Dreamer" and Alysa Pires's "Standard

"Divertimento No. 15,” “Zakouski,” “Composer’s Holiday,” “Heatscape”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
May 26, 2026

If nothing else, a program that started with George Balanchine's enthralling "Divertimento No. 15" and ended with Justin Peck's "Heatscape" showed how far away from its foundation the company has traveled with its repertory.  The distance was thrown into sharp relief by what came between: Peter Martins's "Zakouski," which felt experimental by comparison, and

"Concerto Barocco,” “The Goldberg Variations”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
May 16, 2026

There is a particular clarity that comes when NYCB programs its two founders together, and when they share a single composer, the company's bedrocks come into clear focus.  The All Bach evening set Balanchine's stripped-down, mathematically precise “Concerto Barocco” against Robbins's studied and at times theatrical “Goldberg Variations” – one choreographer distilling Bach's nuance in movement,

"Coppélia"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
May 30, matinee and May 31, 2026

The first “Coppélia” was subtitled (in French), “The Girl with the Enamel Eyes”, a reference to the macabre story by E. T. A. Hoffmann (the poor doll’s eyes are pulled out of her head by the evil doctor, eventually causing the hero to jump to his death) which inspired one of the most perfect of ballet comedies.  Those nineteenth

"La Sylphide" (excerpts), "au début", "Un Petit Menuet", "Rosine", "Tritsch Tratsch Polka", "Der Rosenkavalier", "Élégie from Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3", "Bizet Volé", "Petite Suite Ballet", "Dreamers"
Ballet Academy East 2026 Spring Performance
The Kaye Playhouse
New York, NY
May 29, 2026

The 2026 Spring performance of the New York based Ballet Academy East was dedicated to Francis Patrelle who had taught at the Academy for over 40 years, showing his sweeping choreography set to the waltz of “Der Rosenkavalier”. 

"Coppélia"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
May 24, 2026

Though the dreary, rainy Memorial Day weekend weather didn’t cooperate, the theatre was warm and sunny, as Megan Fairchild said goodbye to NYCB dancing a bright, confident, and luscious Swanilda.  As I was leaving, I overheard a man saying this was his first ballet and why on earth was she retiring—a question anyone in the audience might have asked, as Fairchild sailed

"La Bayadere (Pas D’Action),” “Variations For Three,” “An American in Paris,” “Saudade,” “Cornbread,” "Cerulean Skies," “Grand Pas Classique,” “The Weeping Willow,” “Bernstein in a Bubble”
ABT Studio Company
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY
May 13, 2026

In a program of varied works, the ABT Studio Company showed a bench of talent ready to outjump, outturn and technically eclipse the main company’s roster.  The artistry and emotional range of these young dancers still need work, but the

“Untitled, 2023,” “Yugen,” “Quantum Souls”
Wayne McGregor: Alchemies
The Royal Ballet
The Royal Opera House
London, United Kingdom
May 1, 2026

Most creators, even of the genius sort, cannot produce exclusively masterpieces, and The Royal Ballet’s evening of three Wayne McGregor works titled “Alchemies” was an example of that humbling notion: a sampling of ballets from the creative incubator that generates great art, united by musical experimentation and abstraction, but ultimately unable to fully alchemize into gold.  On

"Opus 19/The Dreamer", "Standard Deviation", "Symphonie Espagnole"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
May 12 and May 17, 2026

All three ballets in the program, entitled Eclectic NYCB, were set to music featuring guest soloists.  The music ranged from the 19th century (Édouard Lalo’s “Symphony Espangnole” for Tiler Peck’s new work, the 20th century (Prokofiev’s “Violin Concerto No. 1, op. 19” for Robbins’ “Opus 19/The Dreamer”) and the 21st

Distance / decay / by Pioneers Go East Collective
Anabella Lenzu, choreographer/performance artist
Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte, director & filmmaker
LaMama Experimental Theatre Club
New York, New York
May 8, 2026

In the unlikely event that women ever achieve equal rights in America, someone should put up a statue of Anabella Lenzu. In her new solo, she dances the full scope of humanity in female form.

Distance /decay / begins in captivity. To a sound track of solitary, sad poetry by

“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

"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

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