"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 25^th 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