"Divertimento No 15" "Appassionata" "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming"
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
February 12, 2019

Superb, intriguing, inviting is a good as tag I can come up with for San Francisco Ballet’s second 2019 Season program. Attending with a friend who grew up on New York City Ballet in its seventies, it was amusing to see at how stunned he was with the quality of the SFB dancers. The program, indeed, was very

"Interplay", "In the Night", "N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
February 5, 2019

Youth must be served, as the old saying goes, and no choreographer served youth as assiduously as Jerome Robbins. He admired the audacity of the young Twyla Tharp, using Central Park as a performance space, and was often the first to spot – and spotlight – young talent at the New York City Ballet, particularly among the male dancers. And, above all,

"Impact"
Kristin Damrow & Company
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Forum
San Francisco, CA
January 31, 2019

Every once in a while a piece of information pops up in my computer that intrigues more than others. Such was the case when the Kristin Damrow & Company announced the premiere of “Impact,” at Yerba Buena Center’s Forum, a large non-proscenium space that has challenged many a choreographer. Brutalist architecture, apparently, influenced this piece by an artist unknown to me.

“Verklärte Nacht”
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker
Baryshnikov Arts Center
New York, NY
January 30, 2019

in Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s “Verklärte Nacht,” Cynthia Loemij crashed elegantly to the floor in tumble after tumble, a wave of relentless feeling and pain. Set to Arnold Schönberg’s dramatic early string sextet, both the score and the choreography told the story in Richard Dehmel’s 19C poem about love and forgiveness. With a crisp and beautifully danced duet, De Keersmaeker, like Schönberg,

“Herman Schmerman,” “Principia,” “The Runaway”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater,
New York, New York
February 3, 2019

Under the rubric, “New Combinations,” New York City Ballet brought together a premiere by Justin Peck, a new ballet from the fall season by Kyle Abraham, and a ballet by William Forsythe that hasn’t been seen in full since 1994. It proved to be the kind of imaginative programming that makes elements and associations visible that might not otherwise

“Serenade,” “Mozartiana,” “Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
January 26, 2019 (matinee)

You cannot go wrong with the music of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky or the choreography of George Balanchine, and so in some ways New York City Ballet’s “All Tschaikovsky/ Balanchine” program, a fairly regular staple of the company’s seasons, was set up for success. The many debuts in two of the bill’s works wouldn’t have

"Apollo", "Orpheus", "Agon"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
January 26, 2019 evening

Apollo, in Balanchine's "Apollo" can be anyone from a "rascal"(the choreographer's exhortation to Edward Villella) to a breathtaking god, seemingly fully formed (Peter Martins, exchanging Valhalla for Mount Olympus as the ballet progressed), all valid. In his company debut, Gonzalo Garcia chose the middle ground and made it his own. The softness of his gestures, from the raised

"Don Quixote"
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
January 25, 2019

Everyone should see “Don Quixote” at least once. After all, comic ballets are more than rare. Especially if it’s as fine a production as the San Francisco Ballet’s 2003 version (mostly) by Helgi Tomasson and Yuri Possokov. Much of the dancing is spectacular, much of the Minkus score definitely less so. “Don Quixote” is also fine ensemble work, offering welcome opportunities for Kitri’

SFB Gala: This is Passion
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
January 23, 2019

Sometimes I think it would be desirable if American ballet companies would receive secure support from our national government, including pensions for everyone involved, the way they do in many other countries, France and Finland, for instance. But then, we might not have had San Francisco Ballet’s recent Gala, at the opening of its 86th season. And that would have been

“Serenade,” “Mozartiana," “Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center
New York, New York
January 23, 2019

New York City Ballet began its winter season with programs devoted to Balanchine works set to two of the choreographer’s favorite composers. The opening program on Tuesday was reserved for Stravinsky, with Tschaikovsky following on Wednesday. Repeats of both programs continue through the coming week.

It is unusual to see three Balanchine ballets to Tschaikovsky

“Cinderella”
New Adventures Company
Opera House
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
January 16, 2019

The New Adventures Company showcased a new appreciation for a well-known fairy tale at the Kennedy Center this past week, sparked by Matthew Bourne’s reinvention of the Cinderella story. With Bourne’s artistic vision and a cast of brilliantly talented and expressive dancers, the company took the iconic character ballet, while maintaining much of Prokofiev’s original score, and