"In G Major", "Sonatine", "Pavane", "Errante", "La Valse"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
May 15, 2025
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of NYCB’s Ravel Festival, the company has put together a program of five ballets set to the composer’s music, one by Robbins (“In G Major”) and four by Balanchine (three rarely seen brief works, ”Sonatine”, “Pavane”, and”Errante”, and his stylish 1951 “La Valse”).
"Paquita", "A Suite of Dances", "After the Rain" 'Brandenburg"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
May 1, 2025
Though still rare, non-Balanchine evenings are being programed at NYCB with more frequency (though Balanchine is referenced in the "Minkus Pas Trois" which opens "Paquita", the dance is a revision of Petipa's original). The evening’s program featured older works by NYCB stalwarts Jerome Robbins, Christopher Wheeldon, and Alexei Ratmansky, whose reworking
"Scotch Symphony" "Belles-Lettres", "Glass Pieces"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
April 26, 2025, Evening
This program featured three ballets by three choreographers created in three decades each separated by about thirty years; this variety made for a very lively and interesting evening. Balanchine’s “Scotch Symphony” (1952) is an oblique take on Bournonville’s nineteenth-century Romantic work set to Mendelssohn, Justin Peck’s “Belles-Lettres” (2014) is a neo-romantic swoon
"Apollo", "Ballo della Regina", "Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux", "Chaconne"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
April 25, 2025
The trend of City Ballet’s marketing department naming programs with poetically descriptive titles seems to have slightly run out of steam, and this program was named somewhat prosaically All Balanchine I. There were, though, hints of a theme, as the pearl in the original “Ballo della Regina”
"Apollo", "Ballo della Regina", "Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux", "Chaconne"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
April 23, 2025
It may have been a coincidence, but there were references to swimming in three of the ballets on view in the glorious all-Balanchine program )“Apollo”, “Ballo della Regina”, and “Chaconne”), and three of the ballets have indelible echoes of their originators— Merrill Ashley in “Ballo” Violette Verdy in “Tschaikovsky
“Swan Lake”
The National Ballet of Canada
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
Toronto, Canada
March 8, 2025
“Swan Lake” is a measuring stick for any classical company, yet it is surprisingly difficult to find a definitive production without significant flaws. In the years since its 1877 Moscow premiere, different choreographers have changed the setting, cut and added variations and condensed it. It has been done with an all male cast, with and without a jester, with different guises
“The Four Seasons”, “Morpheus’ Dream”, “The Leaves are Fading”
The National Ballet of Canada
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
Toronto, Canada
Feb. 26, 2025
The National Ballet of Canada’s diverse winter triple bill featured works from two British and one German choreographer that showcased a range of styles and movement vocabularies. The feature of the night was David Dawson’s colorful and modern “The Four Seasons”. Following opening night, the company announced that he will be appointed
"Swan Lake"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
February 22, 2025 matinee
Peter Martins’ unique take on the ever-popular “Swan Lake” returned for a two-week visit, its first since 2020, with all of its peculiarities intact; the day-glow costumes of Act I, the drab scenery, and the general dramatic confusion were all on display. It also displayed a number of debuts, most notably a new Swan Queen in
"Divertimento No. 15", "Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux", "Carnival of the Animals"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
February 14, 2025
This evening’s performance began with two of Balanchine’s gloriously classical works, the celestial “Divertimento No. 15” to Mozart and the whipped cream “Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux” and ended with anthropomorphic animals of Christopher Wheeldon’s “Carnival of the Animals”; both the opening and closing ballets were stuffed
"Scotch Symphony", "Sylvia: Pas de Deux", "Firebird"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
February 13, 2025
In January 2001, I was at a matinee performance of NYCB, expecting a pleasant afternoon watching the light, spun-sugar of “La Source” when the soloist bounded on with the most exuberant and musically incisive heel-to-the-head leaps I had ever seen. The entire audience gasped and leant forward as if pulled by a magnetic
"Paquita", "In the Night", "Symphony in Three Movements"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
February 7, 2025
The New York City Ballet fielded a completely new cast of Ratmansky’s new version of Petipa’s “Paquita”, showing yet again, how rich the company currently is. It was followed by Robbins’ “In the Night” with yet more debuts, and closed with Balanchine’s majestic “Symphony in Three Movements”.
Allegra
"Paquita", "In the Night", "Symphony in Three Movements"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
February 6, 2025
"Paquita", Alexei Ratmansky's new ballet, was to have been danced as the middle ballet, but, due to an injury, this evening’s program had been rearranged, and the program opened with the main attraction. Unity Phelan, who was already dancing in the first two ballets, had to replace Ashley Laracey in “Symphony in