Something Old, Something New

"Valse Fantaisie", "Confianza", "And So It Goes...", "Tessellations", "Spring Waters", "Suite Saint-Saëns"
Joffrey Ballet Concert Group
New York Live Arts
New York, NY
May 26, 2016

The Joffrey Ballet Concert Group is made up of pre-professional students form the Joffrey School in New York, and the dancing was polished, detailed and stylish. The program ranged from the swirling romanticism of Balanchine's "Valse Fantaisie" to three premieres and the style from classical ballet to

"Valses Nobles et Sentimentales", "Tweedledum and Tweedledee", "The Walk to the Paradise Garden", "Friday's Child", "Sinfonietta/2nd Movement", "Façade"
The Sarasota Ballet
Joyce Theater
New York, NY
August 8, 2016

"A Knight of the British Ballet", the title of the Sarasota Ballet's week-long Joyce program, refers to Sir Frederick Ashton, Britain's great choreo- grapher. Iain Webb, Sarasota's director, had danced in a number of Ashton's works as a member of the Sadler's Wells

"The Winter's Tale"
National Ballet of Canada
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
July 29, 2016

Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale" is a play about jealousy, madness, grief, regret, and redemption, combined with a complicated plot and questionable geography (the sea cost of Bohemia plays an important role). The National Ballet of Canada, as part of the Lincoln Center Festival, appeared in Christopher Wheeldon's 2014 co-production with the Royal Ballet and Canadians; the choreographer 

" First", "The Saloneers", "thunder rolling along afterward", "Walk Me Through"
New Dances: Edition 2016
The Juilliard School
Peter Jay Sharp Theatre
Lincoln Center
New York, NY
December 7, 2016

Juilliard Dance presented new works choreographed for each of their four classes.  Since the choreographers (John Heginbotham for the 2020 class, Katarzyna Skarpetowska for the 2019 class, Pam Tanowitz for the 2018 class, and Matthew Neenan for the 2017 class) needed to use all of the dancers, the

"The Sleeping Beauty"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 28, 2016 and June 29, 2016, matinee

The charming moment when the 16-year-old Aurora celebrates her birthday by dancing along a line of violin-holding pages has, over the years, become a technical tour de force with Aurora rising on point, rolling down through her foot into a series of unsupported arabesque penchées while beaming at the audience. Alexei Ratmansky has

"The Golden Cockerel"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 8, 2016, matinee and June 9, 2016

Ballets inspired by the 1905 Russo-Japanese War are rare, but the ignominious and humiliating defeat of Russia by the here-to-fore unheralded Japanese was a profound shock to the Western powers. Rimsky-Korsakov reacted by composing an opera based on a Pushkin poem which was an adaptation of a Washington Irving story inspired by studying Moorish Spain--multiculturalism

"Le Corsaire"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 1, 2016, matinee

There are pirates galore in "Le Corsaire", as well as, like Gilbert and Sullivan promise, some glorious things, primarily by Petipa, which unfortunately means the men must play second fiddle, choreographically, to the women, no matter how high and often they jump. ABT has dropped its flimsy 2013 redesign to return to its 1998 Bolshoi production. The pop-up book look of the sets has

"A Midsummer Night's Dream"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
May 29,2016

The final "A Midsummer Night's Dream", New York City Ballet's traditional salute to summer, ended the season with a flourish, with two announced debuts, Lauren Lovette in the second act divertissement and Harrison Ball as Puck (though in fact he had made his unscheduled debut earlier in the week).  It also featured Sara Mearns and Gonzalo Garcia

"La Fille Mal Gardée"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
May 24, 2016 

There was much to crow about in ABT's revival of Sir Frederick Ashton's "La Fille Mal Gardée", including the fact that after 13 long years ABT is finally dancing it again.  It tells an old story – poor girl, ambitious parent, lowly suitor, rich looser – with wit, humanity and charm, and, as in all good comedies, love wins out.  

"La Fille Mal Gardée"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
May 25, 2016 matinee

The Widow Simone's first entrance in Frederick Ashton's "La Fille Mal Gardée" is rarely greeted with the same storm of applause as that of her daughter, but the Wednesday matinee's Widow was the revered dancer Marcelo Gomes, trying out his clogs for the first time. I did see Stanley Holden, the original Widow, who danced it like an old-time,

"Symphony #9", "Chamber Symphony", "Piano Concerto #1"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
May 17, 2016 

ABT continued its admirable commitment to its dancers in the Alexei Ratmansky "Shostakovich Trilogy", performing the three works together for the first time in the 2013 premiere. The company included a program note tying the works to Shostakovich and the Soviet period, describing the arc from the "hero's struggle in Symphony #9 to the

"Serenade", "Hallelujah Junction", "Duo Concertant", "Western Symphony"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
May 19, 2016

NYCB's Marketing Department presumably came up with the title "Classic NYCB II" for this program, more aspirational than descriptive, perhaps, but "Serenade" is certainly timeless.  There were two debuts, Rebecca Krohn as the Waltz Girl and Russell Janzen as her partner.  Krohn's willowy tendrils curved around the choreography, but she seemed a bit