American Ballet Theatre
"Swan Lake"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 11, matinee 2025
After last year’s New York debut in “Swan Lake”, the critics all raved about Chloe Misseldine’s performance and her on-stage promotion to principal. I didn’t see it so wondered if her 2025 “Swan Lake” would live up to the hype. The answer is “No”—it far exceeded it. Not since the old Royal Ballet’s performances
"Raymonda Variations", "Cortège Hongrois (excerpt)", "Schubert Symphony", "Glass Pieces (excerpt)"
School of American Ballet Workshop
Peter Jay Sharp Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
June 7, matinee, 2025
With the exception of the opening “Raymonda Variations”, with its pas de deux and sparking female variations, this year’s SAB workshop featured ensembles, so not many individual dancers stood out. What did shine was beautifully cohesive dancing and a warm spirit—the anonymous couples all looked at each other, the
Adieu: A Celebration of Guillaume Côté
“Bolero”, “Reverence”, “King’s Fall”, “Grand Mirage”
The National Ballet of Canada
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
Toronto, Canada
May 30, 2025
Guillaume Côté has been a household name in Canadian ballet almost since the start of his career at The National Ballet of Canada 26 years ago. Chosen for prime principal roles early on, his range and depth as a dancer lived up to and surpassed the promise of those early
New York City Ballet
"A Midsummer Night'sDream"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
May 31 evening, 2025
Adorable dancing bugs start and finish Balanchine’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, performed by very well-trained SAB students with a minimum of cuteness. Of course there were oohs and aahs from the enthusiastic audience when they fluttered on, but they danced with a sweet-natured concentration and had no “Hi, Grandma” vibes. The rest
book review
The Essential Jill Johnston Reader
Edited by Clare Croft
Duke University Press, 2024
Everyone knows that post-modern dance began at Judson Memorial Church in the early 1960s, but few people today remember what actually happened there. Luckily, the Village Voice was on the story, and sent its most daring critic to cover it. Jill Johnston’s columns of the 1960s and 70s have now been collected in a book, an invaluable chronicle of dance in the context of a social/
New York City Ballet
"Glass Pieces", "Chiaroscuro", "Cool", "Pas de Deux from 'Stars and Stripes'"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
May 25 matinee, 2025
Andrew Veyette gave his last performance this afternoon, after 25 years with the New York City Ballet, 18 of those as a principal. I first noticed him as the lead in “Two Birds with One Wing”, a ballet choreographed by Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux for the 2006 Diamond Project.
New York City Ballet
"Divertimento from 'Le Baiser de la Fée'", "When We Fell", "Chiaroscuro", "Odesa"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
May 24 matinee, 2025
The program, officially called Eclectic NYCB, showed works from four very different choreographers (Balanchine, Kyle Abraham, Lynne Taylor-Corbett, and Alexei Ratmansky), but each piece used an element of darkness, either as a theme or a background, or both. The result, thanks to some interesting choreography and some extraordinary
New York City Ballet
"Beneath The Tides", "Solitude", "Mystic Familiar"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
May 17, evening 2025
This program grouped three ballets choreographed in the last two years which pointed, presumably, to the future. Alexei Ratmansky, currently NYCB’s artist in residence, was the senior, with “Solitude” which was choreographed in 2024, while Caili Quan’s (“Beneath the Tides”) and Justin Peck’s (“Mystic Familiar”) works both premiered in 2025. It
New York City Ballet
"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”).
New York City Ballet
"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
New York City Ballet
"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
New York City Ballet
"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”