"Wild Swans", "Don't Tread on Me or My String Quartet", "SI-8 and SI-9", "Exit Wounds...And Then They Come Home", "Arranged", "Allegro con Brio", "Sur"
Chamber Dance Project
Joyce Theater
New York, NY
August 6, 2015

The Chamber Dance Project, directed by Diane Coburn Bruning, iw a small dance company with a strong musical component. "Chamber" refers to the music as well as the dancers, and the four musicians, two violins, a viola and a cello played

“Infra,” Divertissements, “Age of Anxiety”
The Royal Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
June 28, 2015 (matinee) 

Mixed bill programs, particularly when brought by a company on tour, are usually a great vehicle for showing a company’s range. But if the Royal Ballet said enough about the impressive roster of British choreographers in its repertory with just the first cast, the second cast indicated that the depth of its performers’ bench, and their ability to excel

“Romeo and Juliet”
American Ballet Theatre
The Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 18, 2015

It was a long time coming, but Russian ballerina Evgenia Obraztsova, and her signature role of Juliet, finally made it to New York. The Kenneth MacMillan version of the ballet that ABT puts on season after season may not be the best vehicle for Obraztsova’s iteration of Shakespeare’s famous heroine, but the trademark innocence with which she dances the role nonetheless shone

"The Peony Pavilion"
The National Ballet of China
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
July 8, 2015

"The Peony Pavilion" was written in 1598 and the love story, basically a mixture of "Romeo and Juliet" and "Orpheus and Eurydice," is a mainstay of Chinese opera. The Lincoln Center Festival showcased the 20  hour version in 1999, an explosion of colorful costumes, singing and acrobatics. This year, the Festival presented another take, a two-hour distillation by the National

"Cinderella"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 29, 2015

ABT's final week is devoted to Sir Frederick Ashton's "Cinderella", a glorious combination of lyricism, virtuosity and comedy, both high and low. Cory Stearns was the opening night Prince; he had been scheduled last year but was injured so this was his New York debut. Even though, like his cousin in "The Sleeping Beauty", he Prince doesn't arrive until Act II, he dominated the

"ROBOT"
Blanka Li and Dancers
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
Brooklyn, NY
June 11, 2015

If you ever wondered what kind of future it would be where robots are ubiquitous, Blanca Li’s “ROBOT” can suggest only one answer: a funny and entertaining one. From the theme-setting opening scene, where a single dancer, Gael Rougegrez, stood on a dark stage with projections of various human and robotic forms making him at times flesh and at times machine, the

"The Dream", "Song of the Earth"
The Royal Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
June 24, 2015

by Mary Cargill 
copyright © 2015 by Mary Cargill

The Royal Ballet made a rare appearance in New York, opening their brief season with works by their two knights, Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan. They danced the same program in their 1976 visit, and since then "The Dream" has become familiar thanks to ABT's sparkling production, but the darker

“La Bayadère”
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 3, 2015

by Marianne Adams
copyright © 2015 by Marianne Adams

So much can be said in a span of two hours, particularly in the context of “La Bayadère,” that it is sad when the opportunity is wasted. Unfortunately, it was precisely this that became the takeaway from ABT’s performance of the pruned and tired Natalia Makarova's 1980 production of the ballet with Maria Kochetkova, who

"The Sleeping Beauty"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 10, 2015, evening

At three plus hours, including two shortish intermissions, ABT's new "Sleeping Beauty" is long by today's standards, but in ballet heaven, it would be even longer, with the entr'acte music playing for a real panorama, more processions in the last act, and a grand transformation, à la the 1999 Mariinsky version, in the last act.  Three hours

Lydia Johnson Dance
"Barretts Mill Road: A Remembrance", "What Counts", "Untitled Bach", "Giving Way"
The Ailey Citigroup Theater
New York, NY
June 11, 2015

by Mary Cargill 
copyright © 2015 by Mary Cargill

Finances being what they are, Lydia Johnson's small company danced to recorded music. Even so this ballet-based, contem- porary-inflected company is musically incisive and nuanced.  Johnson's tastes are eclectic and this performance had music ranging from Bach and Mozart to modern

"The Sleeping Beauty"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
May 29, 2015

Petipa, the father of classical ballet, choreographed "The Sleeping Beauty" in 1890, and this stupendous work has had a restless history at ABT. It does seem that the fourth time is the charm, and the new Ratmansky/Petipa version revealed some astoundingly beautiful choreography.  It would probably take a ballet archeologist/time traveller to unravel all the choreographic layers, and though Ratmansky used the

“Up and Down”
Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg
New York City Center
New York, NY
May 22, 2015

How do you put psychology in dance form? For Boris Eifman, the recipe calls for one part of the Roaring Twenties setting, one part of psychological drama loosely based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Tender is the Night," several parts of different music ranging from George Gershwin to Frederic Chopin, one part an  incredibly limber, tall and expressive dancing cast, one