“Giselle”
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
May 27, 2015, matinee

There were lots of lilies the Wednesday afternoon Paloma Herrera gave her farewell performance in "Giselle", both in the ballet and on the stage afterwards. There was a lot of toiling and spinning too, though by and large the toiling didn't show. Herrera was a gentle and youthful Giselle, looking and dancing as if she were about 22, supported generously and lovingly by Roberto Bolle.

“Giselle”
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
May 27, 2015, evening

Xiomara Reyes, like Paloma Herrera, bade farewell to ABT in a beautifully danced "Giselle". Reyes, with her Cuban training, has always been a moving and accomplished Giselle and needed to make no concession to time in her dancing; she looked strong and confident hopping through her first act solo.  But her Giselle was so much more than technique, fine though her dancing was.  She

"Bournonville Divertissements", "La Sylphide"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
May 23, 2015, matinee

New York City Ballet hosted another "La Sylphide" debut as Lauren Lovette and Anthony Huxley danced the unfortunate couple on Saturday afternoon. Lovette is a dark-eyed beauty with an expressive face and a light, easy, airy jump and she used both to great effect.  Her opening bourrées, as she skimmed over the stage, were particularly effective. Her sylph

"Bournonville Divertissements", "La Sylphide"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
May 16, 2015 Evening

The New York City Ballet's continuing crash course in Bournonville included a number of debuts and last minute changes; the results were somewhat mixed as the fleet, effortless, skimming steps seemed to flummox some of the dancers.  Fortunately Taylor Stanley, leading the Ballabile in the opening of "Bournonville Divertissements," looked completely at home as the happy fisherman, dancing with

“Sarabande,” “Sunshine,” “Steptext”
Lyon Opera Ballet
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY
April 29, 2015

All three of Lyon Opera Ballet’s works on its opening night program focused on reconstructing and extracting from the grammar of the choreographic text varying meanings, and all three conveyed a perspective on modern choreography and a statement about the company.

The all-male “Sarabande,” Benjamin Millepied’s sequential approach to Bach’s music inspired by Jerome Robbins’s “A Suite of Dances,” presented

"Les Sylphides", "Jardin aux Lilas", "Rodeo"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
May 13, 2015 matinee

ABT is showing off a number of its early productions in the first week of its spring season in honor of its 75th anniversary. Since the company is a comparatively recent convert to the full-length blockbuster approach to scheduling, the first week is made up of triple bills, always a hard sell to the Met's summer audience. These bills,

"Bournonville Divertissements", "La Sylphide"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
May 7, 2015

The New York City Ballet gala featured works by the 19th century Danish choreographer, August Bournonville, with a revival of the 1977 potpourri  "Bournonville Divertissements" concocted by Stanley Williams, and the first performance of Peter Martins' staging of the full-length "La Sylphide". The pieces included in the divertissements have varied slightly over the years, as the luminously youthful pas de

A Tribute to Nijinksy
"Les Sylphides", "L'après-midi d'un Faune", "Petrushka"
Sarasota Ballet
Sarasota Opera House
Sarasota, Florida
May 1, 2015 

The Sarasota Ballet's "Tribute to Nijinsky" program featured two works by Michel Fokine ("Les Sylphides" and "Petrushka") and one by the dancer ("L'après-midi d'un Faune"). These ballets are now over 100 years old, ancient history in the ballet world, but the Sarasota Ballet's scrupulously rehearsed performances were fresh. Live

“Show.Girl.,” “Conquer,” “El Beso” 
Ballet Hispanico
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY
April 14, 2015

Visual, visceral and sublimely delightful, Ballet Hispanico’s opening night delivered a powerful display of liberated movements expressing complex subjects. From the opening presentation of “Show.Girl.,” a 2014 work by the Miami choreographer Rosie Herrera about Latina identity, to the world premiere of Mexico-based Miguel Mancillas’s “Conquer,” exploring the various ways in which humans affect their possession of people and

“Intermezzo,” “run-on sentences of I miss you…,” “Salutations,” “World’s Joy,” “Anodynia,” “Quill/t,” “losing farther, losing faster,” “Through the Dust,” “Portrait,” “NOUVEAU”
CounterPointe3 Festival
The Actors Fund Arts Center
Brooklyn, NY
April 11, 2015

An evening of ten works by female choreographers almost exclusively for women is bound to be illuminating; the question is of what, and to what extent. In this third annual installment, Julia Gleich's CounterPointe festival, an important and greatly fascinating endeavor where women

"Agon", "Coming Together", "In the Mirror of Her Mind", "Return"
Dance Theatre of Harlem
City Center
New York, NY
April 10, 2015

The Dance Theatre of Harlem returned to City Center with a smaller company (18 dancers) than the one led by Arthur Mitchell (who, of course, graced the City Center stage with New York City Ballet for years). The new company, rapturously received by the audience, looked strong, happy and stylish, adjectives which unfortunately could not be applied to

“The Sixth Beauty,” “Presto,” “Games,” “The Lottery” 
Ballet West
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY
March 26, 2015

With the amount of style, elegance and stature it brought to its first opening night in New York City in over 30 years, Ballet West fit right in. The three New York premieres and the world premiere of Helen Pickett’s “Games” may have been imperfect, but the presentation of each conveyed the unique identity of the Utah company, and did