American Ballet Theatre

“Have We Met?!,” “Serenade after Plato’s Symposium,” “Theme and Variations”
American Ballet Theatre
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
October 30, 2025

For one of the final programs of its fall season, American Ballet Theatre presented a study in contrasts: the world premiere of Juliano Nunes's "Have We Met?!" explored parallel love stories across a century, while George Balanchine's "Theme and Variations" reminded us what timeless classicism looks like. Sandwiched between them, Alexei Ratmansky's 2016

“The Kingdom of the Shades,” “Le Grand Pas de Deux,” “Rhapsody (Pas de Deux),” “The Sleeping Beauty, Act III”
American Ballet Theatre
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
October 28, 2025

Sometimes fortune smiles on an audience. The second version of ABT’s “Classics to the Contemporary” program, which replaced the middle act pieces with Christian Spuck’s “Le Grand Pas de Deux” and an excerpt from Frederick Ashton’s “Rhapsody,” had a last-minute replacement for the opening

"Rodeo", "Le Grande Pas de Deux", "Rhapsody Pas de Deux", "Theme and Variations"
American Ballet Theatre
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
October 31, 2025

ABT celebrated Halloween in grand style, handing out candy to the departing audience, holding a costume contest (I set next to the winning couple, a Venus fly-trap and a trumpet pitcher plant), and a program of tricks and treats (the trick was Christian Spuck’s comedy “Le Grand Pas de Deux” and the

"The Kingdom of the Shades", "Rhapsody Pas de Deux", "Grand Pas Classique", "The Sleeping Beauty, Act III"
American Ballet Theatre
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
October 25, 2025, evening

The program, entitled “Classics to the Contemporary”, had selections from three works ranging from the Shades scene from Marius Petipa’s “La Bayadère” (1877), the final act of his “The Sleeping Beauty” (1890), and a brief pas de deux from Sir Frederick Ashton’s “Rhapsody”

"Les Sylphides", "Gala Performance", "Rodeo"
American Ballet Theatre
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
October 23, 2025

ABT helped celebrate its 85th anniversary with the program entitled “A Retrospective of Major Choreographers” whose works (Michel Fokine’s “Les Sylphides”, Antony Tudor’s “Gala Performance”, and Agnes de MIlle’s “Rodeo”), though long associated with ABT, were all created for different companies.  Though they have very different styles (lyrical, satirical-technical, and American rowdy respectively), they all have

“Sylvia”
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
July 10, 2025

“Sylvia” was American Ballet Theatre’s marquee offering this season, at least if you were trying to draw a conclusion from the company’s marketing and the sheer saturation of this ballet across the media.  Presented by ABT for the first time in almost a decade, this Frederick Ashton ballet had many debuts, some misses, and a truly mesmerizing partnership in Chloe Misseldine as Sylvia and

"Sylvia"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
July 8, July 9 matinee, July 10, July 11, 2025

ABT presented Sir Frederick Ashton’s luminous ballet “Sylvia” after a 10-year hiatus, which meant that most of the dancers had to start from scratch to absorb the elegant style and fiendishly difficult choreography of the multi-layered ballet; their work certainly paid off, as the audience cheered wildly at the curtain calls.  Ashton created the ballet

"The Winter's Tale"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
July 1, 2025

ABT has added Christopher Wheeldon's “The Winter’s Tale”, based on the Shakespeare play, to its repertoire.  Wheeldon  is quoted in the program as saying that he got the idea to choreograph the work, often categorized as a “problem play”, from the theatrical director Nicholas Hytner, who said it might work better “if there’s no one actually talking” which is

Giselle"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 26, June 28, matinee, and evening, 2025

ABT’s sturdy production of “Giselle” was given ten times this season, with ten different Giselles scheduled (Catherine Hurlin’s illness gave Devon Teuscher two performances).  Though “Giselle” is one of ABT’s more frequently performed works, this meant that each dancer has very few opportunities to explore and experiment with their approaches, so it was impressive to see how

"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

"Crime and Punishment"
American Ballet Theatre
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
October 30, 2024

As Oscar Wilde wrote “all bad poetry is sincere”.  The same can be said for all forms of art, as unfortunately Helen Pickett’s “Crime and Punishment”, ABT’s new ballet, shows.  In a recent interview in the “New York Times” Pickett described her fascination with Dostoevsky’s famous novel and talked about her dedication in turning

"The Kingdom of the Shades", "Sylvia Pas de Deux", "Pas de Deux from Great Galloping Gottschalk", "Neo", "In the Upper Room"
American Ballet Theatre
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
October 26, matinee 2024

The theater’s dry ice machine got a good workout during this matinee as three of the five works used the fog machine to great effect.  “The Kingdom of the Shades”, the white act from the full length nineteenth century