New York City Ballet

"Donizetti Variations", "Haieff Divertimento", "Valse-Fantaisie", "Stravinsky Violin Concerto"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
January 17, 2023

New York City Ballet's Winter season opened with two pairs of Balanchine ballets, as the 19th century confections "Donizetti Variations" and "Valse-Fantaisie" alternated with the more austere and astringent 20th century works "Haieff Divertimento" and "Stravinsky Violin Concerto".  The pairings, with their contrasting styles, showed so clearly how music propelled Balanchine'

"The Nutcracker"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
November 25, 2022

For some people, the Christmas season starts with New York City Ballet's magical tree growing up to the sky with scintillating, musical excitement.  The production has remained basically the same for years; though the Chinese dance has lost much of its flavor, the boys still want to grow up to be cavalry officers and the girls still politely sip

"Episodes", "Vienna Waltzes"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
October 13, 2022

In a night filled with debuts, the audience was focused on one particular couple, the first and last performance of the final scene of "Vienna Waltzes" by Sterling Hyltin, who is retiring at the end of the season after on last "Nutcracker", and Robert Fairchild, who left City Ballet in 2017, returning to say farewell to his frequent partner.  

"Episodes", "Vienna Waltzes"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
October 5, 2022

 These two ballets, one so austere and the other so luxurious, are both set to Viennese-based music divided into unrelated sections of various moods.  "Episodes", with its black and white leotards, luminous grey background and atonal music (selections of orchestral music by Anton von Webern), is astringent, precise, and impersonal while "Vienna Waltzes" has elaborate scenery (including

"Raymonda Variations", "Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux", "Piano Pieces"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
September 24, 2022, matinee

Though all the music on this program was Russian, the atmosphere was certainly not gloomy; the ballets cheerful collections of beautiful dancing without a tear in sight, set to enticing music by Glazunov and Tchaikovsky.  Glazunov's full length "Raymonda" has some of the most limpid melodies and lush orchestrations in the ballet

"Divertimento No. 15", "Scotch Symphony", "La Sonnambula"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
September 21, 2022

Though "Divertimento No. 15", set to Mozart, is a vision of Viennese elegance, complete with Austrian shades on Karinska's tutus, this performance found its romantic heart in the flowing Andante and was a courtly introduction to the more traditionally romantic idea of the unattainable in "Scotch Symphony" with its echoes of "La Sylphide", and in

"Of Love and Rage"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
June 20, 2022

ABT's newest full-length ballet, by Alexei Ratmansky, is based on the world's oldest surviving novel, "Callirhoe" written in the First century A.D. by the Greek Chariton, described in a 1935 article as "a melodrama of no slight vigor".  It is certainly not a household story, but has elements of Romeo and Juliet (including a false death)

"Divertimento No. 15", "Afternoon of a Faun", "Allegro Brilliante", "The Four Temperaments"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
April 27, 2022

The three Balanchine ballets in this program varied musically and sartorial (tutus for "Divertimento", chiffon for "Allegro" and leotards for 
"The Four Temperaments") but all three showed Balanchine's mastery of geometric shapes to create a hierarchy, with the corps and soloists weaving through the music and around

"The Four Temperaments", "Sonatine", "Black Swan Pas de Deux", "Swan Lake"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
February 15 and February 19, matinee, 2022

These two performances featured debuts of many of City Ballet's talented young dancers.  Some, of course, were more successful than others but all of the dancers, new and old, looked comfortable, confident, and very well rehearsed, especially when dancing in pairs; the dancers seemed to

"Serenade", "Andantino", "Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux", "Swan Lake"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
February 11, 2022

New York City Ballet had scheduled a marathon of Peter Martins' "Swan Lake", but like so many plans, it had to be revised, though echos of that eternal bird did remain in the programing.  The audience did get a full evening of Tchaikovsky's music, a pas de deux set to the music originally

"Mozartiana", "Rubies", "La Valse"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
February 5, 2022, evening

City Ballet's all Balanchine program spanning 30 years, from the 1951 "La Valse" to the 1981 "Mozartiana" included snapshots of some of Balanchine's most distinctive ballerinas, Tanaquil Le Clercq ("La Valse"), Patricia McBride ("Rubies"), and Suzanne Farrell ("Mozartiana").  The current dancers, so different from the originals, need to both copy the steps and go beyond

"Allegro Brillante", "La Source", "Firebird"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
January 22, 2020

New York City Ballet celebrated Balanchine's 116th birthday with an all-Balanchine program which looked back to his (and ballet's) past.  The classical clarity of "Allegro Brilliante", the nineteenth century Parisian perfume of "La Source", and the Diaghilevish exoticism of "Firebird" are from different streams which flowed into his imagination.

"Allegro Brillante" opened with a