Whims: 23rd Century Ballet

George Jackson

30 Mar 2022 — 1 min read

Farewell Celebration for Kevin McKenzie
American Ballet Theatre
Kennedy Center Opera House
March 29, 2022

Two things happened in Washington, at the Kennedy Center's Opera House on Tuesday evening, March 29. One was a farewell celebration for American Ballet Theatre' artistic director Kevin McKenzie. He has been in charge of the company for about 3 decades but will be retiring at the end of the current season. Who will succeed him has not yet been announced. The other event was an attempt by three choreographers chosen by McKenzie to define 23d Century ballet.

The farewell came off splendidly. McKenzie is somewhat of a local lad, having been trained and polished at the late Mary Day's ballet academy and company - The Washington Ballet - prior to his joining the Joffrey Ballet and then American Ballet Theatre as dancer and then directing ABT. Tuesday's program showed ABT to be in good form., but were the new works worthwhile? The three premiers had things in common. All were amalgams of ballet steps with pop dance moves, and to pop music. There were incidents but no real plots. The dancers were not full blown characters but not just figures in motion. They were "types" we have come to know from commercial entertainment. The opener, Ratmansky's "Bernstein in a Bubble," surprises with its short phrasing. It is brief, compact. The sharp phrasing is well crafted. By comparison, Alonzo King's "Single Eye" is tense and bulky to its music by Jason Moran. Whereas "ZigZag" , in Jessica Lang's choreography, is dominated by Derek McLane's and Tony Bennett's visuals and accompanied by Bennett's and Lady Gaga singing and some Bennett artwork. All three ballets seem like whims of mood.

Mood Music

"Kammermusik No. 2", "Le Tombeau de Couperin", "Antique Epigraphs", "Raymonda Variations"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
January 23, 2026

The four ballets (three by Balanchine and one—“Antique Epigraphs”—by Robbins) on this program were all plotless explorations of the different atmospheres created by the composers, ranging from the jagged tones of Hindemith’s “Kammermusik No. 2”, the classical calm of Maurice Ravel’s “Le Tombeau de Couperin”, the mysterious Grecian echoes of Claude

First and Last

"Serenade", "Prodigal Son", "Paquita"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
January 22, 2026

This evening’s ballets were a a series of firsts and lasts; Balanchine’s “Serenade” (1935) is the first ballet he made in the US, his “Prodigal Son” is the last of his works performed by the Diaghilev company, and Alexei Ratmansky’s “Paquita” (2025), while certainly not the first or the last work he has made for NYCB, is the first

All That Worth Protecting

“When the Water Breaks,” “Monarcas,” “Floes,” “Symbiotic Twins,” “Network,” “After the Rain,” “Asylum,” “Moss Anthology: Variation #5b (2025)”
vildwerk.
New York Live Arts
New York, NY
December 17, 2025

Dance lovers are drawn to dance because of its inherent beauty: visual, musical, and in story ballets, narrative. And it’s no coincidence. Humans are creatures captivated by beauty, whether born of nature or shaped by human effort. And so, when vildwerk., a three-year-old nonprofit with an urgent mission, married an

Complexions: Gorgeous, Stalled

“Beethoven Concerto,” “Deeply,” “I Got U,” “Love Rocks”
Complexions Contemporary Ballet
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY
November 25, 2025

Founded in 1994, Complexions Contemporary Ballet’s endurance is to be applauded, and its two-week run at The Joyce Theater is testament to the weight of commitment. The company bills itself as an innovator, yet Program B, which I saw on this night, revealed that steadfast dedication to creation was more of its forte than innovation itself. Two

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Mood Music

First and Last

All That Worth Protecting

Complexions: Gorgeous, Stalled