"In G Major", "Sonatine", "Pavane", "Errante", "La Valse"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
May 15, 2025
by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2025 by Mary Cargill
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of NYCB’s Ravel Festival, the company has put together a program of five ballets set to the composer’s music, one by Robbins (“In G Major”) and four by Balanchine (three rarely seen brief works, ”Sonatine”, “Pavane”, and”Errante”, and his stylish 1951 “La Valse”). The music used for these works were written for the concert hall, which the exception of the second half of “La Valse”, which was commissioned but never used by Diaghilev, and the audience could certainly have enjoyed the evening with eyes closed, though no one would have wanted to miss the number of impressive debuts.
New York City Ballet dancers in Jerome Robbins' "In G Major" photo© Paul Kolnik