"Balanchine at City Center: 1960"
Studio 5 at City Center
City Center
New York, N.Y.
November 9, 2010
By Carol Pardo
Copyright ©2010 by Carol Pardo
"Balanchine at City Center: 1960" celebrated the fecundity and variety of George Balanchine focusing on the golden anniversary of "Donizetti Variations," "Liebeslieder Waltzer" and "Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux" all choreographed in 1960 and all still in repertory. Gathering together for a discussion/coaching session in the studio where these works were created or rehearsed was akin to to communing with his ghost that ran the risk of becoming a cozy exercise in nostalgia for the converted. The presence of Violette Verdy, not originally envisioned, changed all that.