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Beginning to End

"Apollo", "Mozartiana", "Cortège Hongrois"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
January 27, 2018, matinee

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2018 by Mary Cargill

The all-Balanchine program began with "Apollo", the oldest Balanchine work danced by New York City ballet (though Balanchine did rework the 1928 ballet in 1979, stripping it of its Expressionistic prologue), followed by "Mozartiana", choreographed in 1981, his last major work.  It ended with the bon-bon "Cortège Hongrois" from 1973, with its generous helping of Petipa, a reminder of Balanchine's beginnings.

Adrian Danchig-Waring in "Apollo" © Paul Kolnik.

Classicism Well and Alive

"Sleeping Beauty"
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
January 23, 2017

by Rita Felciano
copyright © 2017

Is “Sleeping Beauty” the greatest classical ballet? It’s a question that periodically arises in my mind. After again seeing Helgi Tomasson’s 1990 version, I finally decided: “Sleeping Beauty” is the finest expression of classicism that we have, and SFB’s current production is about as good as they come. Lora de Avila and Larisa Lezhnina coached the company.

Sasha De Sola and Carlo Di Lanno in Tomasson's "The Sleeping Beauty"
Photo: Erik Tomasson 

The King is Dead, Long Live the Company

“Divertimento No. 15,” “The Four Temperaments,” “Chaconne”
New York City Ballet
The David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
January 24, 2018

by Michael Popkin
copyright © 2018 by Michael Popkin

New York City Ballet entered its interregnum this week dancing two straight all Balanchine programs. Programmed by Peter Martins before his resignation, they now serve to emphasize continuity between the reigns in a way Martins probably didn’t imagine. It’s neither the new world (and won’t be until a replacement for him is named) nor the old. But between the two, we saw some of the company’s enduring strengths in real time.

Photo of Ashley Laracey in Divertimento No. 15 © Paul Kolnik

Petipa Laughs

"Alexei Ratmansky's Harlequinade"
Studio 5
New York City Center
New York, NY
January 22, 2018

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2018 by Mary Cargill

City Center's Studio 5 presentations, like the Guggenheim's Works & Process series, offer glimpses into the creative process, but the City Center's are held in a working studio, with the audience forming a U-shape around the speakers, which gives a casual, immediate air to the presentations.  The most recent featured the Russian choreographer Alexei Ratmansky and ABT Director Kevin McKenzie discussing the upcoming production of Ratmansky's reconstruction of Marius Petipa's 1900 two act comedy "Harlequinade", which was based on the traditional commedia dell'arte characters. It tells the story of Columbine,a young girl who defies her father's choice of a rich suitor in favor of a poor but charming young man, Harlequin, who in this case, happens to end up with money too.

Harlequin's costume designed by Robert Perdziola from abt.org

 

Mostly Airy

"Celestial"
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
January 18, 2018

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano 2018

Galas exit is to raise money — lots of it. The people who give the money took, until recently, hefty deductions, and get to dress up and socialize with their peers. They also fill the house with an audience determined to like everything. That’s a given. More importantly, we get to see what the artistic director has up his sleeves for the new season. Helgi Tomasson, at the beginning of the 85th year of San Francisco Ballet, did not disappoint. The mix of the “must-have” with the “let’s try-it” made for another glamorous evening at the ballet, the storm outside the Opera House not withstanding.

Photo: San Francisco Ballet in Peck's "Rodeo"
Photo Credit: Erik Tomasson

Blind Date

“One of Sixty-Five Thousand Gestures/NEW BODIES”
Jodi Melnick
Guggenheim Works & Process
New York, NY
January 15, 2018

by Martha Sherman
copyright © 2018 by Martha Sherman

In a new work by Jodi Melnick, three traditionally trained ballet stars come face-to-face with this iconoclastic choreo- grapher, and it is, truly, as if they were coming into their eponymous “NEW BODIES.” Dance writer (and now occasional curator) Claudia LaRocco came up with an intriguing programming idea for a 2017 Danspace Project Platform when she matched pairs of ballet dancers with contemporary choreographers to see what they would make together. Although pairings like this are not unheard of (Wendy Whelan’s partnership with Brian Brooks, one of the best recent examples,) it is usually an already existing personal chemistry that triggers the idea to work together. What LaRocco did was pair strangers (“blind dates between dancers”) in an experiment to see what might stick; one of the partnerships that stuck was between choreographer Melnick and New York City Ballet principal Sara Mearns.

Sara Mearns in "New Bodies." Photo courtesy of Works & Process at the Guggenheim/Robert Altman.

Miami City Ballet's Robbins Program

"Circus Polka," "In the Night," "The Cage" and "West Side Story Suite"
Miami City Ballet; Jerome Robbins Centennial
Adrienne Arsht Center
Miami, Florida
January 12, 2018

by Sean Erwin
copyright © 2018 by Sean Erwin

The Friday January 12^th opening of Miami City Ballet’s Program II rocketed a packed Adrienne Arsht Center out of the box with three carefully chosen company premieres that complemented established company favorites for an evening that presented Jerome Robbins as a creatively complex choreographer whose works still cast a relevant lens onto American popular culture.

 

Photo:  Simone Messmer and Renan Cedeiro in Jerome Robbins' "Other Dances."  Photo by Alexander Iziliaev.