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REVIEWS | By Marina Harss

Entrances and Exits

This was supposed to be the week New York City Ballet was to dance Peter Martins’s full-length version of “Swan Lake.” Because the rapid spread of Omicron forced the company to shorten its rehearsal period, that production was replaced with George Balanchine’s one-act version, which has been combined with other repertory ballets. No regrets—Martins’ “Swan” is a cold, bleak affair—but some of the resulting programs have been a bit of a grab-bag. Consider the one on February 15th, which included the high-modernist 1946 work “The Four Temperaments,” combined with the breezy pas de deux “Sonatine,” followed by a stand-alone “Black...

REVIEWS | By Marina Harss

Pyotr Ilych in the House

Thankfully, no further Covid disruptions have marred the company’s winter season, though fear-of-Omicron has kept the houses less than full. A shame, since the company is dancing so well. This week and next, Balanchine’s one-act “Swan Lake” has been added to the mix, in place of the originally-scheduled full evening production by Peter Martins. Even “Swan Lake” has not been enough to fill the house, though it was noticeably more populated on the evening of February 11 than it had been a few days earlier.

REVIEWS | By Faye Arthurs

Visionary Voices

New York City Ballet’s Visionary Voices program featured one world premiere, Jamar Roberts’s “Emanon—In Two Movements,” and two recent additions to the repertory: Pam Tanowitz’s “Bartók Ballet” from 2019 and Kyle Abraham’s “The Runaway” from 2018. It was a surprise that the newest piece felt like it was the oldest, but that wasn’t a bad thing. Rather, it was delightfully unexpected that the most overt Balanchine ode I’ve seen in a while came from the resident choreographer of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

REVIEWS | By Merilyn Jackson

New Works for a New World

Philadelphia Ballet premiered three commissions in a program called New Works for a New World last weekend in the intimate Perelman Theater. Also part of the Kimmel Cultural Campus, the company will continue to mount its large classical ballets at the Academy of Music, including artistic director Ángel Corella’s choreographed “Swan Lake” in March. The Perelman is now the designated venue for contemporary works.

REVIEWS | By Marina Harss

There is a Time

It’s been a busy week of débuts at New York City Ballet. With several departures last season, and more to come (including Teresa Reichlen in less than two weeks, and Gonzalo García at the end of the month), the company is going through something of a generational shift. The impression is magnified by the fact that some of the principal dancers are out with injuries, leaving the lion’s share of performances to younger principals or rising soloists, dancers like Indiana Woodward, Unity Phelan, Mira Nadon, Jovani Furlan, Roman Mejía, Chun Wai Chan (making a major mark after just a season...

REVIEWS | By Madelyn Coupe

Not All that Glitters is Solid Gold

At last, the highly anticipated Ballet International Gala (BIG) premiered to a very eager audience. Organised by Queensport Arts—a newly formed promotional company, headed by dancer/actor Joel Burke, and associates Beck Phillips, and Kahlid Tarabay—it showcased some of the most in-demand talent from across the globe live on the mainstage. Seeing the list of dancers slated to perform was quite astounding; not least because covid travel restrictions have, up until this point, have limited international access to the state. Skylar Brandt and Aran Bell from American Ballet Theatre; Shugyla Adepkhan and Bakhtiyar Adamzhan from Astana Opera; Alexander Campbell from the...

REVIEWS | By Lorna Irvine

For the Joy of It

There is a lovely egalitarian spirit in Go Dance, the mini-festival at Theatre Royal. It features dancers of all abilities, age groups, backgrounds and body types. Tonight though, it's mainly focused on emerging dancers, with the exception of established company Inspire (more of whom, later.) Rescheduled due to the pandemic, it's great to see its return. With family members cheering on their offspring, and dance fans also in attendance, it's hard not to get swept up in the obvious bonhomie.

REVIEWS | By Candice Thompson

Regeneration

The curtain rose on New York City Ballet’s winter season on January 27, 2022, to a delightful showpiece of a set, designed by Eva LeWitt. Made for “Partita,” Justin Peck’s latest premiere, LeWitt’s colorful ribbons of fabric floated down from overhead, spanning wing to wing, the vibrant color palette creating circles of varying sizes. The dancers appeared in a tight clump center stage under these floating orbs, which hovered over their dance like so many moons.

REVIEWS | By Merilyn Jackson

A Night in the Museum?

No, but I spent two sunny afternoons in the Philadelphia Museum of Art for dances based on or in reference to one of the museum’s greatest assets, its permanent Duchamp collection, and, in its waning days, the stunning Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror exhibit. PMA curators collaborated with dance artists to produce two weekends of live performance in the new Williams Forum, site of the awe-inspiring cantilevered Gehry staircase that replaces the small auditorium where I once saw the likes of Trisha Brown dance.

REVIEWS | By Gracia Haby

And Now We Move On

In the forest at night, the same place you know by day feels different. It sounds different, and the paths you might normally have taken are either obscured from view or no longer possible to traverse. Other senses come into play to orientate, perhaps those that seemed more dormant in the day, like smell or sound. In such instances I think of microbats capable of echolocation, sending out a call into their environment and reading the echo returned to them from nearby forms in their surroundings, in order to forage and navigate, as I listen to pinpoint where I might...

REVIEWS | By Cecilia Whalen

Simple Gifts

The Good Lord came to Mother Rebecca Cox Jackson in a clap of thunder. It was July of 1830 and she was convinced she was going to die—either from the storm or from her deathly fear of it. As lightning struck, she prayed for redemption. Suddenly, “the cloud burst.” But what Mother Rebecca feared might be her end in fact became her beginning: She acquired what she called her “gifts of power,” and Mother Rebecca became a spiritual leader in the American Shaker religion.

REVIEWS | By Josephine Minhinnett

Rite & Revelry

At a time typically associated with the ritual flocking of audiences to “The Nutcracker,” Montreal’s intimate Usine C theatre was packed over the course of four evenings to a very different kind of ritual: the unbridled, animalesque revelry of Compagnie Marie Chouinard’s “Le Sacre du printemps” (The Rite of Spring).

Featured Reads

REVIEWS | Lorna Irvine

Teenage Angst and Institutions

Watching Matthew Bourne's reworked version of the “star-cross'd lovers,” I was briefly reminded of Veronica, played by Winona Ryder, in the dark 1988 comedy by Daniel Waters and Michael Lehmann, Heathers, and her line, “my teen angst bullshit has a body count.” Yes, this is the darker side of Bourne's repertoire,...

INTERVIEWS | Marina Harss

The Me of Today

The choreographer Alexei Ratmansky reflects on the war in Ukraine, the connection between geopolitics and ballet, and joining the house of Balanchine.

REVIEWS | Rachel Howard

Starry Nights

Beneath blue California skies, manicured trees, and the occasional hum of an overhead airplane, Tamara Rojo took the Frost Amphitheater stage at Stanford University to introduce herself as the new artistic director of San Francisco Ballet.

REVIEWS | Faye Arthurs

America, F**K Yeah

After a week of the well-balanced meal that is “Jewels”—the nutritive, potentially tedious, leafy greens of “Emeralds,” the gamy, carnivorous “Rubies,” and the decadent, shiny white mountains of meringue in “Diamonds”—the New York City Ballet continued its 75th Anniversary All-Balanchine Fall Season with rather more dyspeptic fare.

REVIEWS | Emily May

Acosta Danza’s Choreographic Soup

An “Ajiaco” is a type of soup common to Colombia, Cuba, and Peru that combines a variety of different vegetables, spices, and meats.