Team Effort

This year marked the 60^th anniversary of the School of American Ballet’s annual Workshop Performances. The programming was unusually democratic this year. Three of the four pieces on the evening of June 7^th had no soloists, and Balanchine’s “Raymonda Variations” was adapted to spread the spotlight wealth: a principal solo was reassigned so that one more dancer in the ensemble could have a variation. And though it is already an ensemble effort, the “Akhnaten” movement of Jerome Robbins’s “Glass Pieces” was similarly rejiggered so that there were no meager run-on roles.

Performance

The School of American Ballet's Spring Workshop

Place

Peter Jay Sharp Theater, Lincoln Center, New York, NY June 7, 2025

Words

Faye Arthurs

School of American Ballet students in Laine Habony’s “Schubert Symphony.” Photograph by Rosalie O'Connor

The Intermediate levels of the school were also featured this year. They do not regularly appear in Workshop shows, and in general they get fewer performing opportunities than the Advanced and Children’s divisions—the latter of whom get the most stage experience, as they are frequently tapped to appear with the New York City Ballet. This calendar school year, the youngsters starred in a whopping eight ballets with the company: Balanchine’s “The Nutcracker,” “Firebird,” “Mozartiana,” “Coppélia,” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Christopher Wheeldon’s “Carnival of the Animals,” Alexei Ratmansky’s “Solitude,” and Peter Martins’s “Swan Lake.”

The evening commenced with Suki Schorer’s refined staging of the “Raymonda Variations.” Schorer was an original cast member of “Raymonda,” in 1961. Balanchine choreographed the zippy second variation for her. Though I’d learned many of these variations from Schorer while at the school, it was exciting to see the exactitude of her complete setting. (Every Balanchine repetiteur has their own subtle take; the versions I’ve performed—and am therefore most familiar with—were set or coached by Patricia McBride, Rosemary Dunleavy, and Merrill Ashley.) After the long overture, the twelve ladies in pink tulle awakened from their tableau pose with bubbly delicacy. They balancéd with pointed back toes rather than rolling through the balls of their feet. More of the steps were put on pointe than I am used to in the women’s variations as well, like when skillful Charlotte Hall popped up to pointe for the coupés right before her hop sequence in the first solo (I’d only seen these done in hippy, deep plié before). The emphasis on pointework throughout stressed the ballet’s daintiness and showcased the students’ precision. It also made for a nice contrast to the flexed feet and fists of the stylized “Cortege Hongrois” excerpt that followed, and especially to the grounded and modern “Glass Pieces” finale.

Renée Augustyn in “Raymonda Variations” by George Balanchine. Photograph by Rosalie O'Connor

The students’ port de bras was also filigreed and light throughout “Raymonda.” The ladies gracefully tilted their heads and presented their cheeks while peering under their top arms in the beginning and ending of the waltz. Simeon Neeld danced the principal male role with lovely articulate fingers—there was no flapping or stress apparent even in his heaviest jump steps (he’ll join NYCB as an apprentice this summer). And soloist Renée Augustyn pulled her wrist back prettily as she retracted her leg to passé and leaned over her knee.

This was Schorer’s third time setting “Raymonda” for Workshop, she had previously staged the ballet in 1980 and 1991. The “Raymonda” variations are technical and tricky; it is a ballet that must be reserved for very strong batches of students. Remarkably, SAB was able to mount two casts of this ballet, and the second (and younger) cast of students I saw on Saturday night were well on their way to mastery. Jaiya Chandra—a Level D student who will return to the school next year—danced the female principal role with calm radiance. She beamed as she floated down the diagonal on pointe in her first entrance. Though the central pas de deux—which is set to Glazunov’s ardent swells—is romantic, Chandra and Neeld struck a dreamily happy note instead which was perfect for their teenagerhood.

In the same vein, the soloists were youthful yet accomplished. Leah Carter displayed explosive pas de chats in the second variation, and Simone Gibson was smiley and assertive in the fourth—matching the snare drum instrumentation in the score. Yeva-Mariia Skorenka, a Ukrainian who is heading to the Oklahoma City Ballet, was polished in what is usually the second principal solo. And when I spotted Lennon Sullivan’s elegant long limbs in the group opener, I knew she would be the harp soloist (some typologies are consistant in every staging).

Renée Augustyn was a wonder in the difficult fifth variation, throwing in a bonus en dehors double pirouette from fifth position at the end of her treacherous bent-leg turn sequence before nailing the double en dedans to the knee—most impressive! I’d never seen anyone do that before, professionals included, so I reached out to Schorer. She confirmed the groundbreaking addition, responding: “I never saw Pat [Neary] or anyone else throw in a double. Renee added it a few times in rehearsal and she was on in the [performance] so she threw it in! As Mr. B would say on occasion, ‘Never been done before.’” Schorer further explained that Augustyn was able to fit it in musically because she turns equally well to the left and right, so she didn’t have to eat up counts by adding the (now standard) pass back to make the final en dedans to the right as well. She simply kept her fourth from the additional double and turned left en dedans to finish. Schorer’s excitement about her student’s prowess and the way she encourages the pushing of Balanchine technique into new territory make it easy to see why she was the faculty recipient of the Mae L. Wien Award this year, her second time winning the award.

School of American Ballet students in Laine Habony’s “Schubert Symphony.” Photograph by Rosalie O'Connor

Next, the Advanced Men and the C1 Girls Classes performed the waltz from “Cortege Hongrois,” staged by Aesha Ash, the Head of Artistic Health and Wellness. The students charged around the stage with gusto before settling in calmly for the adagio. This dance features simple partnering skills with character-dancing accents, which nicely showed off the students’ clean lines and technique while also leaving room for performative flair.

The world premiere of Laine Habony’s “Schubert Symphony” used even younger students. The dance opened on a three-tiered semicircle of children from the uppermost Children’s levels, Girls VI and Boys V. The boys wore class attire while girls were in flat slippers with ribbons and simple skirted leotards in a light mauve (by Marc Happel). Halfway through the ballet, the Intermediate levels took over in the same apparel, though the B2 Girls emerged in pointe shoes. This transition was an exciting one, like when Dorothy opens the door on the technicolor Munchkinland in The Wizard of Oz. Habony moved both groups around dexterously, connecting the two sections with motifs of courtly bowing and lilting tendu drag steps. I liked when she had the youngest girls holding onto each other’s shoulders for an innocent chorus line of barre work. Another neat section featured seven Intermediate girls in a circle, sometimes facing in and out of the center like spokes, sometimes moving in unison around the perimeter (presaging the “Glass” excerpt that followed). Throughout, Habony mostly employed basic ballet steps in harmonious, egalitarian fashion, but there was a brilliant turning passage in the first movement for Judah Horenfeldt, 13, a former “Nutcracker” prince who appears to be progressing beautifully.

Students of the School of American Ballet in “Glass Pieces” by Jerome Robbins. Photograph by Rosalie O'Connor

The evening closed with the Akhnaten movement of “Glass Pieces”—the first time the ballet has appeared in a Workshop. Jean-Pierre Frohlich supervised the staging by Jenifer Ringer, the Director of Intermediate/Advanced Divisions and Artistic Programming, who was assisted by faculty member Adam Hendrickson. They eliminated the run-on roles by adding more dancers into the ladies’ section. This was a generous alteration for the Advanced students, but it made me understand why Robbins employed run-ons here in the first place (his ballets often contain a few of these unfulfilling roles, it was good to witness their necessity!). With the ladies’ dance expanded, there is not enough contrast between it and the closing group wheel. The more intimate ladies’ section—as intended— brings the temperature of the piece down after the vigorous, crowded men’s dance and allows it to build back up slowly to the exultant, full-cast hora—much like the compress and release effect in architecture.

But generosity was the name of the game this Workshop: from the showcasing of more levels than usual, to the graduates’ onstage group bow, to the video montage of the capstone students recalling their favorite moments during their time at the school. SAB has been steadily evolving into a more inclusive and positive place, and nowhere was that more apparent than in the stirring aerobics of the “Glass” finale. Cameron Fikes led the dance off with compelling strength, but the entire cast of 24 grinned supportively at each other by the time they gathered in that exhausting closing wheel. They struck that supernova burst pose at the end with well-earned pride and inspiring, collegial optimism.

Faye Arthurs

Faye Arthurs is a former ballet dancer with New York City Ballet. She chronicled her time as a professional dancer in her blog Thoughts from the Paint. She graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in English from Fordham University. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner and their sons.

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