A Class Act

A ballet career necessitates lifelong scholarship. Professionals take a daily technique class that begins with the same pliés at the barre as absolute beginners. Most days at the School of American Ballet, New York City Ballet members are tucked into in a corner of the studio, honing their tendus alongside the top divisions. Some of the SAB faculty are also still in the company, making them simultaneously teachers and pupils when they join the Advanced Men’s or level D for a barre. At this year’s Workshop Benefit performance, the announcement of Allen Peiffer’s faculty Mae L. Wien Award drew “awws” from the crowd when artistic director Jonathan Stafford explained that Peiffer had won a Wien Award as a student 24 years ago. “But first a school,” goes George Balanchine’s famous dictum. He could’ve coined “stay in school” too: for even after joining the NYCB, a dancer is welcome to visit and repeat the last grade until retirement.

Performance

School of American Ballet Workshop: “Scherzo à la Russe,” “Cortège Hongrois: Czardas,” and “Who Cares?” by George Balanchine / “Proof of Light” by Kiyon Ross

Place

Peter J Sharp Theater, Lincoln Center, New York, NY, June 6, 2026

Words

Faye Arthurs

Mary Kennedy Sullivan and Cameron Fikes in “Proof of Light” by Kiyon Ross at the School of American Ballet's 2026 Workshop Performances. Photograph by Rosalie O'Connor

It is thrilling to watch the youngsters’ first probing of the porous border between student and artist at the School of American Ballet’s annual Workshop performances. And I often see Balanchine classics differently after witnessing these shows. This is partly because the Workshop gets a ton of rehearsal time, so the choreography is generally extremely clear and together—and therefore also reflective of a stager’s vision. A few years ago, Suki Schorer’s crystalline staging of “Symphony in C” revealed a pirouette practice angle to me. At this year’s Workshop, I had a similar epiphany about “Who Cares?” (jointly staged by Jenifer Ringer, Katrina Killian, and Meagan Mann).

“Who Cares?,” set to the music of George Gershwin, is one of Balanchine’s jazziest works. But the eager cleanliness of the ten young ladies in the “Sweet and Low Down” dance belied how much Balanchine utilized textbook vocabulary. The opposing quintets of passés relevés and fondues are straight out of pointe class; they are edgy only in their speed and juxtaposed syncopation. The five young men in “Bidin’ My Time” provided another example of sneaky classicism. Liam Forest, Jordan Gourley, Kensei Gunji, Curtis Mowles, and Sam Shoemaker were all fantastic, each charming in their own way. But their canon of tours into pirouettes also certified their story-ballet-prince credentials. Gunji batted cleanup and got extra credit for sailing a triple turn.

Simone Gibson and Anthony Smith in “Who Cares?” by George Balanchine at the School of American Ballet's 2026 Workshop Performances. Photograph by Rosalie O'Connor

The pas de deux and solos in “Who Cares?” are challenging in terms of stamina and technique, though they should come across as playful and loose. Simone Gibson, in the “I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise” solo, and Samuel Greene, in the “Liza” solo, appeared the freest. Gibson pulled off the feat of looking relaxed without pulling any punches. Greene flung his arms with abandon after his tours jetés to the corners. He even risked missing the final note pose because he went for an extra turn. Longtime Workshop conductor Andrews Sill had his back and adjusted accordingly, which made for a fabulous, suspenseful moment; it was also an example of professional-level musical instincts and negotiation.

Sydney Gerstein displayed a budding sophistication in the “Cortège Hongrois” excerpt, staged by Adam Hendrickson. And the heavy assemblés with clenched fists performed by the czardas corps behind her elucidated how Balanchine took his downbeat musical emphasis straight from folk dancing.

School of American Ballet students in “Proof of Light” by Kiyon Ross at the School of American Ballet's 2026 Workshop Performances. Photograph by Rosalie O'Connor

However, the best performances of the night were in the world premiere opener, Kiyon Ross’s energetic “Proof of Light.” Ross, an SAB alum and principal guest teacher, is currently the associate artistic director of the Pacific Northwest Ballet. He is also the first Black choreographer to create a piece for an SAB Workshop. For “Proof of Light,” he utilized a musical potpourri that included driving compositions by Michael Torke, Max Richter, and Joby Talbot, to gorgeous effect.

He mixed and matched his large, hierarchical cast as deftly as he assembled his score. There seemed to be infinite combinations of personnel, yet everything flowed seamlessly together. I thought of Jerome Robbins’s “Glass Pieces,” Peter Martins’s “Fearful Symmetries,” and Balanchine’s “Symphony in Three Movements” at times. There was also a lot of influence from “Who Cares?,” “Proof of Light’s” programming neighbor. When Renée Augustyn and Ador Kadiasi, both wonderful, wafted backwards away from each other on the diagonal in their pas de deux, it was a “Man I Love” redux. The group toe taps in b-minus also called to “Who Cares?”

Though Ross often wielded twenty bodies onstage in unison or in call-and-response wedges (à la “Sym 3”), he also made so many small digressions that every single dancer got a shining moment—or three. Mary Kennedy Sullivan and Cameron Fikes were another strong pairing, as were the lanky-but-sharp Lennon Sullivan and Tanner Benton-Mundorff. Impressively, Ross managed to keep his many couples and components stylistically united. A few theme steps helped. There were Violette pas de chats in every possible permutation (partnered and solo, rotating, rounding the corner, facing front and back). There were also unusual en dedans partnered pirouettes in a turned in position.

My main takeaway, however, was the students’ exhilarating combination of attack and polish. The entire cast danced boldly and beautifully in “Proof of Light,” as if they loved it and owned it. There can be no greater success for a Workshop choreographer than tipping a stage full of schoolmates across the line into full-fledged artists.

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.

comments

Daniel Duell luglio 02, 2026

Respectful, encouraging review! Nicely written. Wish I could have been there to see this program, as I do each year while running Balanchine-based Ballet Chicago. It is heartening to hear that the foundational, still forward-looking Balanchine repertoire is being given its due, and that Kiyon Ross’s new choreography incorporates a full spectrum of soloist and ensemble participation.

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