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REVIEWS | By Oksana Khadarina

Abstraction & Americana

“NYCB Classics II” program which the company performed during its spring season at David H. Koch Theater included four dances: George Balanchine’s “Serenade,” “Duo Concertant,” and “Western Symphony” as well as Peter Martins’ “Hallelujah Junction.” All these pieces, with their own strength and merits, are the company’s staples, loved by the audiences and performed with affection and competence by the dancers; yet, in my opinion, only “Serenade”—a ballet of unparalleled beauty and invention—can be rightfully regarded as a timeless classic. Given the selection of the works, “NYCB Favorites” would have made for a more appropriate name of this musically and...

REVIEWS | By Merli V. Guerra

Smoke & Mirrors

“Mirrors” opened with a work previously set on Boston Ballet. “Resonance”—choreographed by José Martinez and recently revived through the support of the Krupp Endowment for Contemporary Dance—is a moving work in which audience members can continue to find additional layers of depth upon second viewing. With costumes and set cloaked in shades of grey, the choreography unfolds with an emphasis on lines, partnering, and shadows. Most memorable of this work is its roaming walls—a series of large panels which shift effortlessly throughout the stage, at times revealing a second pianist, at others concealing a duet in motion.

REVIEWS | By Oksana Khadarina

Tragic, Tormented & Triumphant

Alexei Ratmansky’s “Shostakovich Trilogy” is a poignant homage to the musical genius of twentieth century Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich. It’s also a reflection on the composer’s life—triumphant, tormented, and tragic—and his struggle to survive under Stalin's rule.

REVIEWS | By Victoria Looseleaf

Footloose

He became a celebrity in 2011, when a video of him and superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma went viral on YouTube (that it was shot by Spike Jonze also didn’t hurt). He is Charles (Lil Buck) Riley, purveyor of Memphis jookin—a sneaker-clad, footwork-centric idiom that evolved from hip-hop. The performance was Lil Buck’s rendition of “The Dying Swan,” a 1905 work originally choreographed by Michel Fokine for ballerina Anna Pavlova and set to the music of Camille Saint-Saëns.

Rambert in “Tomorrow” by Lucy Guerin. Photograph by Johan Persson

REVIEWS | By Rachel Elderkin

Murder, Mystery & A Party

This year sees the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, a cause for many in the arts to celebrate the great bard’s life and works, and the latest triple bill from Rambert, “Murder, Mystery and a Party,” marks the occasion with its own contribution. Choreographer Lucy Guerin has created “Tomorrow,” a new work for the company based upon Macbeth, following her recent collaboration on the same play with theatre director Carrie Cracknell at the Young Vic.

REVIEWS | By Lorna Irvine

Leaps and Lost Waltzes

Vaslav Nijinsky's personal struggle with both genius and mental illness is a classic dramatic paradigm, cliché for a reason, but Company Chordelia's study of his life is both delicate and physical, avoiding the usual traps of dance biographies.

Miami City Ballet in “Heatscape” by Justin Peck. Photograph by Gene Schiavone

REVIEWS | By Oksana Khadarina

Turn up the Heat

Justin Peck, the 28-year-old resident choreographer of New York City Ballet, is on a roll. Judging by the number of works he has created for NYCB and other ballet companies in the last few years, Peck seems unstoppable in his drive, creativity, imagination, and eagerness to create. He is a rare, prodigious talent when it comes to dancemaking. A new Peck ballet (just like a premier by Alexei Ratmansky or Christopher Wheeldon) is a major event in today’s ballet.

REVIEWS | By Claudia Lawson

Symphonia

Usually based in Melbourne, the Australian Ballet is currently residing at the Sydney Opera House for the first of two Sydney seasons this year. They have premiered two ambitious works: first delivering a month-long season of Stephen Baynes’ “Swan Lake,” followed by “Vitesse,” a triple bill of contemporary works, including William Forsythe’s “In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated.” In the very same week of “Vitesse’s” premiere, the Australian Ballet gave us “Symphony in C,” an evening of divertissements followed by George Balanchine's stunning ballet from 1947, lending its name to the programme. For the third opening night within a month, I’m sure it wasn’t just me...

REVIEWS | By Victoria Looseleaf

Gold Standard

Cue mermaids, businessmen and gumboot dancers, as well as a host of other characters, including the sultry cigarette girl, Carmen. Welcome to the wild and wonderful world of Daniel Ezralow, and his 75-minute intermissionless work, “Open,” which had its West coast premiere at the Wallis in Beverly Hills over the weekend. Ezralow, who has been a movement/theatrical pioneer for some four decades—from dancing with Paul Taylor and as an original member/choreographer of Momix (with Moses Pendleton), to founding ISO Dance and working with Julie Taymor on an array of projects, including the film Across the Universe and Broadway’s “Spiderman: Turn...

REVIEWS | By Sara Veale

The Life and Death Brigade

What is life if not one long memento mori? This is the question Trevor Nunn and William Trevitt—co-founders of the all-male troupe BalletBoyz—have posed with their latest bill, “Life,” which reflects on mortality with two diverse, thoughtful works. It’s terrain the pair has trekked before, most recently with 2015’s “Young Men,” a meditation on the violence and emotional trauma of war. Here they uphold their knack for picking bold, engaging commissions that highlight their ten dancers’ impressive emotional range.

REVIEWS | By Oksana Khadarina

Miami Magic

Miami City Ballet’s week-long engagement at the Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater was full of wonderful surprises, rewards, and revelations. Watching the two mixed-bill programs the company presented during the run, I couldn’t help but notice just how much at home the Miami dancers looked on the stage that is invariably associated with the illustrious New York City Ballet.

REVIEWS | By Lorna Irvine

Ruffling Feathers

Twenty years after their last production of “Swan Lake,” Scottish Ballet return with this tough but tender spin on the iconic ballet, created by internationally acclaimed Amsterdam-based choreographer David Dawson. Composer Tchaikovsky described the swan as “femininity in its purest form,” and Dawson's approach is certainly suggestive of this.

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.