Balanchine, Evergreen

As a true balletomane, this writer can never get enough Balanchine. And true to form, American Contemporary Ballet kicked off its fifteenth season with “Pas de Deux,” three works by the master himself, George Balanchine, and another by Lincoln Jones, ACB’s savvy artistic director with a penchant for the man who helped change the art form in this country. Running through October 31 at the Bank of America Plaza, the troupe’s downtown, proscenium-less space, the concert, which featured live music—an ACB hallmark—had the feel of an earlier era, where grace and harmony ruled.

Performance

American Contemporary Ballet: “Pas de Deux”

Place

Bank of America Plaza, Los Angeles, California, October 9, 2026

Words

Victoria Looseleaf

Lulu Manzur and Mate Szentes with American Contemporary Ballet in “Episodes: Ricercata” by George Balanchine. Photograph by Caleb Thal

Beginning with the duet “Rubies,” from Mr. B.’s “Jewels,” the three-act plotless ballet that premiered in 1967, this second movement is set to Stravinsky’s “Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra,” exquisitely performed by violinist Tereza Stanislav and pianist Nathan Ben-Yehuda in an arrangement by Brandon Zhou.

Highlighted by the velocity, concentration and glitzy modernity of the score, the work, staged by Zippora Karz (she also staged “Sonatine”), featured the sensational newcomer Mckenzie Lewis (a recent graduate of the Colburn School) and the always superb Maté Szentes. With the Karinska-designed costumes courtesy of Pacific Northwest Ballet—she’s in a fiery red and white bespangled tunic-style dress over a short classical skirt; he’s in matching colors, cavalier-style—the couple’s encounter was punctuated by leaps, über backbends and slinky moves,

This was also a showcase for acrobatic daring, the duo’s articulated stances, including both off-balance and stretched steps, proving the perfect counterpart to Stravinsky’s high-voltage music. Seeing “Rubies” in this context, it still retains the connective tissue that made “Jewels” a triumph from the start.

Marco Biella and Mckenzie Lewis in George Balanchine's “Violin Sonata.” Photograph by Caleb Thal

Following the duet, Jones’ world premiere, “Violin Sonata,” set to Mozart’s lovely Violin Sonata in F Major, could best be described as having a kind of raw passion. Featuring Marco Biella and Cecelia Johnson as the main couple, with Tatiana Burns, Ruthie Dalby, Victoria Manning Long and Vanessa Meikle dancing their hearts out with precision to spare.

Biella proved a generous partner to his regal charge—precious cargo, to be sure—the ebb and flow of their moves as ardent as the sonorous music, which is nothing less than a serene dialogue between violin and piano. Their bended knee stances and her backward bourrées fueled the already dreamy atmosphere, his lifts requisitely solid. And when the four women entered leaping, it was as if the air had been punctuated by a bolt of terpsichorean lightning, with dollops of crisscrossing bodies also on view. This was refinement of the highest level, with Jones’ dedication to purity and form never wavering.

After a brief intermission, Szentes returned, this time partnering Lulu Manzur, in “Sonatine,” a 12-minutes pas de deux set to Maurice Ravel’s 1905 piano piece that Balanchine premiered in 1975 to commemorate the centennial of the composer’s birth. Since the sonata, beautifully played here by Ben-Yehuda, was written for a competition, it’s sparser than the Ravel we’ve come to know, but still retains sophistication and authority, which the dancers fully embodied.

Indeed, in this nod to French neo-classicism, Balanchine offered an array of surprising entrances and exits, the dancers’ exceptional lines accentuating their plasticity, while also retaining an unfettered charm. Szentes’ fouettés saw him owning the room, one eloquently lighted by Martha Carter, with Manzur deploying her pirouettes with ease. The geometry of their bodies, in concert with the sweeping score, created a mini-monument to atmosphere, where the dance was, perhaps, less a conventional duet, and more akin to a musical portrait.

Cecelia Johnson and Mate Szentes in “Sonatine” by George Balanchine. Photograph by Caleb Thal

Providing a lovely interlude, Stanislav easily tossed off Bach’s Partita No. 3 in E Major while the dancers readied themselves for “Episodes: Ricercata.” The full work was a 1959 co-production between the Martha Graham Dance Company and New York City Ballet, and though it was a collaboration, with each choreographer working separately on the two halves, Graham’s section was ultimately removed from City Ballet’s repertory after 1960.

Staged by Karz, Sébastien Marcovici and Janie Taylor, the ambitious work featured Annette Cherkasov and Szentes as the lead couple. Abetted by an ensemble of 14 women, it was set to Anton Webern’s arrangement of Bach’s fugally rich, “Ricercata,” from the composer’s “Musical Offering.” Cherkasov, displaying hummingbird-like feet, as well as high extensions, and Szentes, once more in bravura mode, demonstrated that classical ballet could, in fact, integrate a variety of moves without compromising its own practices.

Again, the geometry of this leotard ballet—patterns form and dissolve like liquid—accentuated the tension between simplicity and pure lyricism, with the added corps, including, among others, Hannah Barr, Hayley Book, Daria Breslin, Taylor Nichols and Scarlett Learned, crafting the onstage action as a vortex of unfettered beauty, especially in their splendid unisons.

Here, too, is contrapuntal corps work that not only imitates the fugue-like musical repetitions through interwoven paths and isolated body parts, but also in complex patterns, no less. Without live music—Makena James on organ—however, this burst of controlled spontaneity, this carefully hewn dance, would not feel as alive, further igniting the room with artistic gold, as it were.

Not for nothing, then, did principal City Ballet dancer Adrian Danchig-Waring recently declare in a New York Times‘ article that “Balanchine’s masterworks are evergreen because they are rooted in philosophy, music theory, dramaturgy, mathematics, et cetera.” And as the times we live in are decidedly strange, being able to witness dance up close and of this caliber, is not only gratifying, but is also balm for the soul.

Victoria Looseleaf

Victoria Looseleaf is an award-winning, Los Angeles-based international arts journalist who covers music and dance festivals around the world. Among the many publications she has contributed to are the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Dance Magazine and KCET’s Artbound. In addition, she taught dance history at USC and Santa Monica College. Looseleaf’s novella-in-verse, Isn't It Rich? is available from Amazon, and and her latest book, Russ & Iggy’s Art Alphabet with illustrations by JT Steiny, was recently published by Red Sky Presents. Looseleaf can be reached through X, Facebook, Instagram and Linked In, as well as at her online arts magazine ArtNowLA.

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