Club Classics

With just two weeks penciled in at Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theatre, American Ballet Theatre’s fall season is a bright but brief standout in the fall dance calendar. It takes inventive programming to squeeze the company’s varied repertoire into such a compressed timeline.

Performance

American Ballet Theatre: “Birthday Offering” by Frederick Ashton / “Mercurial Son” by Kyle Abraham / “Ballet Imperial” by George Balanchine

Place

David H. Koch Theatre, New York, NY, October, 23, 2026

Words

Rebecca Deczynski

Jake Roxander and Calvin Royal III in “Mercurial Son” by Kyle Abraham. Photograph by Kyle Froman

Neoclassical Works, the program featuring works by Frederick Ashton, Kyle Abraham, and George Balanchine, pairs two mid-century ballets with one the company premiered in 2024. The throughline: they all “draw inspiration from ballets past and move boldly into the present.”

“Birthday Offering,” an Ashton work created in 1956 in recognition of the Royal Ballet’s 25th anniversary, is a peculiar, variation-heavy ballet set to the music of Alexander Glazunov. Nicknamed “Seven Wives for Seven Brothers,” according to ABT historian Elizabeth Kaye, it features seven couples, with one pair as the lead (Hee Seo and the recently promoted Jarod Curley).

After a waltz opening, the men recede to the back—where they remain until their own mazurka—and the women run through seven different variations. Ashton choreographed each one for the ballerina that originated the role, highlighting their particular strengths. Across the board, they’re rather quick, with flitting footwork and many flicks of the wrist, aligned with Ashton’s British style.

Léa Fleytoux, in the first variation, is appropriately fairylike—she often is—and Catherine Hurlin, up next, has a firecracker attack to her pirouettes en dedans and off-center développés. Skylar Brandt is a particular standout with a variation in which she spends little time grounded, brushing her legs back and forth in different jumps and leaps. Seo, one of ABT’s most enchanting principals, is light and at ease in her solo variation, though her partnering with Curley isn’t as strong; the two are a match in height but don’t seem to have developed the same level of trust that Seo had with her longtime partner, the recently retired Corey Stearns.

Regardless, it’s an undoubtedly high caliber ensemble piece with some of the company’s most exemplary dancers—and it’s worth noting that Elisabeth Beyer, the only female corps member in the work, certainly holds her own.

American Ballet Theatre in “Birthday Offering” by Frederick Ashton. Photograph by Nir Arieli

Kyle Abraham’s “Mercurial Son,” the celebrated choreographer’s first work for ABT, is a bit difficult to place. The repetitive electric score by Grischa Lichtenberger starts to feel monotonous and the swirling movements of the seven-dancer ensemble never seem to reach a climax. Abraham’s signature genre-bent style, bringing the influence of social dance and modern dance to classical ballet, is not easy to pull off, and at times, the execution fails to demonstrate the level of risk-taking needed to bring the choreographer’s vision to life.

Two dancers, however, stand out for their attack: Breanne Granlund is vibrant and bold, casting each movement with a jolt of energy, and Jake Roxander is so at ease with the technical difficulty of the choreography that he’s able to infuse it with his own style. Any time either is on stage, they’re magnetic.

In an extended solo, Calvin Royal III does show the value of artistry. He has an earnest quality to his movement that makes him a delight to watch; you can tell that he’s fully in the work, and he’s indulging in it.

Chloe Misseldine and James Whiteside “Ballet Imperial” by George Balanchine. Photograph by Nir Arieli

It is ultimately hard for these two pieces to compare with “Ballet Imperial,” the Balanchine work that is the indisputable jewel of the night. Inspired by Russia’s imperial grandeur, the neoclassical work is at once opulent and emotional. (The sumptuous stage design and tutus by Jean-Marc Puissant do play a role in creating the vibe, which is a sharp contrast to New York City Ballet’s more toned-down production and periwinkle dance skirts.) Set to Tchaikovsky’s second piano concerto, it’s expressive and, appropriately, regal.

It begins with two diagonal rows of dancers, who curtsey (or bow) to their partner. What follows are endless configurations of lines that jump and weave through one another. It is incredibly well organized.

Newly minted soloist Yoon Jung Seo, as the second lead, makes a strong impression with her clarity of movement and brightness. She lifts off into sauté arabesque with an absolute spring in her step.

Chloe Misseldine and James Whiteside play to their strengths as the work’s principals. Misseldine, with her impossible lines and beguiling gaze, is particularly suited to these princess-like parts, and it’s lovely to see her indulge in her port de bra during the winding, partnered adagio.

Whiteside, for his part, is an excellent partner: assured in his movements so that his partner may take a few more risks (jump a little higher, hold a balance a little longer) but also invested in his own artistic sensibilities. He has a gentlemanly quality to his dancing, courteous but emotionally expressive. A standout moment makes him the hinge between two lines of ballerinas holding hands, and he sways them in long, unfolding waves with grace. It’s performances like these that make his forthcoming retirement in the summer season so bittersweet; we’re lucky to watch him while we can.

If “Birthday Offering” and “Mercurial Son” are expressions of their choreographers’ signature styles, then “Ballet Imperial” is a platonic ideal of Balanchine’s more classical creations. It’s been 85 years since he staged it for the American Ballet Caravan, but it just doesn’t get old.

Rebecca Deczynski

Rebecca Deczynski is a New York City-based writer and editor publishes the newsletter Mezzanine Society. Her work has appeared in publications including Inc., Domino, NYLON, and InStyle. She graduated from Barnard College cum laude with a degree in English and a minor in dance.

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