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A Turning Tide at City Ballet? Company Buoyed by Ballerinas
Ballet-at least, New York City Ballet-is woman; so George Balanchine pronounced, and so it has always been, despite the male stars on whom he made great roles and those first-rate dancers who have held...
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Promise and Problems As Centennial Season Opens
Tuesday the 25th was not just the opening night of the New York City Ballet winter season, but also the kick-off gala for “Balanchine 100: The Centennial Celebration.” Yes, the Mayor was on hand, and...
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City Ballet’s Salute: 100 Years of Balanchine
I celebrated the centenary of George Balanchine’s birth on January 22 by staying at home and reading and thinking about him. The disparity between all the hoopla and the disastrous casting of...
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Tarnished Jewels, Living Dolls, A Plague of Ballerina Injuries
The first half of City Ballet’s “Balanchine 100: The Centennial Celebration” is winding down … and not a moment too soon. A few more bad ankles and there won’t be anyone left to dance. Consider: Wendy...
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Importing a Native Son: Honoring Balanchine in Russia
To see program after program of Balanchine at the Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg is to be exposed to every kind of nostalgia and fantasy. This is the theater where, at the age of ten in 1914, he...
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A New Low for City Ballet: Eifman’s Odious Homage
Boris Eifman’s Musagète may not be the worst ballet ever put on by New York City Ballet-the last 20 years have offered it lots of competition-but its premiere last Friday was without question the...
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City Ballet, A.B.T. Surprise: A Pair of Thrilling Finales
At the very last possible moment, after the endless parade of non-events, silly events and disastrous events perpetrated by City Ballet to mark the George Balanchine centenary, there was finally a real...
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The Ballerina Who Bent
On Sunday afternoon, former New York City Ballet dancer Toni Bentley glissade ’d into the garden of the Chateau Marmont to discuss her new memoir about sodomy. Specifically, butt sex. The Surrender...
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Antidote to Year-End Blues: The Ever-Buoyant Trocks
The year ended with a bang, not a whimper. The Trocks-O.K., fact-checkers, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo-turned up for two weeks of fun and games at the Joyce , and even though there were...
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Continuity at Graham’s Company Preserves the Founder’s Spirit
Martha Graham, along with George Balanchine, is one of the two commanding figures in 20th-century American dance. For those much younger than I am, her genius as a performer will have to be taken on...
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Gala Offers Slim Pickings, Capped by Wheeldon’s Weakest
You’ve heard of feast or famine? City Ballet’s Spring Gala gave us feast and famine. Five courses were dished up, and in a curious order: first, a heavy entrée; then, three hors d’oeuvres; finally, a...
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Farrell’s Revival of Don Q, Balanchine’s Gift to His Muse
George Balanchine’s Don Quixote-that ambitious, mysterious work that fascinated and confused us all back when it was made in 1965-has just been restaged, by Suzanne Farrell, for the first time since it...
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Enchanting Balanchine; Empty Feld; Phony Forsythe
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of George Balanchine’s greatest creations—and one of the greatest of all story ballets. Shakespeare gave us the enchanting play, Mendelssohn gave us the ravishing...
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Talk About Legs! Balanchine’s Jewels Sparkles at City Ballet
I’ve been seeing Balanchine’s Jewels for more than 40 years, and that’s a lot of jewelry. In the beginning it seemed to many of us unique in its ambitions and its splendor; to others it seemed...
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The Kirov’s Modern Kick
The Kirov is a great ballet company because it has so many terrific dancers, but it doesn’t always know what to do with them. The dancers—here for a three-week season, just ended, at the City...
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Hostess to the Land of Sweets: Comparing The Nutcracker’s Sugarplum Fairies
For students of New York City Ballet, it is, among other things, a learning tool for younger dancers and a gauge of how management (i.e. Peter Martins) feels about them. And appearing in the central...
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Balanchine’s ‘Dream’ Is as Fresh as Ever
'A Midsummer Night’s Dream' has become the anchor of City Ballet’s Spring season.
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The State of City Ballet (and Its Ballerinas)
New York City Ballet's recent performances are uneven, with uneven casting, though they still delight.
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A Welcome, If Short, ABT Season at the Koch
The brief ABT showcase brings revivals, a new work by Mark Morris.
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Two Dance Companies Move Beyond Balanchine
The Dance Theatre of Harlem and Pennsylvania Ballet establish themselves as more than Balanchine offshoots.
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