"I'm actually surprised...that this performance was only the 2,000th...to those of us who have watched good stagings of plays, ballets and operas crumble after only a very few performances...the evergreen freshness of the Balanchine "Nutcracker" is cause for wonder...I regret that I have seen only 1 percent of its performances to date, the more so as I still find new felicities of drama and construction at each viewing." Read review...
"Dance: Juilliard's Composers and Choeographers Plus"
"You probably don't know about this ill-publicized free event...Apparently, at the end of term, the dance division... puts on a show at the not-to-be-sneezed-at Peter Jay Sharpe Theater, where the students showcase their work: created by students, and performed by students...This is such an awesome thing. As a whole, the work is far more creative, innovative, interesting, and new than what you'll see at, say, Juilliard's December Dance Creations (review to soon follow), or at a lot of professional dance venues." Read review...
"New York City Ballet likes to take some performances at its annual "Nutcracker" season and chock them full of more debuts than raisins in a Christmas fruitcake. That was the case Saturday afternoon at the New York State Theater, when the second-act divertissements in the Kingdom of Sweets were largely populated by first-timers." Read review...
"Saturday December 15, 2007 matinee - This was the New York City Ballet NUTCRACKER performance with so many young dancers taking on new roles, chief among them being Kathryn Morgan's debut as the Sugar Plum Fairy. Since I'm sure everyone will want to know how Ms. Morgan did, I will say immediately she was truly gorgeous in the role from start to finish." Read review...
"There are several dance organizations at Columbia, but [Columbia Ballet Collaborative], which is awaiting approval from the university's Activities Board to become a university-recognized club, marks Columbia's first ballet group, advised by Barnard professor and dance historian and critic Lynn Garafola." Read preview...
"Fortunately, there is nothing new to report about the NYCB production of "The Nutcracker". It continues weaving its magic, unexaggerated and unchanged, its glorious details intact." Read review...
"Everyone, ballet fan or not, has to see The Nutcracker at least once a holiday season, right! It's a requirement. This ballet -- particularly NYCB's Balanchine version (since that's the only one I've seen in adulthood) -- is always magic, especially after the party is over, Clara dozes off, and her little Nutcracker doll becomes a prince and whisks her off to the lands of live Snowflakes and dancing Sweets." Read review...
"Diane Coburn Bruning, Artistic Director of the Chamber Dance Project, has some good ideas. Keeping a dance company small (six to eight dancers) so that musicians can be included in the permanent roster is a good idea...Presenting work created mostly by fledgling, in house choreographers may not be the best idea. This is because Bruning's flagrantly titled "dare to feel" program feels more like an evening of enjoyable music than an engaging dance concert. Even excellent live music cannot compensate for adequate choreography." Read review...
"Diane Coburn Bruning's Chamber Dance Project clearly wants to bring ballet into the contemporary world. "No buns, no tights, no tutus," John Wright, "a classically trained urban vocal artist" (as his program biography states), said in his semi-rapped, slightly squirm-inducing introduction to the company on Thursday night at the Ailey Citigroup Theater." Read review...
"I always try to see Wendy Whelan's Sugar Plum Fairy each winter...Wendy and Philip then pulled out all the stops and gave us a really grand pas de deux that had the audience cheering. Opening the second act, Wendy seemed in a radiant mood, bedazzling the small angels with her smile. The solo was perfect; I've never been able to figure out just what it is about this woman's every step, gesture and expression that keeps me in a state of elation. I hope I never figure it out. I love watching her." Read review...
"Pedro Ruiz's "Club Havana" has become a signature work for Ballet Hispanico, and on Tuesday night at the Joyce Theater it was easy to see why. Hot and cool, the ballet takes Latin ballroom dances brought to the United States since the 1920s and artfully sews them together in choreography that could be performed only by classically trained dancers." Read review...
"It probably tells you less about [Matthew] Neenan than about the current state of ballet choreography that his "Carmina Burana"-- to the gorgeous and dense Carl Orff cantata about fickle Fortune-- could cause me such pleasure and relief without actually making a deep impression." Read review...
"The Latin '50s: Palladium Nights tries to resurrect an NYC club scene"
"In the 1950s, you could hang out on West 52nd Street and drop into one jazz club after another. The Palladium at Broadway and 53rd featured Latin bands headed by greats like Tito Puente, Tito Rodriguez, and Machito...Ballet Hispanico director Tina Ramirez seeks to recreate this atmosphere in Palladium Nights." Read review...
Cedar Lake's Winter Season will feature Ten Duets on a Theme of Rescue, a world premiere by Crystal Pite, Rite, a US premiere by Stijn Celis and Symptoms of Development by Jacopo Godani.
During his residency at Cedar Lake, choreographer Stijn Celis held an open rehearsal to show his work-in-progress Rite. Watch the video:
"The dusting of snow this morning put me in a more Christmasy mood today and the party had a charming atmosphere with several new faces among the guests." Read review...
PLEASE NOTE:: This review is of Ballet Hispanico performing at Kennedy Center in Washington, DC on November 5, 2007.
"Palladium Nights: Ballet Hispanico and the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra with Arturo O'Farrill at the Kennedy Center"
"Palladium Nights is what I would describe as a full-length salsa ballet. The stage was set up like an old-time nightclub...where the 10 clubgoers danced out the little dramas that occur in the course of a night out in the club....While Palladium Nights was not earth shattering for me in every way, it brought me a long way in rethinking new modes of salsa performance. Choreographer Willie Rosario did a nice job at times of incorporating the beauty, grace, and technique of contemporary ballet and modern dance in a harmonious and cohesive way. And there was also some pretty great dancing, choreography, and live music thrown in to boot." Read review...
"Looking Back on a Ballroom's Past, With Kicks and Lifts and Leaps"
"[Choreographer Tina Ramirez] has conceived "Palladium Nights" as a semi-narrative about cartoonlike characters who might just have turned up at the Palladium on the same night: the vamp, the sailor, the glamorous lonely-heart, the overexcited male oddball, the Casanova, the eager schoolgirl, the bespectacled prude, the professional ballroom duo.... Not to mention the flirtations that arise." Read review...
"The opening night's Sugar Plum Fairy, Maria Kowroski, mistress of adagio dancing, gave a ravishing account of the ballet's climactic duet. Her Cavalier, Charles Askegard, was secure enough to toss her into the air for a moment midway through their fish-dive maneuver that is already a tour de force: ``Look, Sugar, no hands!''" Read review...
"Runway Project:Carl Orff gets a Matthew Neenan Makeover"
"This must be Matthew Neenan's Carmina Burana. The orchestra...are certainly delivering Carl Orff's ringing, thunderous music, but although press materials tell me that Neenan "envisions a simple, universal, and sensual look for the production," the first-class dancers of the Pennsylvania Ballet are performing the kind of nightmare I imagine Tim Gunn having." Read review...
"The children stole the show at the first "Nutcracker" of New York City Ballet's five-week run on Friday night. They were in fine fettle, their high spirits subject to well-drilled discipline and professionalism." Read review...
"I thought I could get thru the first week of the New York City Ballet's current season without a NUTCRACKER but I heard Maria K, Ashley B and Chuck calling me and I couldn't resist. It's been a while since I'd seen Maria's Sugar Plum Fairy; Dewdrop is one of Bouder's masterpieces, and Charles Askegard is always such an attentive and elegant cavalier." Read review...
"Why has George Balanchine's production of "The Nutcracker" remained the gold-standard version of this holiday classic? The New York City Ballet began its annual run of the piece on Friday night at the New York State Theater and worked its usual magic, despite generally run-of-the-mill performing." Read review...
"New York City Ballet's season opening gala Tuesday night was billed as a tribute to NYCB co-founder Lincoln Kirstein, who would have celebrated his 100th birthday this year. But the opening and closing sections seemed as much a tribute to George Balanchine himself." Read review...
"The company's homey style, if virtuosic, is never precious. If it's possible to have ballet without the formality, they have done it here." Read review...
"Ballet and African Steps, Delivered at Warp Speed"
"In preparation for "The Peace Project," a new program presented by Complexions Contemporary Ballet during the second half of its Joyce Theater stint, the company's artistic directors, Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson, asked the participating artists, "What does peace mean to you?"" Read review...
"Verve, Affection and Glitter in a Gala Tribute to Kirstein"
"All that was missing from "Dancing for Lincoln: A Centennial Celebration," the New York City Ballet's spirited, affectionate opening-night gala on Tuesday at the State Theater, was the once-familiar sight of Lincoln Kirstein staring down from his seat in the first ring, keen-eyed, at all that he had wrought as a founder of the company with George Balanchine." Read review...
"Happy Happy Night: Feisty New Dance By Peter Martins and Promising New Ballet Movie!"
"Highlights of New York City Ballet's Opening Night Gala were two world premieres -- one of a feisty new ballet by NYCB artistic director, Peter Martins, the other a brief but fabulous excerpt from a new movie-in-the-making of Jerome Robbins's jazzy cool ballet, N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz." Read review...
"After the long wait, New York City Ballet is back at the State Theatre. What a perfect way to start a gala - and a season - with the Garland Waltz from SLEEPING BEAUTY. Balanchine's genius for structure is in full bloom here, and his introduction of children into the patterns is masterfully timed." Read review...
"Go: Peter Martins' "Grazioso" at New York City Ballet's Fall Gala"
"It's one of the duties of the Ballet Master in Chief of big ballet companies to create pieces d'occasion for the galas...[Peter] Martins usually does his duty, but not one iota more...Imagine my surprise, then, at the charming, breezy, and engrossing piece Martins created this year." Read review...
"Wednesday night started with an attractively danced account of [Balanchine's] 1934 "Serenade"...It had an enchanting freshness, quite different from the sleek eloquence we get nowadays from New York City Ballet - not better, but different, and one perhaps recalling an earlier performing style." Read review...
"...[T]he company's week-long return to New York...opened with the first of two programs that hardly convey the breadth of the company's current repertory. The opening night program consisted of just two works: Balanchine's "Serenade," and a new setting of "Carmina Burana" by Matthew Neenan, a former company dancer who is now its resident choreographer." Read review...
"Pennsylvania Ballet put its best foot forward for opening night of its first New York season in 22 years. With a corps liberally sprinkled with young graduates of the School of American Ballet, it began at the beginning: George Balanchine's "Serenade," his first ballet in America, created for his original SAB students nearly 75 years ago." Read review...
"A Beautiful Balanchine, A Fashionista Ballet, and the Astounding Jermel Johnson!"
"This company strikes me as being very courageous in taking on Balanchine's masterpieces (in addition to "Serenade," they performed "Concerto Barocco" in another program), and in presenting inventive new works. And, two of the most important words I have to say about this company are: Jermel Johnson (pictured above)! Fabulous fabulous extremely versatile dancer, whom I'll get to in a minute!" Read review...
"Complexions Contemporary Ballet returns to the Joyce for a two-week stay featuring two programs with works by Nicolo Fonte, William Forsythe and Abdur-Rahim Jackson as well as the company's resident choreographer and co-founder, Dwight Rhoden. Known for its versatile and dynamic performers this year's Complexions cast is no exception." Read review...
"A Weekend of Latin Dance With Two Ballet Legends"
"I trekked all the way out to the end of the 2 line, to Brooklyn College's Performing Arts Auditorium, to see Julio Bocca's final performance in the United States. Julio, Argentinian ballet legend who spent most of his career with American Ballet Theater and who just retired from ABT last year, danced one final year with the ballet / tango company he founded in Argentina, Ballet Argentino, and is now permanently retiring from dance." Read review...
"Mr. Rhoden, who founded Complexions Contemporary Ballet in 1994 with Desmond Richardson, is not a choreographer who ever eliminates any idea that pops into his head. In his new "Dear Frederic...the movement for his 10 dancers is hyperkinetic and hyperactive to a bewildering degree." Read review...
