When Aurora makes her first appearance in SLEEPING BEAUTY, the audience usually sits up-there's a murmur, an anticipation. THE STAR is here, and she's in charge for the next two hours. And THE STAR had better be ready. The audience is watching her every move, not to mention her every mishap.
George Balanchine said that 'Allegro Brillante' contained everything he knew about classical ballet in 13 minutes. I would say a bit more, depending on the tempo the conductor is taking for the evening. But putting tempos aside, 'Allegro Brilliante' offers a ballet so rich in form and steps that it's hard to take it all in. I've been watching the ballet for over 30 years, and I still marvel and its invention and the sheer stamina it takes to perform the work.
During the summer of 2016, New York City Ballet made a triumphant return to Paris for a three-week season at the historic Thtre du Chtelet.
Following the critical acclaim and record-breaking attendance of Festival 2016, Jacob's Pillow Dance announces its 85th Anniversary Season of exciting programming featuring world premieres, commissions, site-specific work, international artists, live music, and Pillow-exclusive engagements.
Festival Ballet Theatre (FBT), Orange County's resident professional ballet company, will present the family favorite production of The Nutcracker, December 10 - 24, 2016 at the Irvine Barclay Theatre in Irvine, California.
The Performing Arts School at bergenPAC announces the 2017 Master Class series in residence with Principal Ballet Dancers. The classes will be held at The Performing Arts School at bergenPAC-1 Depot Square, Englewood, NJ 07631.
On Sunday, November 13, 2016 at 3pm and 7:30pm and Monday, November 14, 2016 at 7:30pm, Works & Process at the Guggenheim presents Working in Process/ New Bodies, the culmination and World Premiere of choreographer Jodi Melnick's Works & Process residency with dancers Sara Mearns, Jared Angle, and Gretchen Smith at the Guggenheim's Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Peter B. Lewis Theater. Melnick's work weaves dance, spoken text, and moderated discussion with Claudia La Rocco, with live music for harpsichord by composer Gyorgy Ligeti, violin by composer Heinrich Biber, and newly commissioned music by Robert Boston.
Festival Ballet Theatre (FBT), Orange County's resident professional ballet company, will present the family favorite production of The Nutcracker, December 10 - 24, 2016 at the Irvine Barclay Theatre in Irvine, California.
Strengthening its role as a center for artist research and development, Jacob's Pillow Dance announces an active, year-round season with its expanded 2016-2017 Creative Development Residency program. This season brings new additions to the program including two technical residencies, cross-genre collaborations, and invited audiences of college students, as well as a diverse roster of 10 artist residencies, the Pillow's largest residency season yet.
The state of any company's dancing can be gauged by looking at how it performs its founder's work. Of course that is no easy feat to assess with City Ballet, what with its glorious repertoire. All the same, Wednesday October 12th's program found the company disconcertingly off the mark. In politics, we follow the money; in ballet, we follow the casting.
A review of the New York City Ballet 'American Composers' program featuring: 'Glass Pieces' by Robbins, 'Thou Swell' by Martins, and 'Stars and Stripes' by Balanchine.
On Saturday, August 27, Jacob's Pillow Dance announced plans to build a new dance studio on the historic Jacob's Pillow campus. The announcement was made by Director Pamela Tatge at the Pillow's 2016 Festival Finale, with the official ground-breaking ceremony to take place at the Pillow on Friday, October 14 at 5pm.
The first-ever Broadway revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's iconic musical, Cats, returned to Broadway just last night at the Neil Simon Theatre (250 W 52nd Street). BroadwayWorld brings you photos from the star-studded red carpet below!
New York City Center presents Vail Dance Festival: ReMix NYC, November 3 through 6, celebrating Damian Woetzel's tenth year as artistic director of the Vail International Dance Festival. Channeling the spirit of the summer dance happening in the Rocky Mountains with three programs and an UpClose event, Vail Dance Festival: ReMix NYC brings the unique collaborative sensibility of Woetzel's festival to New York City, featuring dancers and musicians from many genres.
Works & Process at the Guggenheim is pleased to announce its fall 2016 season.
Works & Process at the Guggenheim is pleased to announce its fall 2016 season. Since 1984 the performing-arts series has championed new works and offered audiences unprecedented access to leading creators and performers. Each intimate program blends performance with stimulating conversation with the creators, and takes place in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum's Frank Lloyd Wright-designed, 285-seat Peter B. Lewis Theater. Described by the New York Times as 'an exceptional opportunity to understand something of the creative process,' Works & Process is produced by founder Mary Sharp Cronson. A season preview video is available and further details can be found at worksandprocess.org.
Times are hard for choreographers, which is why Elisa Monte, Jennifer Muller, Molissa Fenley, and Margo Sappington have banded together to present their full-length works at New York Live Arts. What one might not be able to afford, four are more than capable of shouldering. While a solid business idea, the results as seen on Wednesday June 15th, 2016 were decidedly uneven. It's not that the works were too different in tone, it's that the quality was rarely of top caliber.
A different kind of energy crackled throughout the David H. Koch Theater on the evening of May 13, 2016, vibrant and self-aware, with a knowing sense of the dynamic dancing that lay ahead. As I settled into my seat, preparing to bask in the evening's ode to Jerome Robbins, a British accent behind me said, clearly and plainly, 'I've never been to the ballet...I'm so excited.' I smiled to myself; thankful for all of the ballets I had seen before, and with a keen certainty that after tonight, this gentleman was certainly going to be returning.
New York City Ballet, home to George Balanchine's vision of dance in America, is well known for commissioning new work. This devotion to innovation can result in work that runs the gamut from zestful to appalling. Case in point, the '21st Century Choreographers II' program on May 7th, 2016, which presented a hodgepodge of brilliant, ill conceived, entertaining, and 'not suited to house style'.
To judge by Sunday's matinee on April 24, 2016, the New York City Ballet is in good dancing hands-shall I say excellent hands. If two of the three ballets that afternoon did not always meet the demands of the choreographic high level set forward by Balanchine, the dancing most certainly did. It was, to be understated, superb.
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