Reviews - christopher wheeldon

Morphoses Multimedia

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 05:36:42 +0000

Rubinald Pronk, Maria Kowroski, and Edwaard Liang rehearsing Monotones II, photograph by Yaniv Schulman Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company concluded its second season at City Center on Sunday afternoon. I wrote about both programs here and here, but decided to post some more rehearsal photos from Monotones II and two surprisingly good videos of Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s [...]

Morphoses at City Center: Program 2

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:33:54 +0000

Adrian Danchig-Waring, Wendy Whelan, and Tyler Angle rehearsing Monotones II photo by Yaniv Schulman The second Morphoses program was not only more varied than the first, but more complete as a whole. Three short pieces were bookended by Wheeldon works, with the new Commedia opening the program and Fools’ Paradise closing it. I wrote at length about [...]

Alexei Ratmansky at The New Yorker Festival

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 18:38:18 +0000

On Saturday afternoon, The New Yorker Festival presented a discussion between dance critic Joan Acocella and Russian choreographer Alexei Ratmansky at Cedar Lake’s theater in Chelsea. Ratmansky is currently the Bolshoi Ballet’s artistic director, and he’s created works for several companies around the world, including his recent Concerto DSCH for New York City Ballet. [...]

Morphoses: Gala Performance

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 21:52:31 +0000

Last year, Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company tried to prove that “Ballet=Sexy” in an attempt to overturn the belief that ballet is all about tutus and dying swans. After watching Wednesday evening’s gala performance at City Center, it was unclear if that’s still Christopher Wheeldon’s goal for the company. True, there were no swans [...]

Fall for Dance: September 20 and 21, 2008

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 05:56:25 +0000

Saturday evening and Sunday’s Fall for Dance program offered an attractive sampling of works, two of which were exceptional. I chose this program, in part, because of three of the choreographers: Aszure Barton and Christopher Wheeldon’s works have impressed me, and Hofesh Shechter’s background in percussion and dance (he formerly danced with Batsheva Dance [...]

Fall Dance Season is Here!

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 02:16:02 +0000

The file on my computer called “Summer Dance Dates” has now been re-titled “Fall Dance Dates”, as there seems to be a sudden rush of performances and events filling up my calendar - spanning from now to December. It’s exciting to think about how much is going on in NYC this fall, but a [...]

New York City Ballet: Dancers’ Choice Program

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 03:18:44 +0000

Designed by NYCB soloist Craig Hall The New York State Theater was packed on Friday night, and not just with the typical crowd of New York City Ballet devotees. Young people, too, had flocked to Lincoln Center to see the Dancers’ Choice program, a benefit for the Dancers’ Emergency Fund. Principal dancer Jonathan Stafford [...]

New York City Ballet: Damian Woetzel’s Farewell

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 06:33:55 +0000

A curtain call for Damian Woetzel (click to enlarge) Photo by Evan - Please do not use without permission. Watching one of my favorite ballet dancers - who I’ve watched for about fifteen years - dance his final performance and take his final bow at the New York State Theater last night was not easy. Writing about [...]

New York City Ballet - Here and Now

Sat, 31 May 2008 07:00:17 +0000

Christopher Wheeldon’s Rococo Variations - photo by Paul Kolnik “Here and Now” was a fitting title for a program that featured four contemporary works - the oldest premiered in 1998 - by some of the most sought-after choreographers in ballet today. But I was swept far away from the here and the now, traveling to [...]

A Busy Dance Calendar

Tue, 27 May 2008 04:48:05 +0000

There are a ton of upcoming performances and events that I’m really excited about. I’ll certainly try to post reviews of them all, but in the meantime, here’s a peek at some of the performances that I’ll be seeing over the next two weeks: 1) New York City Ballet’s “Here and Now”: This program includes [...]

New York City Ballet - World Tour

Mon, 12 May 2008 05:52:28 +0000

Albert Evans, Rebecca Krohn, Jonathan Stafford, and Rachel Rutherford in Russian Seasons (photo by John Ross) Every season, the artistic staff at New York City Ballet has the daunting task of creating a variety of programs that will attract audiences, show variety and breadth - choreographically, musically, and thematically - and will offer the dancers room to [...]

A Women’s Choreography Initiative at ABT

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:39:37 +0000

At the end of March, American Ballet Theater’s artistic director, Kevin McKenzie, announced the launch of a new multi-year program that will invite female choreographers - one per year for the next three years - to create works for ABT II, a pre-professional company of dancers no older than 20. Funded by Altria Group, Inc, [...]

Dangerous Beauty: The Orchid Show

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 02:41:13 +0000

A 2006 NY Times Magazine article about Wendy Whelan, a principal dancer with New York City Ballet, included several comments from Christopher Wheeldon, who has choreographed many of his best works on Whelan (She’s often referred to as his muse). The following is a quotation from Wheeldon that I’ve always remembered: “Wendy can take your [...]

(Heartbreaking) Matters of the Heart

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 16:09:57 +0000

The quadruple-bill “Matters of the Heart” program at New York City Ballet was definitely worth seeing, just maybe not on Valentine’s Day. Three out of the four ballets ended with heartbreak, death, or loss (or all of the above), the exception being the story-less Raymonda Variations. Maybe Peter Martins should have thought that [...]

Four by Four - New York City Ballet

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:17:55 +0000

Last night I attended New York City Ballet’s “Four by Four” program, which presents pieces from four choreographers inspired by four different composers. Reflecting on the program, I realized how diverse the ballets were, not only because of the different “voices” in each ballet, but also because of the varied settings - ranging from [...]