Image from Gallery 100, photographs of Antique Epigraphs by Paul Kolnik While I was in Saratoga for NYCB’s Gala at SPAC, I stopped by Gallery 100 to see Jerome Robbins Continuum, a display of photographs by Paul Kolnik that show New York City Ballet in Robbins’ ballets. Kolnik has been photographing the company for over thirty [...]

Saturday’s Gala at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center had a relaxed, laid-back feel that matched the hot, humid evening, but the outdoor setting and sticky weather didn’t stop the crowds from dressing up for the occasion. Nor was the event lacking in star power: Rita Moreno, who played “Anita” in the film version of [...]

I’m off to the Adirondacks this weekend for some more hiking, biking, and kayaking. On Saturday night, I’ll be heading to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center to see New York City Ballet’s summer Gala performance, which is an all-Jerome Robbins program including Brahms/Handel (co-choreographed by Twyla Tharp), Opus 19/The Dreamer, and West Side Story [...]

Sara Mearns in Jerome Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering, photo by Paul Kolnik After a very full and magnificent spring season of performing, Sara Mearns of New York City Ballet has been promoted to principal.  She performed in a huge amount of the repertoire this season and I cannot think of a performance where she wasn’t [...]

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 [...]

Ellen Sorrin, Jock Soto, and Robert Fairchild in costume for Fancy Free - photograph by Evan On Monday evening, thanks to the generosity of my friend Sarah, I attended a special seminar at The JCC in Manhattan on the life and work of choreographer Jerome Robbins, with a particular focus on his contribution to New York [...]

Today I stopped by the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center to check out New York Story: Jerome Robbins and His World, the library’s exhibit commemorating the tenth anniversary of Mr. Robbins’ death. A large room on the first floor of the library is divided into sections that each [...]

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 [...]

NYCB dancers in the final pose from Robbins’ Glass Pieces, photo by Paul Kolnik Tuesday’s evenings program at New York City Ballet took the audience on a musical journey from Bach’s solo piano and solo cello pieces, to an early twentieth century violin concerto by Alban Berg, to Philip Glass’s minimalist music of the 1980s.  The [...]

I’ll be the first to admit that I love Chopin’s piano pieces. They are breezy, thoughtful, and at times dramatic and intense. With such beautiful music, it is easy to let the mind wander (as mine did several times throughout the performance), to lose yourself in listening to the music, which is exactly what Jerome [...]