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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

(Tom Gold and a stampede of brides in Makin’ Whoopee! from Susan Stroman’s Double Feature) Thursday evening’s Double Feature, a full-length production choreographed by Susan Stroman, was much more fun that I had anticipated. It was also surprisingly charming and inventive. The piece was a tribute to silent films, with the first half - [...]

Rachel Rutherford and Craig Hall in N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz, photo by Paul Kolnik The Jerome Robbins Celebration is well underway at NYCB, now in its fourth week of the spring season.  Although I’ve already seen several Robbins ballets since the start of the season, Wednesday evening’s “Baroque to Jazz” program was the first one that [...]

Wendy Whelan in costume for Opus 19/The Dreamer photo by Josef Astor, Dance Magazine, March 2003 Wednesday evening’s program at the New York State Theater was a quadruple bill of works by Jerome Robbins with music by three Russian composers. With the exception of the not-so-memorable Andantino, the opening duet that was performed delicately by Megan [...]

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 [...]

New York City Ballet’s “Seasons” program presented two distinctly different works that exemplified the choreographic breadth of Jerome Robbins. The dark, meditative Watermill uses the seasons to convey the passing of time and the different stages in a man’s life, while The Four Seasons is a spirited personification of winter, spring, summer, and fall. Before seeing [...]

There was definitely a beginning-of-the-season buzz in the air at the NY State Theater on Wednesday night. I heard plenty of snippets of gossip about dancers, and just as many opinions about their dancing. But the mood shifted ever so subtly when Peter Martins came on stage before the performance began. He [...]