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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]