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 [...]

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 [...]

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 - [...]

Teresa Reichlen in Antique Epigraphs Admittedly, ‘French Cuisine’ was not one of the programs I was looking forward to most this season at New York City Ballet. I’m partial to Balanchine over Robbins, Tchaikovsky over Debussy, and plotless ballets over princes and princesses. But Thursday’s night’s program certainly exceeded my expectations and I particularly relished Antique [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]