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☆ Review: Dance Theater of Harlem Is in New (and Capable) Hands
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-12 | by ( Gia Kourlas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

And on Thursday, Garland showed that he was getting some things right: Dance Theater, now in its 55th season, has a vintage kind of glow. The company, along with its dancers, seems to be more sure of itself: It’s growing into a sense of style. Honoring Mitchell was a reminder of why Dance Theater, born after the assassination of the Rev. Along with showcasing the transformative power of ballet, Garland writes in the program, Mitchell used Dance Theater as a means for social justice in part by way of its repertoire: George Balanchine ballets were performed alongside works by Black choreographers like Geoffrey Holder. 2,” which braids social dance with classical ballet.

Persons: Robert Garland, “ Arthur Mitchell, ‘, Robert, ’, — Mitchell, Garland, Mitchell, Martin Luther King Jr, George Balanchine, Black, Geoffrey Holder, curation, —, ”, Marius Petipa Organizations: New York City Center, Dance Theater of Harlem, “ Locations: New

☆ At City Ballet, 2 Sparkling Premieres and Many Moments to Remember
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-08 | by ( Gia Kourlas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

For a company to unveil a decent new ballet is a strange and marvelous occurrence. To unveil two in one season? Quality choreography that celebrates classicism, that highlights musicality — that even pushes the form into new realms — isn’t the norm. But at New York City Ballet this season, two premieres were worthy of many more viewings — and in the case of Alexei Ratmansky’s harrowing “Solitude,” set to Mahler, endless ones. Inspired by a 2022 photo of a Ukrainian father kneeling before the body of his dead son, the ballet filled the stage with bodies expressing the tangible ache of grief and love.

Persons: Alexei Ratmansky’s, ”, Mahler, Ratmansky, —, “, Tiler Peck, Francis Poulenc, Peck, Peter Martins, Jerome Robbins, George Balanchine’s, Mary Thomas MacKinnon’s Organizations: New York City Ballet, City Ballet, della Locations: New, Ukrainian, della Regina

☆ New York’s School of American Ballet Toasts 90th Anniversary
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-27 | by ( Sarah Bahr | Dolly Faibyshev | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

When the choreographer George Balanchine co-founded the School of American Ballet in New York City in 1934, the last thing on many people’s minds was dance. The United States was still digging out from the Great Depression and often children dropped out of school to work. But nonetheless, the 29-year-old Balanchine believed a dance school was crucial to establishing a professional ballet company — which would become New York City Ballet. Now, 90 years later, the school he opened with 32 students has exploded into the most prestigious academy for young dancers in the United States. Nearly 800 students from 34 states and 12 countries were enrolled at the school’s Lincoln Center campus in the most recent fiscal year, and graduates serve as artistic directors at more than 18 ballet programs around the country, including Los Angeles Ballet, Miami City Ballet and New York City Ballet.

Persons: George Balanchine, Balanchine Organizations: School of American Ballet, New York City Ballet, Lincoln Center, Los Angeles Ballet, Miami City Ballet Locations: New York City, United States, New, Lincoln

☆ Los Angeles Works to Build Its Dance Muscles
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-06 | by ( Robin Pogrebin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Los Angeles may not be thought of as a dance town, but it has a rich legacy. It was here, in 1915, that the modern dance pioneers Ruth St. Denis and her husband Ted Shawn, established the Denishawn school and company, shaping and showcasing the first generation of American modern dancers, including Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman. Lester Horton, one of the first choreographers to insist on a racially integrated company, established the Lester Horton Dance Theater here in 1946, a pioneering stage dedicated to modern dance. But for all the talent Los Angeles has attracted over the years, and its success in founding other performing arts institutions, the city has struggled to establish lasting dance companies able to attract and maintain audiences and patronage. It has also just entered an agreement with the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, a larger theater, to perform there.

Persons: Ruth St, Denis, Ted Shawn, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Busby Berkeley, Hermes Pan, Jack Cole, George Balanchine, Lester Horton, Benjamin Millepied Organizations: Hollywood, Lester Horton Dance, New York City Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Wallis Annenberg Center, Performing Arts Locations: Angeles, Beverly Hills

☆ From Ballet to Blackjack, a Dance Pioneer’s Amazing Odyssey
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-04 | by ( Siobhan Burke | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Pictured in a publicity shot for the original production of “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker,” in the role known as Tea, was a young Asian dancer identified as George Li. For Lin, a veteran newspaper reporter turned documentarian, the picture raised intriguing questions. In 1954, when the photo was taken, it was rare to see dancers of color on the stage of New York City Ballet, the company Balanchine co-founded. Who was this young man, this breaker of racial barriers, this pioneer? And if so, what was he up to?

Persons: George Lee, he’s, Lee, Jennifer Lin, George Balanchine’s, George Li, Lin, Balanchine Organizations: Four Queens, New York Public Library, Performing Arts, New York City Ballet Locations: Las Vegas, Casino, New

☆ A New Martha Graham Biography Is a Study in Grace and Balance
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-28 | by ( Alexandra Jacobs | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

ERRAND INTO THE MAZE: The Life and Works of Martha Graham, by Deborah Jowitt“Old age is a pain in the neck,” Martha Graham wrote in her 1991 memoir, “Blood Memory.” Death, though, has been good to her. Already in the 2020s there has been a book devoted to Graham’s Cold War activity and another (more sweeping) that a reviewer for The New York Times found fact-choked and unevenly paced. Deborah Jowitt’s “Errand Into the Maze: The Life and Works of Martha Graham” is, by contrast, a study in balance and grace. That girlish enthusiasm peeps through “Errand Into the Maze,” named for a 1947 work that premiered at the original Ziegfeld Theater. It is also Jowitt’s first book in almost 20 years, since a biography of another titan of the field, Jerome Robbins.

Persons: Martha Graham, Deborah Jowitt “, ” Martha Graham, Gordon Bunshaft, Agnes de Mille, Deborah Jowitt’s, Martha Graham ”, Jowitt, Graham’s, Louis Horst, “, ”, Jerome Robbins, Graham, Horst, George Balanchine Organizations: New York Public Library, Performing Arts, The New York Times, The Village, Times, Cornish School Locations: Manhattan, ecstatically, Seattle

☆ Maria Tallchief, America’s first prima ballerina, continues to inspire new generations of Native American dancers
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Kaitlyn Schwanemann | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —The Osage Ballet overlooks a creek in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, on the Osage Indian reservation. The Osage Ballet hopes to continue to inspire a new generations of dancers in her honor. But Tallchief refused and insisted on dancing as Maria Tallchief, keeping her Osage name, according to a biography of the ballerina by the School of American Ballet. Ballerina Maria Tallchief WATFORD/Mirrorpix/Getty ImagesElise Paschen, Tallchief’s daughter and a poet, told CNN her mother took great pride in her heritage. Smith said she hopes the Osage Ballet will continue Tallchief’s pioneering legacy of dance and Native American representation in ballet.

Persons: Elizabeth Marie Tallchief, Randy Tinker Smith, she’s, “ I’ve, ” Smith, America’s, Tallchief, Maria Tallchief, Ballerina Maria Tallchief, Elise Paschen, ” Paschen, ” Kate Mattingly, ” Mattingly, Mattingly, Tallcheif, George Balanchine, Balanchine, John Martin, “, “ Balanchine, Paschen, ”, ” Tallchief, Princess Wa, Smith, ballerinas, Maria Organizations: CNN, Osage Ballet, Osage, New, School of American Ballet, Ballerina Maria Tallchief WATFORD, Old Dominion University, New York City Ballet, Firebird, The New York Times, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Ballet Locations: Pawhuska , Oklahoma, Fairfax , Oklahoma, Osage, Beverly Hills, Carlo, Oklahoma, United States, Europe, Swan Lake, An

☆ At Ballet Theater, a Thrilling Puck and a Moment to Take Stock
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-30 | by ( Brian Seibert | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Where “The Dream,” a Ballet Theater staple in recent decades, is a reliable showcase for the company’s theatricality, George Balanchine’s “Ballet Imperial,” on the same program, is good for displaying the troupe’s classical chops across its ranks. Unlike New York City Ballet, which has called the work “Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2” since the 1970s, Ballet Theater doesn’t downplay the imperial Russian associations, using a backdrop of St. Petersburg. That’s a choice that might disturb some viewers, but Ballet Theater’s rendition also had aesthetic problems. De la Nuez goes for it, too.

Persons: George Balanchine’s, ”, That’s, Skylar Brandt, Isabella Boylston, James Whiteside, Alonzo King’s, Alexei Ratmansky’s “, Jason Moran, Robert Rosenwasser, Jim French, Brandt, Calvin Royal III, King, Michael de la, De la Nuez Organizations: Ballet, New York City Ballet, Dnipro ” Locations: St . Petersburg

☆ Review: Ballet Theater Revisits Its Past With a Hit and Two Misses
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-19 | by ( Gia Kourlas | More About Gia Kourlas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

American Ballet Theater opened its fall season on a high note: Alexei Ratmansky’s “Piano Concerto No. The program, part of the first New York season created by the company’s artistic director, Susan Jaffe, gradually lost steam. “Petite Mort” (1991) is flimsier than ever. Devon Teuscher’s clean, classical elegance lent the overlong work a boost of grace and energy, but the ballet, created in 1948, is hardly a good time capsule. In a program note, Lander describes his ballet as “an expression of myself, and of my thoughts on dance.

Persons: Alexei Ratmansky’s “, Mort ”, Jiri Kylian, Harald Lander, Susan Jaffe, Devon Teuscher’s, George Balanchine’s, Frederick Ashton’s “, ”, “, Lander Organizations: Ballet Theater, New, Lincoln Center Locations: New York

☆ As City Ballet Celebrates Its 75th, Dancers (Hundreds) Take a Bow
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-20 | by ( Gia Kourlas | More About Gia Kourlas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

George Balanchine, by his own admission, always admired jewels, a quality he attributed to his Georgian roots. “I like the color of gems, the beauty of stones,” he wrote in “101 Stories of the Great Ballets.”When, in 1967, the curtain rose at New York City Ballet on his opulent triptych, known as the first full-length plotless ballet, it had no unifying title. “Emeralds” possesses the fragrant earthiness and secrecy of nature; “Rubies” is heat and playfulness, with the games and posturing of a summer scape in New York City; and “Diamonds” casts a dazzling spell of cool refinement that wavers between soft and hard. “Jewels,” as it came to be called, is an occasion as well as a ballet. (The music was performed live, though before the show, members of the New York City Ballet Orchestra held a rally in front of Lincoln Center’s plaza to protest delays in contract negotiations.)

Persons: George Balanchine, ”, Balanchine, Lincoln Kirstein, Suzanne Farrell, Allegra Kent, Patricia McBride, Edward Villella — Organizations: New York City Ballet, City, Lincoln Center, New York City Ballet Orchestra Locations: New, New York City, Lincoln

☆ Finding ‘Ghost Collaborators’ for an All-American Ballet
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-13 | by ( Brian Seibert | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The original “Filling Station” was created for Ballet Caravan, a short-lived touring company led by the impresario Lincoln Kirstein, as part of his long effort to establish ballet in the United States. It was a mix of ballet bravura, vaudeville gags and comic-strip aesthetics. (A 1954 television performance by dancers from New York City Ballet, which Kirstein founded with George Balanchine in 1948, can be found on YouTube.) Kirstein described the gas station setting as an invitingly familiar one, a crossroads where different kinds of “recognizable social types” could meet. “There was a lot of difference in the space, and I was working not to collapse us into the same hole,” Jones said.

Persons: Lincoln Kirstein, Kirstein, George Balanchine, Lutz, Kinoy, he’s, ”, “, ” Jones, Maxfield Haynes, Mina Nishimura Organizations: Ballet, New York City Ballet, YouTube, Lincoln, Museum of Modern Art Locations: United States, New, Kinoy’s, Kirstein

☆ The Long Life and Long Reach of George Balanchine’s Butterflies
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-09 | by ( Brian Seibert | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

While celebrating its 75th anniversary this fall, New York City Ballet is performing 18 ballets by its founding choreographer, George Balanchine. But to get a sense of the global standing of Balanchine, 40 years after his death, other numbers might be more telling. Last year, for instance, around 50 other ballet companies across the world performed his works, about 75 dances in total. Balanchine likened his ballets to butterflies: “They live for a season.” But they have lasted much longer than that. They have become classics, cornerstones of the international repertory, 20th-century equivalents of 19th-century staples like “Swan Lake,” danced everywhere by all the major ballet companies and most of the minor ones, too.

Persons: George Balanchine, Balanchine, ” Organizations: New York City Ballet, Ballet Locations: New, ”, America

☆ Robert Gottlieb Didn’t Just Shape Manuscripts. He Shaped Dance, Too.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( Alastair Macaulay | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The world of letters has been mourning Robert Gottlieb, who died last week at 92, as a reader and editor of qualities that became legendary. The world of dance has been mourning him as well. He neither performed nor choreographed, but he played a major role, often behind the scenes, in fostering American dance. He ran influential works of dance criticism as editor of The New Yorker, and he later became a dance critic himself for The New York Observer. Perhaps less widely known was the key role he played behind the scenes at New York City Ballet, where he served on the board of directors.

Persons: Robert Gottlieb, Alfred A ., Mikhail Baryshnikov, Arlene Croce, Margot Fonteyn, Lincoln Kirstein, Natalia Makarova, Paul Taylor, “, Alfred Knopf, ”, ” Gottlieb —, Bob, —, George Balanchine, Balanchine Organizations: Alfred A . Knopf, Yorker, The New York Observer, New York City Ballet, The, City Center, Ballet Society, City Ballet, Sadler’s, Ballet, Metropolitan Opera House Locations: New

☆ ‘Like He Was Going to Live Forever’: Making Jerome Robbins’s Last Ballet
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Roslyn Sulcas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Jerome Robbins wasn’t feeling well in winter 1995. He had created “West Side Story Suite” — a condensed adaptation of his 1957 hit Broadway musical — for New York City Ballet earlier that year and started work on a new pas de deux with two principal dancers, Lourdes Lopez and Nikolaj Hübbe. Nonetheless, he continued to work with City Ballet on a new dance over the next two years. The 40-minute dance offered a bucolic idyll — a playful, youthful group, sporting with charm and what looks like spontaneity. The reviews were enthusiastic — “Choreographically, he has outdone himself here,” Anna Kisselgoff wrote in The New York Times — as were audiences.

☆ ‘George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker’ Review: The Children Charm
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Robert Greskovic | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

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