You may have noticed that Jerome Robbins is being celebrated all over the place. And why not? He’s worth celebrating. But why now? Because it’s about to be his 90th birthday? We usually organize these things (as we did for Balanchine) for the centenary. Why this case of premature celebration? Could it be that City Read More
Through Jan. 27, Mark Morris is presenting a program of chamber works in the pleasant chamber theater (it seats 140) on the fifth floor of his spacious dance center opposite B.A.M. The featured attraction is a new piece: Italian Concerto, to Bach’s famous concerto of the same name, played emphatically (on the piano, not the Read More
The Trocks—or, if you prefer, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo—do many things at once. They demonstrate that men can dance on pointe and be convincing (sort of) in the great ballerina roles. They make fun of the mannerisms and vanities of the dear, dead world of the Ballet Russe. They parody ballet styles and Read More
One of the most touching tales in Amanda Vaill’s Somewhere: The Life of Jerome Robbins is about a gift that Robbins gave to Ethel Merman when she was starring in Gypsy. A resoundingly unreflective performer whose every instinct ran counter to Robbins’ Method-driven approach to performance, Merman nonetheless submitted to his persnickety but gentle coaching Read More
Do you know what I think are the most beautiful words in the English language—certainly in the language of that great, lost invention, the all-American musical?
Right! Let’s do the whole combination, facing away from the mirror.
From the top,
A five, six, seven, eight!
I have only to hear that Read More
The City Ballet season just ended may prove to have been a defining moment in the company’s history. A wave of talented young dancers has been advanced into the Balanchine repertory and thrust into an array of new works from this year’s Diamond Project. Senior dancers past their prime are moving inexorably toward retirement—some gracefully, Read More
The mystery of Christopher Wheeldon deepens. Yes, he’s the most talented of the younger ballet choreographers—indeed, where’s the competition? Yes, he’s particularly good at nurturing dancers and identifying their essential qualities. Yes, he’s always intelligent, almost always interesting and rarely vulgar—I would have said never vulgar, except that the memory of An American in Paris Read More
American Ballet Theatre’s fall season at the City Center was the most interesting and the strongest I can remember. These are the weeks we long for during the company’s interminable spring season at the Met, when all the stars are trotted out (or bourréed out) to have their way with the relentless Giselles and Swan Read More
American Ballet Theatre’s fall season at the City Center was the most interesting and the strongest I can remember. These are the weeks we long for during the company’s interminable spring season at the Met, when all the stars are trotted out (or bourréed out) to have their way with the relentless Giselle s and Read More
Doug Varone’s Castles is the best new dance piece I’ve seen in a long time. I watched it, with growing admiration, on three consecutive nights. It brings together, distilled and heightened, the qualities Varone is generally known for-the physical excitement, the depth of feeling, the implication of story (but what story?). And Castles perfectly suits Read More
