New York City Ballet: The Nutcracker / New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, NYC / November 28, 2003 – January 4, 2004 The Nutcracker, in George Balanchine’s (for me) definitive version, danced by the New York City Ballet, opens November 28 at the New York State Theater for a run of six weeks. I know it well, not just as a dance critic but also as a one-time ballet mother whose School of American Ballet-attending child was for several years a member of the show’s huge cast of kids. In this latter guise—conveyer of child to … [Read more...]

New York City Ballet / New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, NYC / November 25, 2003 The George Balanchine Foundation: Videotaping of Violette Verdy coaching George Balanchine's Emeralds / Samuel B. and David Rose Building, Lincoln Center, NYC / October 27, 2003 Works & Process: Balanchine's Lost Choreography / Guggenheim Museum / November 16 & 17, 2003 January 22, 2004 marks the 100th anniversary of George Balanchine's birth. The celebratory "year" that is wrapped around this propitious date follows the art and social worlds' custom of … [Read more...]

Rosas (Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker) / BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, NYC / November 12-17, 2003 Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s Rain, performed by her Belgium-based company, Rosas, draws upon defining devices of early postmodern dance—the inventions and innovations of the late 1960s and the 1970s—and gives them a sleek, forceful theatricality. Indeed, it makes them fit for an opera house—the venue, laden with tradition, on which postmodernism originally turned its back in contempt. Such a development is both ironic and inevitable—the … [Read more...]

George Piper Dances / Joyce Theater, NYC / November 4-9, 2003 George Piper Dances, at the Joyce through November 9, is named for the conjoined moniker-in-art of Michael (middle name: George) Nunn and William (Piper) Trevitt. The pair of Brits with charm to spare and an unexpected taste for austere, ostensibly cerebral choreography are also known as the Ballet Boyz, after the title of a popular T.V. series they did on dancers’ backstage and offstage lives (a subject of enduring public curiosity). Brief chronology: Pals at the Royal … [Read more...]

American Ballet Theatre / City Center, NYC / October 22 - November 9, 2003 American Ballet Theatre's annual fall season at City Center, now expanded from two weeks to three, looked foolish even before the curtain went up. A new marketing ploy organized the repertory being offered into four set programs. The most misguided of them, "Innovative Works," served up Nacho Duato's Without Words, William Forsythe's workwithinwork, and Within You Without You: A Tribute to George Harrison, choreographed by various hands, including David Parsons, … [Read more...]