New York City Ballet / David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center, NYC / November 24, 2009 - February 28, 2010 This story has a back story. Let me whisk you through it. Some two years before the New York City Ballet danced the January 21st world premiere of Alexey Miroshnichenko's The Lady with the Little Dog, negotiations had broken down between Peter Martins, who directs the company, and Alexei Ratmansky, then head of the Bolshoi Ballet in his native Russia. They'd been discussing the possibility of Ratmansky's becoming the City Ballet's … [Read more...]

Noche Flamenca / Lucille Lortel Theatre, NYC / December 24, 2009 - January 16, 2010 What better way to spend New Year's Eve than watching Noche Flamenca? The Lucille Lortel Theatre, intimate in size, is dark and gloomy, the seats for the onlookers sheathed in a deep red velvet that hints at half-hidden passions. It's not as atmospherically decrepit as the East Village's Theater 80, where the troupe usually gives its extended summer seasons, but it will do. Besides the change of venue, there's been a change in billing: The name of the … [Read more...]

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater / City Center, NYC / December 2, 2009 - January 3, 2010 Beginning with the opening night gala, I visited the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater ("The Ailey," to its friends) many times during its month-long City Center season, which celebrated Judith Jamison's 20-year tenure as artistic director. Jamison will become "artistic director emerita" at the end of this year. Her successor has not yet been named, but it will be hard to find her equal--first as a star dancer, then as a leader with unassailable … [Read more...]

Pacific Northwest Ballet / Joyce Theater, NYC / January 5-10, 2010 Pacific Northwest Ballet, based in Seattle, is making its first New York appearance in 13 years with a program of four ballets, three of them new to our town. The more substantial of them are Twyla Tharp's Opus 111 and Benjamin Millepied's 3 Movements. Astonishingly, not a one is by George Balanchine, whose works have long been the most significant part of the troupe's astutely chosen repertory. Founded in 1972, PNB was subsequently led for nearly three decades by the … [Read more...]