21st-century works in The New York City Ballet's Winter season (January 23-March 4) A subtle artistic schism exists for dancers in the New York City Ballet. None of them knew its co-founder Balanchine. They hadn’t taken his classes; they hadn’t watched him choreograph new ballets or lent him their bodies to use as inspiration and building blocks. If they experienced ballets by his later … [Read more...]
Adrift in Fashionable Fairyland
Ballet Preljocaj brings the French company's Snow White to New York. Fog swirls around a dark stage. Crashes and eerie echoes accompany it. A hand rises from a cloud bank, and figure swathed in dark garments appears and begins to walk with difficulty across the stage. It’s hard to make this person out. Ah! A crown. Royal, then. A glimpse of a bare thigh and high heels. Right. A queen. And … [Read more...]
Dancers on Fire
The New York City Ballet puts on a Gala to ignite its Fall Season. Gala performances are strange animals—the bigger the dance company, the more lavish they have to be. Money is spent so that more money may accrue. At the New York City Ballet’s Fall Gala in its Lincoln Center home, designer Bronson van Wyck has hung huge blue-and-white and red-and-white-striped hot air balloons over the … [Read more...]