Crown JewelsShowcasing its roster of brilliant ballerinas, the Kirov offers sparkling versions of Petipa and Balanchine.
Eight Is EnoughThe NYCB’s new trove of Diamond Project commissions demonstrate, as they do annually, that the golden age of ballet choreography is long gone.
Dream WorksEnchanting productions of two newly acquired Frederick Ashton ballets highlight the ABT’s spring season.
Academy RewardsTop ballet students from schools in Paris and New York offer not only promises of things to come but also some stirring dancing right here and now.
Heir CraftMartha Graham’s company revisits her work for one thrilling night; postmodernism fails an Israeli choreographer.
After MidnightHe showed such great promise in early-career works like At Midnight – a revival of which is a high point of his new season – so why doe […]
Guys and DollsPaul Taylor wickedly transforms his dancers into wind-up toys; big Broadway shows stick to the tried and true.
Score TacticsMark Morris shows off his musical talent in the jubilant, brainy new V; the reconstituted Joffrey Ballet lacks a little something in the […]
Snow MotionMore haunting, butoh-inspired beauty from Eiko & Koma – only this time, they’ve added a third dancer. But why mess with success?
Disjunction JunctionPeter Martins’s new works for the winter City Ballet season make one wonder whether even he knows what he means; David Gordon offers more […]
Disserving NiaTwo new Ailey-company works are characteristically gorgeous – and characteristically disappointing.
Sex and the SillyPina Bausch reaches new heights of sensuality, and banality; the Ballet Nacional de Cuba, with its disarmingly simpler aspirations, offers a gra […]
In BriefMusic of the Line/Words in the Shape Choreographed by Garth Fagan.
Floor ExerciseIn this fall’s ABT season, Stanton Welch’s new Clear, with its men’s-gymnastics-style dancing, looks murky next to a revival of Antony Tudor’s D […]
Wizards of OzChunky Move and Australian Dance Theatre bring the standard postmodern flash up from Down Under; a different Drumming in Brooklyn.
B KeeperThough Suzanne Farrell has proved herself to be a worthy custodian of Balanchine’s legacy, her lack of a full-time company undermines her efforts.
Carmen’s LiberationSalvador Távora’s reimagined flamenco Carmen, with its fully emancipated heroine, succeeds through brute force and flash.
Cold StarSylvie Guillem built her reputation on physical and intellectual prowess. But her Giselle proves control is no substitute for heart.
Forward GlancesBaryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project packages the revolutionary works of the Judson Movement – and while some are still dull, many seem as fre […]
Rat PoisonPractically the only things worth saving in David Parsons’s The Pied Piper, a garish, baffling, almost ballet-free extravaganza, a […]
Guten MorgenIt’s among the best work Peter Martins has ever done for the NYCB – but is Morgen too much of a good thing?
Gong ShowAmong the crossover modern-dance works that kicked off the ABT season, one clear winner stood out: Mark Morris’s brand-new, Indonesian-themed
The Three AmigosWith contributions from longtime associates John Cage and Robert Rauschenberg, Merce Cunningham wrings emotion from abstraction.
20/20 VisionMark Morris’s stylish twentieth-anniversary celebration coincides with the unveiling of his remarkable Brooklyn headquarters.
Déja MovesPaul Taylor returns to familiar territory with his take on the duality of life. Though there are two new works, his imagination seems threadbare.
Birthday BluesOn Balanchine’s big day, Eliot Feld gives the NYCB and its audience an unwanted gift: an overwrought new ballet. Couldn’t we get a restraining o […]
Outsider ArtOn the edges of the dance world, a channeler of Martha Graham and a daredevil circus troupe that gets very close to its audience.
Stopping ShortChristopher Wheeldon kicks off his tenure as the NYCB’s new artist in residence; a sad farewell to Tanaquil LeClercq.
Dancers in the DarkAnother year, another program of indifferent new choreography for the Alvin Ailey company’s stirring dancers; more seduction and wit from David […]
Men’s MovementA new Lar Lubovitch work brings out the vivid best in his dancers; Doug Varone is upstaged by an offbeat setting; Eiko & Koma retread famili […]
These Foolish ThingsAmerican Ballet Theatre’s fall season at City Center, begun three years ago, was intended to bring old fans back into the fold – but now it’s a […]
Armani AscendantAt the Guggenheim, Frank Lloyd Wright’s vertiginous spiral is draped in white gauze to set off 400 mannequined examples of Giorgio Armani’s art.
Postradical ChicThe formerly iconoclastic Lucinda Childs embraces everything she once rejected; a local standout joins his countrymen for a refreshingly ego-fre […]
Electric CompanyForsaking rootlessness, Twyla Tharp builds a marvelous new troupe
Capital BAs the Kennedy Center’s terrific tribute demonstrated, plenty of companies out there could show New Yorkers a thing or two about Balanchine.
Fall Preview: DanceAfter three decades spent building the Dance Theatre of Harlem, the indefatigable Arthur Mitchell knows that creating a classical-ballet company […]
Fall Preview: Dance / Poetry in MoschenCall him a juggler, call him a magician, call him – as the MacArthur folks did – a genius: Michael Moschen has a way with inanimate objects th […]
Avant-GuardedAt the Lincoln Center Festival, a safe repertoire passes for experimental and guarantees an audience applauding its own “daring” taste.
Russian EvolutionA revamped Bolshoi Ballet makes its first New York appearance in years – but is its new, streamlined look a change for the better?
Take Five (Please)Need more sad evidence that the once-brilliant City Ballet has lost its luster? This year’s Diamond Project should convince you.
Just Saying NoBaryshnikov’s White Oak project honors the choreographers of the Judson Dance Theater, who loudly rejected dance dogma decades before he did.
Class DismissedThe report cards are in for the students of the School of American Ballet – and for their counterparts in the platitudinous new movie “Center Stage.”
Nicholas Hytner’s ‘Center Stage’I saw Nicholas Hytner’s Center Stage at a public screening in a picture palace opposite Lincoln Center, where much of this teen-dream dance melo […]
Lake InferiorIn the murky new American Ballet Theatre “Swan Lake,” an emphasis on speeding things along leads to some ill-advised omissions.
Diamond DogsNew works from the City Ballet’s Diamond Project suggest that its money might be better spent; Trisha Brown succeeds despite a tin ear.
Russian HamMore lurid melodrama from the Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg.
Ballet TechSome charming gimmickry from Eliot Feld’s Ballet Tech.
Trinity Irish Dance CompanyMark Howard’s chicago-based Trinity Irish Dance Company, recently at the New Victory, springs from a school – a school that, as the program not […]
Celtics WinThe Irish step-dancing extravaganza “Dancing on Dangerous Ground” succeeds by avoiding many of the missteps of its over-the-top predecessors.
