“Ballet Diary” is a series of nine essays I posted on SEEING THINGS in the spring season of 2010. The individual essays are listed below. To access any one of them, click on its title (for example, Ballet Diary No. 1). Introducing the first of the essays, I wrote:
Year after year New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre, the kingpins of classical dance here in the States, insist upon competing with each other at Lincoln Center. As springtime slips into summer, the two troupes play mostly overlapping seasons–this year, eight weeks each–at abutting theaters. City Ballet will be at the David H. Koch Theater, April 29 – June 27; ABT, at the Metropolitan Opera House, May 18 – July 10. How’s a dance critic to cope? Perhaps taking the easy way out–though any other arrangement I devised seemed artificial–I decided that this year I’d cover the scene with a ballet diary, describing and commenting on the lavish procession of events weekly or bi-weekly. Let’s hope this works. No aspect of a life in or near dance comes with a guarantee.
NYCB’s Albert Evans in the Phlegmatic section of George Balanchine’s Four Temperaments
Photo: Paul Kolnik
Ballet Diary No. 1: Introduction to the Ballet Diary series; New York City Ballet: Opening night gala / David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center, NYC / April 29, 2010
Ballet Diary No. 2: New York City Ballet: Wayne McGregor’s Outlier; Alexei Ratmansky’s Namouna, A Grand Divertissement / David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center, NYC
Ballet Diary No. 3: American Ballet Theatre: Opening-night gala; La Bayadère / Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, NYC; Unrelated Solos / Baryshnikov Arts Center, NYC / May 19-22; New York City Ballet: Benjamin Millepied / David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center, NYC
Ballet Diary No. 4: New York City Ballet: Christopher Wheeldon’s Estancia / David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center, NYC; American Ballet Theatre: John Neumeier’s Lady of the Camellias; Don Quixote; Alicia Alonso’s 90th Birthday Celebration / Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, NYC
Ballet Diary No. 5: School of American Ballet Workshop Performances / January 5 and 8, 2010 / Peter Jay Tharp Theater, Lincoln Center, NYC
Ballet Diary No. 6: American Ballet Theatre: All-Ashton program; All-American program / Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, NYC; New York City Ballet: Mauro Bigonzetti’s Luce Nascosta / David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center, NYC
Ballet Diary No. 7: New York City Ballet: Philip Neal Farewell; Albert Evans Farewell / David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center, NYC; American Ballet Theatre: The Sleeping Beauty, with Alina Cojocaru and Natalia Osipova as Aurora / Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, NYC
Ballet Diary No. 8: New York City Ballet: Darci Kistler Farewell; Peter Martins’s Mirage; Melissa Barak’s Call Me Ben; Maurice Kaplow Farewell / David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center, NYC
Ballet Diary No. 9: American Ballet Theatre: All-Classic [Masters] program; ABT Premieres program; Natalia Osipova dancing Juliet in Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet / Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, NYC
ABT’s Natalia Osipova in Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet
Photo: Gene Schiavone
I always admire and delight in your intelligent and learned way of ”seeing things” – not to mention your diligence and your refined use of language! Behind everything, ones senses the soul in which love for dance and for the arts is rooted.