Reviewing the Drama: Broadway, Off-Broadway, Ballet, Movies, and TV Reviews

The New York City Ballet Here/Now Festival continues, and on Saturday, May 6, I got to see program five, which includes the newest from Alexei Ratmansky, Odessa . Herein, some notes about all five ballets that are part of the program. Jeu de Cartes —For a ballet that's supposed to be light, the choreography is heavy, it feels—in many sections—grounded. This Peter Martins ballet, which is set to Igor Stravinsky's eponymous composition, is meant to be an abstract representation of a card game. Megan Fairchild is the Queen of Hearts, and she's joined along the way by Harrison Ball , Joseph Gordon , and Aaron Sanz as the Kings of Spades, Diamonds, and Clubs (respectively). The estimable ensemble are also dressed as the various suits. For all that frivolity, it's just an uninteresting ballet. It's not bad or off-putting, but it's also not engaging, despite, on Saturday, a talented cast. Gordon was fine if a little one-dimensional; Sanz was appropriately ...

For my final ballet outing of NYCB's spring season, I attended a 21st century choreographers program. First up was a repeat viewing of Justin Peck 's Belles-Lettres , a chamber piece (of sorts) that premiered at the 2014 Fall Gala. ( I saw it a couple of weeks later .) Featuring nine dancers, including the newly minted principal Taylor Stanley , Belles-Lettres  plays with shapes and formations, and the way things look from different angles. (I can imagine Peck thinking about how the choreography looks from the orchestra as compared to how it looks from the fourth ring—a head on view compared to a bird's eye view.) It's a pretty ballet, with nice moments for each of the four couples ( Kristin Segin and Jared Angle ; Indiana Woodward and Adrian Danchig-Waring ; Brittany Pollack and Stanley; and Rebecca Krohn and Tyler Angle ), and a well-integrated creator/tinkerer in Anthony Huxley . After a brief pause was Nicolas Blanc 's first ballet for NYCB, Mot...

Spring ballet outing 2 of 5 was a wonderful afternoon. I got the chance to revisit three ballets, Estancia , Pictures at an Exhibition , and, one of my favorites, Everywhere We Go . The afternoon began with Christopher Wheeldon 's Estancia , which boasts a scenic design by the architect Santiago Calatrava . This is a narrative ballet, and it tells the story of a city boy romancing a country girl. As you might recall from previous reviews on Estancia , I was there for the premiere of this ballet (in May 2010), and what struck me then still strikes me now: this is a prime example of what narrative ballet can be. It does not have to be just graceful walking and pantomiming; narrative ballet can actually use dance to tell the story. On Saturday, Ana Sophia Scheller took on the role of the feisty country girl, and while she didn't dance the role with the zeal Tiler Peck does, she did bring a soulfulness that played well during the pas de deux. Said pas de deux was with Ad...

It was a New Combinations evening at New York City Ballet, now in the midst of its winter season. The program included two 21st century repertory pieces and the world premiere of Justin Peck's latest. Getting things off to a beautiful start was Alexei Ratmansky 's Pictures at an Exhibition , which debuted last fall. With Kandinsky's famous Color Study Squares with Concentric Circles as its backdrop, Pictures is a series of vignettes. The cast was a little different from the first time I saw this , with Sterling Hyltin tackling the last role Wendy Whelan created for the Company. The role is in good feet. Hyltin is the epitome of grace on stage, and pairs well with Tyler Angle , a dancer I could watch all the time. Filling in Tiler Peck's pointe shoes was soloist Lauren Lovette . She doesn't command the stage the way Peck does, but she is good and continually improving. Repeating her performance was corps de ballet member Gretchen Smith , an expressive da...

The New York City Ballet fall season is well under way. For the Company's fall gala (held September 23), choreographers once again teamed up with fashion designers to either refresh older works or complement new ones. (Scroll down to watch the Designing the Dance featurette.) That program was repeated last night, with an additional new ballet added to the program. Opening the evening was Morgen , the 2001 Peter Martins ballet set to selections from Richard Strauss 's "Songs for Soprano and Orchestra." ( Jennifer Zetlan was the featured soprano.) Though the ballet premiered 13 years ago, this "revival" comes with a facelift. Designer Carolina Herrera created new costumes; the women's costumes are light and flowy, with unobtrusive sparkle details adding visual interest. The ballet itself is sort of like that sparkle detail: pretty but unobtrusive. I felt rather disengaged throughout. A series of pas de deux for six dancers, the partners chang...