The climactic moment—the defining moment—of City Ballet’s exhausting spring season came two nights before it official- ly ended. The occasion was a gala performance staged for the benefit of the Dancers’ Emergency Fund, a worthy project dreamed up years ago by Jerome Robbins and now revived by Peter Martins. The program was the usual gala effort—a little of this, a touch of that, here a solo, there a pas de deux, now something for the whole gang.

But there were two big deviations from the norm. The first, highly publicized, was that the evening, called “Dancers’ Choice,” was programmed and cast by a young principal, Jonathan Stafford, with the help of colleagues.  read more »

Why would the world’s foremost classical ballerina choose to turn up in New York leading a small company performing three works newly choreographed on and for her? Idealism? Vanity? Artistic ambition? Chutzpah? Her program was called “Beauty in Motion,” a real misnomer. How about “Vishneva Goes Contempo”? Or “A Long Night at the City Center”?  read more »

Alexei Ratmansky, the artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet (one of the premiere Russian companies), has confirmed that he is not renewing his contract at Bolshoi and is in negotiations with New York City Ballet to become its resident choreographer. He would replace Christopher Wheeldon, who is leaving at the end of this month to pursue his own group, Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company.  read more »

I’ve been seeing Balanchine’s Jewels for more than 40 years, and that’s a lot of jewelry. In the beginning it seemed to many of us unique in its ambitions and its splendor; to others it seemed gaudy—paste. But no one thought it would ever travel. Too expensive, too many styles to absorb and what company other than New York City Ballet could produce a Verdy, a McBride and Villella, a Farrell?  read more »

The New York State Theater will go dark during New York City Opera’s 2008-9 season so that it can be renovated. Susan L. Baker, chairwoman of the company, said that opera officials did not resent having to lose the company’s home for 2008-9, even though the New York City Ballet is not making similar sacrifices. (They share the same Lincoln Center stage). Changing the State Theater was largely City Opera’s idea, she said; the company has long been unhappy with the stage, which was designed to muffle footfalls.  read more »

We told you last month that the New York City Opera and the New York City Ballet company finally came to an agreement about renovations to their shared Lincoln Center theater. But those renovations might cause the Opera to cancel its 2008-09 season at the theater, or maybe relocate performances to other venues, according to the Associated Press.  read more »

The New York City Opera and New York City Ballet have finally retracted their claws and come to agreements about renovations to the New York State Theater they share at Lincoln Center. The two tenants, who alternate seasons at the center, have been bickering over issues like whether to create a center aisle (the opera was strongly in favor; the ballet, adamantly opposed) and how to adjust the acoustics (the opera believes they are in dire need of redress; the ballet thinks they’re fine) for several years. Now, the City Ballet has given up on finding a new home and a modular acoustical system that can be moved in for the opera and out for the ballet will be installed.  read more »

She’s techno-savvy in a tutu! Meet iPhone spokesgal Kristin Sloan: the New York City Ballet babe who has computer geeks’ hearts doing grand jetés.  read more »

I wasn’t planning to write this week, and then on Sunday, May 27, something happened: a nearly perfect afternoon at City Ballet, certainly the best all-round program I’ve seen there in years. And one with symbolic implications—if you believe in symbols.  read more »