New York City Ballet at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in July

Featured image: New York City Ballet Principal Dancer Peter Walker in George Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes/Photo credit: Erin Baiano July 13, 2024 2:00 pm matinee Once a several week residency at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC), with as much Balanchine as one could possibly want in a season, New York City Ballet (NYCB) now…

Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Season Encore

Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Season Encore June 11-15, 2023 celebrating principal dancer Lesley Rausch’s career as a dancer was indeed bittersweet. But, with eight separate pieces (many, excerpts) on the program, it was indeed a reveling in Rausch’s rich career as a dancer. The first four pieces of the program featured huge talents—Elle Macy in Penny…

THE SEASONS’ CANON filmed Nov 4, 2022

Pacific Northwest Ballet’s The Seasons’ Canon opens with Dwight Roden’s atmospheric Catching Feelings. With gorgeous lighting (Joey Walls) and costumes (Christine Darch), and cleverly cast dancers in shaded light, this is a breathtaking piece. Exciting strings (Bach/ Peter Grayson and Johan Ullén after J.S. Bach) and staging (with a choreographer assist from Clifford Williams)—offer a…

Pacific Northwest Ballet celebrates its 50th with Carmina Burana, and more

Pacific Northwest Ballet launched its 50th Anniversary Season with George Balanchine’s enduring Allegro Brillante, an Alexei Ratmansky world premiere, Wartime Elegy, and founding artistic director Kent Stowell’s Carmina Burana. One of the most memorable pairings of the evening was Angelica Generosa and new principal Jonathan Batista in Allegro Brillante. Daring and showy, both appear committed to…

Nutcracker—PNB REVIEW

      The December 5, 2021 Saturday matinee performance featured Noelani Pantastico as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Christopher D’Ariano as her cavalier. Michael Jinsoo Lin provided the  expert solo violin. D’Ariano’s been given a lot of opportunities in the past year, and it’s easy to see why—he’s a skilled dancer and a sensitive…

Robbins Bigonzetti Ratmansky 

The September 25 evening program of the New York City Ballet’s fall season opened with Opus 19/The Dreamer, set to Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, the composer’s first violin concerto and often referred to as “music in technicolor.” So, too, Jerome Robbins’ colorful dance, with lead couple Tiler Peck and Gonzalo Garcia, and a…