ballet

Dear Lord, Make Me Beautiful. Just the title of choreographer Kyle Abraham’s most recent dance seen at NYC’s Armory on Park Avenue on December 9 is gripping. A glorious sweep of a dance that moves through the seasons (a metaphor for time passing) as depicted in the spectacular, ever morphing set is expressed with delicacy, power and nuance by a man facing mortality. Abraham writes in the program, “My words and thoughts stammer where they used to sing. I dance in remembrance of the innocence in of my younger self.”

Now in its 22nd consecutive season, the witty, irreverent and raucous Nut/Cracked will be presented by The Bang Group at Kaatsbaan, in Tivoli, N,Y,, on December 20 and 21. As the Cultural Center’s holiday offering, there is a reason why this 65-minute reimagined Nutcracker has entertained countless numbers of delighted patrons: it is laugh-out-loud funny.

Two generations of Joffrey Ballet. Denise Jackson began as an apprentice in 1968 and soon became a principal dancer. When she retired, New York City declared Denise Jackson Day. Ashley Wheater joined the company in 1985 and was named artistic director in 2007. They’re both overdue for a ticker-tape parade and both on the show this week to tell us about rehearsals, Robert Joffrey and a 1956 station wagon.

Unite, the one-week ballet festival at The Joyce Theater, the dance specific venue in New York City, is the brainchild of American Ballet Theatre Principal Dancer, Calvin Royal III.

Saratoga Performing Arts Center welcomes the New York City Ballet this week. The season features four unique programs from tonight -July 13th as part of NYCB’s historic 75thanniversary and its 58th season in Saratoga. We welcome New York City Ballet Artistic Director Jonathan Stafford with a preview.

“I am Juan de Parejeo,” Ballet Hispánico’s artistic director says of the Afro-Spanish painter enslaved by Velazquez. Multiple identities? No. One artist fascinated by the life of another, the subject of Vilaro’s new dance work.

Kaatsbaan continues with its Fall Festival 2023 through October 1. Kaatsbaan Cultural Park in Tivoli, New York, was founded on 153 acres adjacent to the Hudson River in 1990, by American Ballet Theater stars Martine van Hamal and Kenneth McKenzie, with Gregory Cary and Bentley Rotton. Curated by Adam Weinert, Artistic Director, Kaatsbaan’s outdoor Mountain Stage offers a glorious backdrop for dance.

The Catskill Mountain Foundation’s unique production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” - conceived by former Metropolitan Opera ballerina Victoria Rinaldi, transports the audience to an enchanted wood to witness what hilarity unfolds, when fairies meddle with the love lives of mortals.We are joined by Victoria Rinaldi and Executive Artistic Director of Aquila Theater, Desiree Sanchez.

The New York City Ballet brought a program of three classic mid-twentieth-century ballets Friday night to a packed amphitheater crowd of 5000 at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, with hundreds more watching from the lawn.

In 2011, In Creases, Justin Peck’s first dance for the New York City Ballet, enjoyed its world premiere at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. Since then, he has made twenty-two more works for the company, and Thursday’s matinee at SPAC brought his newest. Copland Dance Episodes, billed as his first evening-length work, is a big, bold, winning ballet for thirty dancers, filled with pure feeling and excellent performances.