Tag: Balanchine: The City Center Years (event)

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Balanchine: The City Center Years (Program V)

Program VI of “Balanchine: The City Center Years” at New York City Center.

The festival closed this afternoon with four stunning performances.

Hometown favorite American Ballet Theatre put on an amazing presentation of Symphonie Concertante. Devon Teuscher was so beautiful in her lead role, as were Christine Shevchenko and Thomas Forster. Wonderful to see how much Cate Hurlin and Katie Williams have grown and blossomed (and of course been promoted) in the 3 years since I moved to NYC and started attending ABT performances regularly.

The other programs today include repeats (but gorgeous ones!) of the Four Temperaments by Joffrey Ballet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Sae Eun Park and Hugo Marchand, of Ballet Opera de Paris, and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux by Victoria Tereshkina and Kimin Kim.

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Balanchine: The City Center Years (Program III)

Program III of “Balanchine: The City Center Years” at New York City Center.

Kimin Kim continued to own the spotlight with his incredible jumps in “Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux,” earning an applause from the audience every time he leaves the floor.

Tonight’s program also featured the colorful “Scotch Symphony” by San Francisco Ballet. A graceful and beautiful “Divertissement Pas de Duex” from A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Sae Eun Park and Hugo Marchand of Ballet Opera de Paris. The technical and precise “the Four Temperaments” by Joffrey Ballet. I especially enjoyed Christine Rocas and Dylan Gutierrez in the second variation, Sanguinic.

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Balanchine: The City Center Years (Program II)

Program II of “Balanchine: The City Center Years” at New York City Center on Thursday.

My favorite tonight goes to Anna Rose O’Sullivan and Marcelino Sambe of The Royal Ballet in “Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux”. What a beautiful presentation of my favorite duet. WOW!!! 😍😍😍

I wasn’t the only one who fell in love with them. The crowd cheered so loudly that the house re-opened the curtain for them to take an extra bow.

After seeing Tiler Peck and Joaquin de Luz of NYCB perform the piece this spring, I didn’t think anyone could possibly come close. However, within seconds of coming onto the stage, after the first spin and the first lift, Anna Rose was already signaling to us that we’re in for a treat.

Anna Rose and Marcelino had an incredible chemistry between them that brought the duet to a different level.

I also love every aspect of Anna Rose’s presentation. The way she lingered in the air just a bit longer than expected at the end of a turn. Her facial expression, her eyes, her glaze alone could tell endless stories. Technically, she travelled backwards in her arabesque faster than anyone I’ve seen. Her fish dives at the end were the most daring of a leap into a fish dive that I’ve seen. Like I said, I didn’t think anyone could possibly outshine Tiler but she just did!

San Francisco Ballet put on a beautiful performance of “Divertimento No 15” featuring a talented female lead cast of Frances Chung, Dores André, Sasha De Sola, Koto Ishihara, Ana Sophia Scheller accompanied by Ben Freemantle, Angelo Greco, and Lonnie Weeks.

Maria Khoreva, Anastasia Nuykina, Daria Ionova, and Xander Parish put on an emotional rendition of “Apollo”. Bravo!

I also love the pairing of Maria Kowroski and Abi Stafford in “Concerto Barocco” by New York City Ballet.