Monday, May 1

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Ballet Sun Valley presents the Dutch National Ballet.

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Ballet Sun Valley Founding Music Director Martin West, the principal conductor at San Francisco Ballet, will conduct the live music, as he did last year.

“I look forward to Ballet Sun Valley every year as a highlight of my summer,” said West. “The standard of dancing is as good as you see anywhere and I’m incredibly excited that this year we are hosting our first international company. I am looking forward to working again with the amazing dancers of Dutch National Ballet, whom I enjoyed working with a few years ago in Amsterdam.”

 

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A review of the Vienna State Ballet by Ilona Landgraf in her blog, "Landgraf on Dance."

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I should have known better, but I was not prepared to read the name of Horst Koegler (1927 – 2012) in the piece description on the Vienna State Ballet’s website. It quotes Koegler who labeled “the Goldberg-Variationen as one of the works from Spoerli’s Bach ballet cathedral which describes people and life in a series of poetic, choreographed images and scenes (…)”. Koegler, one of Germany’s renowned ballet critics and the author of a book about Spoerli, was very well versed with the latter’s oeuvre. He loved “Goldberg-Variationen” – both Bach’s music and its interpretation through dance. Would he have liked Vienna’s one?

 

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A review of New York City Ballet by Leigh Witchel in dancelog.nyc.

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Unity Phelan may not be a first night dancer. Opening night of the Spring season at New York City Ballet was her debut in “Concerto Barocco.” She did fine, but looked harassed. It could have been the tempo, Andrew Litton conducted the evening at a rapid pace that felt closer to what tempos at NYCB used to be. Balanchine seemed to want speeds faster than was comfortable to keep the energy level up. And that was exciting, if rushed. One corps dancer did fumble, but Ashley Laracey, in the second ballerina role, looked great. Darting from position to position, the pace showed off her lanky speed.

Mary Cargill reviews tfor danceviewtimes.com.

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“La Source” opens directly with a creamy pas de deux, cutting right to the heart of the Romantic ballet without any preliminary introductions.  Indiana Woodward and Joseph Gordon were the enraptured couple, moving through the unobtrusive partnering with a dreamy, delicate ease that was breathtaking.  Woodward’s luxurious upper body, unmannered and straightforward purity, and her deceptive strength combined to create a illusion of floating on the music,  Her solos, with the quick changes of direction and bouncy jumps, were playful, musical, and scintillating.

 

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A story on Florida's new troupe, Florida Gulfshore Ballet.

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Performances draw from the late choreographer Jimmy Gamonet de los Heros, who was instrumental in establishing Miami City Ballet as one of the country’s leading companies as their resident choreographer for 15 years. Iliana and Franklin are eager to incorporate his neoclassical style into their seasonal programming.