George Balanchine

Latest Articles

Boston Ballet's 'Balanchine/Robbins'

After the frenetic gutbusting of its Elo Experience and "Bella Figura" programs, Boston Ballet is closing out its 2010–2011 season with a breath of classical fresh air — or so it would seem.
Mind games
By JEFFREY GANTZ | May 20, 2011

The Best Boston Dance Stories of 2010

Some of the past year's most interesting dance events recaptured iconic moments in our history, either as usable texts for today's dancers or as a springboard into reinterpretation, parody, and nostalgia.
Tradition, innovation, and (loving) parody animated the year's dance
By MARCIA B. SIEGEL | December 24, 2010

Review: Festival Ballet celebrates Balanchine

There is a long list of reasons why George Balanchine is regarded as the greatest and most influential choreographer of the 20th century.
By George
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | November 05, 2010

Photos: Boston Ballet tours Barcelona

Boston Ballet dancers Jeffrey Cirio and Sabi Varga "have been snapping images like crazy" during the company's five-week trip to Spain -- see what they caught in their lens.
Behind the scenes of the Boston Ballet's five-week trip to Barcelona
By JEFFREY CIRIO AND SABI VARGA | July 09, 2010

Sparring with the Ultimate

There’s never been a more brilliant exemplar of the ballet art than George Balanchine.
Boston Ballet in The Four Temperaments, Apollo, and Theme and Variations
By MARICA B. SIEGEL | May 14, 2010

Theme and variations

George Balanchine was famous for “non-story” ballets, but when you put three of his works — the usual number to fill up an evening — together, you always get some kind of narrative.
Boston Ballet’s ‘Ultimate Balanchine’
By JEFFREY GANTZ | May 14, 2010

Happy returns

George Balanchine didn’t go in for productions of the old classic ballets.
Boston Ballet’s Coppélia , Alvin Ailey at the Wang
By MARCIA B. SIEGEL | April 23, 2010

Here’s looking at you

Set in the usual small village — this one in the Carpathian Mountains of Eastern Europe — Coppélia might look like just another pleasant 19th-century ballet about a boy, a girl, and another girl. But appearances can be deceiving — and that’s theme of
Boston Ballet sees into the heart of Coppélia
By JEFFREY GANTZ | April 09, 2010

High stepping

The heavy-hitter repertory shows this season come from ALVIN AILEY and GEORGE BALANCHINE . But why not welcome spring by taking a chance on fresh experiences as well?
Dancing with the stars
By DEBRA CASH | March 12, 2010

Squiggles and lines

The eponymous directors of Alonzo King Lines Ballet and the Mark Morris Dance Group both came from backgrounds in modern dance with sprinklings of other styles, and they both subsequently invented movement vocabularies to serve their choreographic idea
Alonzo King at the ICA, Mark Morris at the Opera House
By MARCIA B. SIEGEL | February 05, 2010

2009: The year in Dance

You could say there were two tremendous forces that propelled dance into the world of modern culture: the Ballets Russes of Serge Diaghilev and the choreography of Merce Cunningham.
Milestones and memories
By MARCIA B. SIEGEL | December 25, 2009

Plugging in

For the past six years, Festival Ballet Providence has presented an evening of short works, Up Close on Hope , in their Black Box Theater on Hope Street.
Festival Ballet move to Metallica and Radiohead
By JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | November 20, 2009

Smaller, bigger, better

Is Boston in the midst of a ballet boom? You could certainly believe that if you attended Boston Ballet’s fourth annual season-opening gala last Saturday.
Boston Ballet’s fourth ‘Night of Stars’
By JEFFREY GANTZ | September 25, 2009

Must-see moves

Two of this fall's dance performances will tell Halloween-style stories — a reprise of Viktor Plotnikov's THE WIDOW'S BROOM , by Festival Ballet Providence, and a premiere of Miki Ohlsen's DRACULA , by Island Moving Co.
Flying feet and acrobatic hijinks
By JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | September 18, 2009

Dancing in a new direction

The 100th birthday of Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes prompted the expected centennial tributes in Boston: a "Diaghilev's Ballets Russes 1909–1929: Twenty Years That Changed the World of Art" symposium and exhibition at Harvard University in April, and
Notes from 'Ballets Russes 2009'
By JEFFREY GANTZ | May 29, 2009

Brava Larissa!

The end of an era loomed last night as Boston Ballet opened The Sleeping Beauty — what's likely to be the last story ballet ever to be staged at the Wang Theatre.
Boston Ballet opens The Sleeping Beauty
By JEFFREY GANTZ | May 01, 2009

Slideshow: Boston Ballet's Jewels

Photos from George Balanchine's Jewels, performed by the Boston Ballet.
Boston Ballet performs George Balanchine's Jewels .
By ERIC ANTONIOU | February 27, 2009

Crowning glory

In 1967, George Balanchine created Jewels for New York City Ballet, and in short order this evening-length triptych — Emeralds , Rubies , and Diamonds — became the crown jewel of 20th-century dance.
Boston Ballet's Jewels
By JEFFREY GANTZ | February 27, 2009

VIDEO: Boston Ballet rehearsing George Balanchine's "Jewels"

We've just returned from Clarendon Street in the South End, where Boston Ballet is beginning the fin...
By Carly Carioli | February 21, 2009

Dancing ballet or not

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago's Celebrity Series program at the Cutler Majestic last weekend could have been a primer of the ways not to dance ballet.

By MARCIA B. SIEGEL | February 10, 2009

Sizzling frost

The winter dance season starts out promoting international coexistence.
Dance heat 2009
By DEBRA CASH | December 29, 2008

Year in Dance: Reusable histories & durable trends

Conservation is a good thing in these times, and some of the most interesting performances drew on the uses of history — personal history, performance history, and even some inventions that sought to overturn history.
No startling breakthroughs, but that's okay
By MARCIA B. SIEGEL | December 22, 2008

Not so great

Way back in 1977, PBS gave us a Nutcracker with a difference: Mikhail Baryshnikov as an electrifying Nutcracker/Cavalier and willowy Gelsey Kirkland as an older-than-usual Clara, as the Sugar Plum Fairy.
San Francisco's Nutcracker on PBS
By JEFFREY GANTZ | December 02, 2008

Dynamos

The four pieces on the program that Philadanco brought for its Boston debut last weekend at the Institute for Contemporary Art were all-dance numbers showcasing a troupe of highly polished, supercharged dancers.
Philadanco at the ICA
By MARCIA B. SIEGEL | November 18, 2008

State of the art

Maybe it’s the economy, but Boston Ballet’s third-annual season-opening gala was a sober evening, without the orchestral overture that graced the first two affairs.
Boston Ballet’s third ‘Night of Stars’
By JEFFREY GANTZ | October 17, 2008

Floor show

Sara Hook explains the title of her cabaret piece Salad Days as a reference to youth and indiscretion.
Sara Hook at Harvard
By MARCIA B. SIEGEL | October 01, 2008

Where the chips fell

Dance history reverberated across Boston during the past few weeks, affirming that how we live now owes a lot to how we’ve chosen to remember — and forget.
Marjorie Morgan, Karl Cronin, Lucinda Childs, and Boston Ballet
By MARCIA B. SIEGEL | May 28, 2008

Popular