Lincoln Center's Dance Week Offers 7 Online Broadcasts—Including Vintage ABT and NYCB Favorites
How many of us have hovered breathlessly over our iPads, watching grainy YouTube footage of Gelsey Kirkland and Mikhail Baryshnikov in Theme and Variations? Or Suzanne Farrell in Mozartiana? (Hundreds of thousands of us, to be exact.) Well, get ready: Yesterday, Lincoln Center announced its brand new Dance Week, a series of seven online broadcasts devoted to our favorite art form.
Part of Lincoln Center at Home, the organization’s new portal for digital offerings, the six-day fest will feature performances by Ballet Hispánico, American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, School of American Ballet and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. What’s particularly exciting is that some of these—including the aforementioned Theme and Variations and Mozartiana—are legendary performances of yesteryear.
Ready to hear the lineup? Check it out below, then tune in to Lincoln Center’s website or Facebook page to watch the performances.
Saturday, May 30 at 2 pm EDT: Ballet Hispánico in “Carmen.maquia” and “Club Havana”
Originally broadcast in 2015 as part of Lincoln Center at the Movies: Great American Dance, this Ballet Hispánico double bill showcases the company in two Latin-inspired works. Carmen.maquia, choreographed by Gustav Ramírez Sansano, is a contemporary take on Bizet’s classic opera, with sleek black-and-white designs by Devid Delfín. Afterwards, Cuba’s infectious dances and dance rhythms take center stage in Pedro Ruiz’s Club Havana.
Saturday, May 30 at 8 pm EDT: NYCB in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (1986)
George Balanchine’s beloved A Midsummer Night’s Dream takes center stage in this 1986 “Live from Lincoln Center” televised broadcast. Former NYCB principals Maria Calegari and Ib Anderson star as Titania and Oberon, with Jean-Pierre Frolich as Puck.
American Ballet Theatre in Michel Fokine’s Les Sylphides
Louis Peres, Courtesy Lincoln Center
Sunday, May 31 at 8pm EDT: ABT at the Metropolitan Opera House (1978)
This 1978 “Live from Lincoln Center” program showcases ABT during one of its most exciting eras. The evening includes Natalia Makarova and Fernando Bujones in the Act III pas de deux from Don Quixote; Michel Fokine’s Les Sylphides, starring Rebecca Wright, Marianna Tcherkassky and Ivan Nagy; Fokine’s Firebird; and Balanchine’s glorious Theme and Variations, led by Gelsey Kirkland and Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Advanced School of American Ballet students perform the pas de deux from Balanchine’s Agon.
Paul Kolnik, Courtesy Lincoln Center
Monday, June 1 at 7 pm EDT: School of American Ballet Virtual Workshop Performance Celebration
In lieu of its annual end-of-year performance, the School of American Ballet is hosting an online version that includes footage of past Workshop performances and commentary from SAB leaders, faculty members and NYCB dancers. The winners of the school’s prestigious Mae L. Wien Award for Outstanding Promise, awarded each year to three seniors, will also be announced. The program will include Balanchine’s Scotch Symphony from 2017, Justin Peck’s In Creases and Jerome Robbins’ Circus Polka from 2018, and Balanchine’s Agon pas de deux from 2019.
Patricia McBride and Helgi Tomasson in Coppélia
Suzanne Faulkner Stevems, Courtesy Lincoln Center
Tuesday, June 2 at 8 pm ET: NYCB in “Coppélia” (1978)
Here’s another “Live from Lincoln Center” gem featuring NYCB. Patricia McBride, Helgi Tomasson and Shaun O’Brien star in this charming production of Coppélia by Balanchine and Alexandra Danilova (after Marius Petipa), with music by Léo Delibes.
Wednesday, June 3 at 8 pm EDT: NYCB in “Tribute to Balanchine” (1983)
This 1983 “Live from Lincoln Center” tribute to NYCB founder George Balanchine was filmed shortly after the choreographer’s death. The program features three of his ballets: Vienna Waltzes, starring Kyra Nichols, Sean Lavery, Heather Watts, Helgi Tomasson, Elyse Borne, Bart Cook, Karin von Aroldingen, Peter Martins, Suzanne Farrell and Adam Lüders; Mozartiana, led by Farrell, Victor Castelli and Ib Anderson; and Who Cares?, featuring Lourdes Lopez, Patricia McBride, Heather Watts and Sean Lavery.
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Ailey’s Revelations
Gert Krautbauer, Courtesy Lincoln Center
Thursday, June 4 at 8 pm EDT: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: “Chroma, Grace, Takadame, Revelations”
What better way to cap Dance Week than with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater? This 2015 performance, captured for Lincoln Center at the Movies, features the company in Wayne McGregor’s Chroma, Ronald K. Brown’s Grace and Robert Battle’s Takadame. Alvin Ailey’s classic masterpiece Revelations, set to African American spirituals, rounds out the program, leaving us with the joy, inspiration and hope we all need right now.
