New York Notebook
For its all-out gala this year, Youth American Grand Prix has chosen the theme “Stars of Today Meet the Stars of Tomorrow.” Representing tomorrow is Polina Semionova, the newest sensation in ballet to come out of Europe. With a gorgeously limpid line and glowing presence, Semionova was a Dance Magazine “On the Rise” in Oct. 2004. Representing today is The Royal Ballet’s Darcey Bussell, who has taken tentative steps to retire. At the superstar level, the outgoing share the stage with the incoming—and with lots of other stars like Maria Alexandrova, a favorite at the Bolshoi. April 22 at City Center. See www.YAGP.org. —Wendy Perron
Mixing It Up
For the past two decades, New Dance Alliances’ Performance Mix Festival has focused mainly on dance, but it also celebrates its convergences with music, performance, and video. Sally Silvers, Douglas Dunn, Lisa Kraus (left), Jennifer Monson, and Chamecki/Lerner are a few of 600-plus artists who have shown their work here. For its 20th anniversary, NDA, in association with The Joyce SoHo, presents six nights of smart, funny, and experimental work by artists from around the country. See www.el.net/nda. –Jennifer Stahl
Honoring Agnes
Agnes de Mille elevated the place of dance in American popular musical theater. In classics like Oklahoma!, Carousel, Brigadoon, and Paint Your Wagon, dance evolved from a tuneful diversion to an extension of the characters’ dreams and aspirations. De Mille’s example paved the way for two generations of choreographers to take Broadway seriously. Yet, while these legendary shows are often revived, her choreography rarely is. In celebration of the choreographer’s 100th birthday, New York Theatre Ballet (right, in de Mille’s Three Virgins and a Devil) will restore these marvelous dances to the stage, thanks to the canny reconstructions of former de Mille dancer Gemze de Lappe. Also on the program: The Four Marys, de Mille’s 1965 tale of an African American slave executed for murdering her mixed-race baby, a daring piece for its time and still potent stuff 41 years later. April 28–29 at Florence Gould Hall. See www.nytb.org. — Allan Ulrich
