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opening night of new york city ballet’s 2024-25 season

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last night, new york city ballet opened the doors for its 76th season. featured above are new york city ballet principal dancers tiler peck and chun wai chan, dancing a pas de deux from george balanchine’s tchaikovsky piano concerto no.2 (formerly titled ‘ballet imperial’). the ballet is a tribute to tchaikovsky, and balanchine’s teacher marius petipa. it was created even before city ballet was formed, choreographed for balanchine’s former company, american ballet caravan. it premiered on june 25th, 1941, at teatro municipal, rio de janeiro, as a way to show the world that american ballerinas could be just as refined and talented as their european counterparts. balanchine removed to allusions of imperial russia in 1973, giving the ballet its current title. another note — it was also chan’s debut in this role! merde!

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footage sourced from @nycballet on instagram, tuesday, september 17th, 2024, at david h. koch theater, manhattan, new york.

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♡ @pinkfairies

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Harry truly has fabulous legs.

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Shadian Aquia | Greg Trechel | Glenn Moretti | Mario Elefante | Miami City Ballet School

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Stanislav Olshanskyi

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How would you caption this shot?

Israel Castillo Photography

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I'm still thinking about it, so---if you're a local, I highly encourage Rough House Theater's "House of the Exquisite Corpse". It's lovely, arresting, from the performances down to the smallest touches. I still can't get over the ripped umbrellas hanging upside down in dreamlike suspension from the ceiling; the way each "station" is wrapped in plywood and decorated in its own meaningful pattern and design.

But first, let me step back. "House of the Exquisite Corpse" takes its name from the old Surrealist parlor game, at the heart of which is the idea that you can collect a disparate group, then smash their ideas together and create something from the smithereens. This is something like what Rough House has done, which is pick a theme ("Superstition") and then let the artistic groups loose to create short scenes built around that theme.

(I want to call them tableaux, because watching the performances I was struck by how it felt like something out of time---as though we were 17th century courtiers in Paris ushered into a candlelit ballroom, or early 20th century farmers in Minnesota, paying our penny to see what the circus brought to town.)

The set-up itself does a wonderful job ushering you into a time-outside-of-time---you step into a space divided from the rest of the space by black sheets, chunky headsets dangling from wooden ladders suspended just over your head. The emcee is carrying a clipboard and speaks into an old-school broadcasting mic---which you can only hear if you're wearing the headsets.

It is, you'll discover, the central conceit of the performance. From there, you're directed from station to station by silent ushers, carrying flashlights so they can point you forward. Unless you are wearing the headphones at each station, you can only listen to the absent, ambient music echoing around the room.

Not only are the stations set up to wrap you in a specific soundscape, but they play with your vision too---most stations have you peer through holes or cracks in the wall, though one station had us line up in front of mirrors and watch the reflection of the performance, while another station placed shards of glass at every peephole, so you watched the scene and the character's experience of the scene in a strange double-vision. A couple of the stations used tricks of the light---strobe effects that made the puppets' movements seem even more uncanny or imply violence; a haze of smoke or fabric to disguise the human "prowling" in the puppet-shape of a tiger.

(I always like when I can tell an artist is reacting to something I've seen before, and the Rousseau "The Dream" vibes in that scene were exquisite.)

I will say that “A White Bird in the House is an Omen of Death” was my favorite, not in the least because it featured a whole choreographed song (feat. a lovely articulated owl puppet, plus some very effective shadowplay work). However, “Through the Looking Glass” was beautifully up my alley, from the unique staging---this was the station where you watched the performance in a mirror---to the creative puppetry, and a meditation on loveliness that had some bite to it. “Broken Mirror” was more traditional in its puppet work, but it also had the most elaborate staging, a fully-realized world in miniature.

I keep going back to how enormously creative so many of these artists were, in ways I simply can't ignore. “Step on a Crack” didn't necessarily work for me, but I can't stop thinking about it---its trippy setup, the inhuman knit masks the creator used; the spines dangling, neon-colored, from the nearest tree as the protagonist recited lines about loving his mother with increasing, feverish and horrible energy. The glimpses I got during “An ill fate befalls those who pluck from fruit in their dreams” of the puppeteer's face---how she shut her eyes and turned away, as though she too was affected by the puppet's horror.

[ninadaily]

NINA DOBREV attending NEW YORK CITY BALLET FALL FASHION GALA 2024 in NEW YORK, USA on 09TH OCTOBER 2024.

[staticsnowfall]

michaela mabinty deprince (1995-2024)

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today, september 13th, 2024, the ballet world lost an extraordinary dancer and woman.

michaela mabinty deprince was born on january 6th, 1995, as mabinty bangura, in sierra-leone. she was orphaned, her parents passing to due to both direct and indirect causes of the civil war in her home country. she was demonized by her caretakers for her vitiligo, being called a “devil’s child”, and suffering from other forms of neglect and abuse. in 1999, deprince was adopted by an american couple along with another girl, and they were taken to new jersey, united states of america.

her hopes of becoming a ballerina had been planted when she found a ballerina on a magazine cover in her home country. she didn’t know of ballet at the time, but treasured the picture and dreamed of dancing. this dream blossomed into truth when she moved to the states, being put into ballet lessons soon after her arrival. deprince was a four-time participant in youth america grand prix, one of the largest ballet competitions in the united states. she was awarded a scholarship to study at the jaqueline kennedy onassis school of ballet, the associate school of american ballet theatre.

despite facing racial discrimination and other hardships in and out of the industry, deprince persisted in her dream of becoming a professional ballet dancer. in 2012, at the age of 16, she became the youngest member of dance theatre of harlem, and the next year, she joined the junior company of the dutch national ballet. she soon rose through the ranks, joining the main company and attaining the rank of soloist. she was the first dancer of african origin to ever join the company, and a shining advocate and role model for black women in ballet.

her other accomplishments include being an ambassador for war child holland, a dutch organization working to improve the wellbeing and resilience of children directly affected by war. she visited uganda and lebanon through the organization. she also appeared in beyoncé’s 2016 music video for ‘freedom’.

she will dance among all the stars in the sky. rest in peace beautiful michaela mabinty, you are already so missed. ♡

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Maria Tallchief and Francisco Moncion in the New York City Ballet production of The Firebird

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Randolph Fernandez | Alejandro Gonzalez | Marco Alessandro Corcella | Oklahoma City Ballet

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New York City Ballet - A Midsummer Nights Dream 1966

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Valdenir Costa - Atlantic City Ballet

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The world is yours!