NEW YORK CITY BALLET

Tonight I followed up the American Ballet Theater's Swan Lake with the New York City Ballet. Their program included Who Cares? by George Balanchine. I saw Who Cares? in Kansas City this past Spring and it was interesting to see another company do the same piece. Especially interesting because the New York City Ballet was founded by Balanchine himself! His choreography is truly spectacular and it is a joy to watch.

Tonight the program consisted of Christopher Wheeldon's After the Rain, Alexey Miroshnichenko's The Lady With the Little Dog, and George Balanchine's Who Cares?

I was lucky enough to sit next to a long time patron of the New York City Ballet and a woman employed at Lincoln Center. They explained to me that the last of the Balanchine ballerinas, Darci Kistler, was retiring at the end of this weekend. She is married to NYCB ballet master, Peter Martins.

The most fascinating thing about ballet companies, to me, is that dancers spend their entire careers working in one company. Darci Kistler has been at the New York City Ballet company since 1979 and has been a principal dancer since 1982. Tonight my favorite female principal was Wendy Whelen (principal since 1991) and my favorite male principal was Amar Ramasar.

Anyway, fabulousness (click to enlarge):