Onstage This Week: Sara Mearns at the Pillow, Another Star-Studded Week at The Joyce and More!

August 11, 2019

Wonder what’s going on in ballet this week? We’ve rounded up some highlights.

The Joyce Theater Ballet Festival Gets the Royal Treatment

The Joyce Theater’s Ballet Festival, curated by a team of colleagues from The Royal Ballet, continues this week. Program C, curated by frequent Royal Ballet designer Jean-Marc Puissant, runs August 13-15. It features artists of The Royal Ballet and American Ballet Theatre in Gemma Bond‘s Then and Again and excerpts from Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Elite Syncopations. Also on the program is Maurice Bejart’s Song of a Wayfarer, staged by Maina Gielgud and starring ABT’s David Hallberg and New York City Ballet’s Joseph Gordon. The duet, about a young man and his destiny, was originally created for Rudolf Nureyev and Paolo Bortoluzzi.

Program D, curated by Royal Ballet principal Edward Watson, rounds out the festival and runs August 16-18. Watson will take the stage alongside fellow Royal principal Sarah Lamb, NYCB principal Maria Kowroski, and the ubiquitous Robbie Fairchild in a theatrical bill complete with new works by James Alsop and Laila Diallo, plus Wayne McGregor’s Qualia, Javier de Fruto’s duet 3 with D and Arthur Pita’s Cristaux.

Sara Mearns Headlines Her Own Program at Jacob’s Pillow

New York City Ballet principal Sara Mearns explores new territory August 14-18 onstage at Jacob’s Pillow in her genre-blending program, Sara Mearns: Beyond Ballet. In a packed mixed bill, she’ll be performing solos by Martha Graham and Christopher Williams, as well as Liz Gerring’s Duet with fellow NYCB principal Ashley Bouder. The program also features the world premiere of Opulence, Mearns’s collaboration with post-modern dancer Jodi Melnick, and the return of No.1, a piece created with Honji Wang of the French hip-hop duo Wang Ramirez.

The Black Iris Project Premieres in Houston with a Free Performance

The Black Iris Project, an NYC-based ballet collaborative that showcases black stories and history through dance, will give its first performance in Texas at Houston’s Miller Outdoor Theatre on August 16. This free-to-the-public evening features the world premiere of Black Iris Project founding choreographer Jeremy McQueen’s The Storm. The new ballet, with a cast of both Houston– and NYC–based dancers, is inspired by African American experiences of The Middle Passage, as well as the devastating Hurricanes Katrina and Harvey. Also on the program are McQueen’s Black Iris and A Mother’s Rite.

China’s Guangzhou Ballet Presents an Epic Program at Lincoln Center

Members of Guangzhou Ballet in Goddess of the Luo River.

Courtesy Michelle Tabnick PR

The Chinese ballet company Guangzhou Ballet tours Lincoln Center for performances August 17 and 18 at the David H. Koch Theater. The bill features two ballets of grand proportions: Carmina Burana, Chinese/American choreographer Jiang Qi‘s contemporary interpretation of the medieval poem, to Carl Orff’s legendary score; and the Chinese folk legend Goddess of the Luo River.