Onstage This Week: NYCB and SFB Open Their Winter Seasons and More!

January 20, 2019

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

NYCB Winter Season Opens on Balanchine’s 115th Birthday

The winter ballet season is officially underway, and we couldn’t be more excited. New York City Ballet’s season opens January 22 and runs through March 3. Week one features two all-Balanchine programs. The first, opening appropriately on the 115th anniversary of the great choreographer’s birth, features the Stravinsky/Balanchine “Greek Trilogy”: Apollo, Orpheus and Agon. The second program includes three Balanchine works to Tchaikovsky: Serenade, Mozartiana and Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2, which showcases brand new costumes designed by NYCB’s Marc Happel.

San Francisco Ballet Opens With Don Quixote

San Francisco Ballet’s Repertory Season opens January 25 and runs through May 12. The first of the company’s eight programs is Don Quixote, on through February 3. Don Quixote is an SFB audience favorite; it was last performed in 2015, and the company is referring to it as “the stylish rom-com of classical ballet.” In the above video, principal Mathilde Froustey talks through Kitri’s Act III solo.

Sarasota Ballet Presents a World Premiere by Ricardo Graziano

Ellen Overstreet and Weslley Carvalho in Four Scottish Dances

Frank Atura, Courtesy Sarasota Ballet

January 25-28
marks Sarasota Ballet’s Transcending Movement program featuring four unique works: David Bintley’s Four Scottish Dances, Frederick Ashton’s Meditation from Thaïs and Varii Capricci (a company premiere), and a world premiere by principal dancer and resident choreographer Ricardo Graziano. Former American Ballet Theatre star Marcelo Gomes is also back in Sarasota as a guest performer.