Ashley Bouder News

The Danish choreographer August Bournonville, who predates the NYCBallet's founding by a century, still delights audiences with a repertory cultivated from his Royal Danish Ballet. His aesthetic sparks with joyful spontaneity, and even his most tragic works seem lightly brushed with a pastel warmth. The New York City Ballet attempts to reconcile their modernist magnitude with Bournonville's unselfconscious vitality in their 'Hear the Dance Denmark' program, which includes first act divertissements and the second act 'La Sylphide.'

The spring 2015 season of the New York City Ballet at the David H. Koch Theater in Lincoln Center boasts not one but two programs featuring George Balanchine's minimalist masterpieces that are affectionately referred to as the "leotard ballets" by dancers and devotees alike. On the evening of May 1st, "Balanchine Black & White 1" proved once again that plotless ballets stripped of elaborate sets and costumes do indeed achieve Mr. B's goal of focusing on the movement and the music. What is so remarkable is that each of the three works on the bill, all of them with the dancers in practice clothes, is uniquely compelling. This feast of Mr. B's earliest neoclassical creations holds the audience in thrall from start to finish without ever becoming repetitious.

In an incredible coup for Ballet Kelowna, New York City's finest dancers will travel west to light up Kelowna's Community Theatre (1375 Water Street) with the anticipated Canadian premiere of The Ashley Bouder Project, tonight, March 3 at 7:30pm. New York City Ballet Principal Dancer Ashley Bouder, and an elite ensemble of the company's greatest artists, will present a performance experience of the highest caliber in the only Canadian engagement.

New York City Ballet's 'All Balanchine III, Hear the Dance: Italy' features a perfect pairing of pieces that brim with Balanchine's incomparable sense of showmanship. Ballet is an art form, but Mr. B knew that it can also serve as sheer entertainment without losing integrity. Beyond that, he was a master of making us 'see the music, hear the dance', as he put it. This double bill, with works set to scores by great Italian composers, does precisely that.

The NYCBallet performs 'Square Dance,' and 'Harlequinade.'

In an incredible coup for Ballet Kelowna, New York City's finest dancers will travel west to light up Kelowna's Community Theatre (1375 Water Street) with the anticipated Canadian premiere of The Ashley Bouder Project, March 3 at 7:30pm. New York City Ballet Principal Dancer Ashley Bouder, and an elite ensemble of the company's greatest artists, will present a performance experience of the highest caliber in the only Canadian engagement.

An evening of duets, for Dance from the Heart will be this coming Monday, January 26 at 7:30pm at Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue (at 19th Street). ?Dance from the Heart (#dancefromtheheart) will feature legendary dance companies and today's most sought-after choreographers. The evening is produced by and benefits Dancers Responding to AIDS, a program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Tickets are still available for this very special event.

An evening of duets will take a unique twist as fiery violinist Charles Yang joins Marcelo Gomes, the Brazilian-born principal dancer for American Ballet Theatre, in an explosive performance at Dance from the Heart on Monday, January 26 at 7:30pm at Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue (at 19th Street).

Dance from the Heart, produced by and benefiting Dancers Responding to AIDS, returns on Monday, January 26, 2015 at 7:30pm, with the rare opportunity to see on one stage the talents of American Ballet Theatre, Parsons Dance, Dorrance Dance, choreographer Sonya Tayeh and more at the Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue (at 19th Street).

On the first ever World Ballet Day, October 1st 2014, I postponed watching the video stream of five top ballet companies in favor of attending what turned out to be a mesmerizing mixed bill featuring Balanchine ballets to the music of Stravinsky at the Koch Theater in Lincoln Center. YouTube can wait for me to catch up on the video stream later, but being in the audience at a live performance is always a one-time experience never to be recaptured except in the mind's eye.

With influences of Italian divertissements to the Russian avant-garde, the New York City Ballet's All Balanchine program presents the pancultural genius of their founding artist.

Simone Orlando, Ballet Kelowna's newly appointed Artistic Director & CEO, proudly announces the Company's extraordinary 2014/15 Season in celebration of its long-awaited return to the stage. The versatile and dynamic company will perform a rich and varied programme of works with highlights including two world premieres – one each by Simone Orlando and former Royal Winnipeg Ballet dancer and award-winning choreographer Shawn Hounsell – an anticipated Canadian premiere, performed by New York City Ballet Principal Dancer Ashley Bouder and artists from the New York City Ballet; a Company premiere from internationally acclaimed choreographer James Kudelka; coupled with the introduction of Lee Dances – a presentation of excerpts from award-winning works created for the esteemed Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award.

The School of American Ballet's Workshop Performance Benefit 2014 on Tuesday, June 3, 2014 celebrated 50 years of these annual performances and raised nearly $860,000 for scholarships and school programs. The evening began with cocktails at 5:30pm in Juilliard's Morse Hall, followed by the presentation of the Mae L. Wien Award for Outstanding Service to Dena Abergel, SAB faculty member and NYCB Children's Ballet Master, and Wien Awards for Outstanding Promise to Lyrica Blankfein, Christopher Grant, Baily Jones, and Addie Tapp. Scroll down for photos from the event!

This week, iconic New Yorker Sarah Jessica Parker will debut a new role: radio host. For two days, the award-winning actress will step in for Leonard Lopate, host of 'The Leonard Lopate Show,' WNYC's Peabody Award-Winning show that features a wide range of cultural conversations'.

On the occasion of the 15th anniversary of Youth America Grand Prix, known to all as YAGP, the international competition founded by former Bolshoi principals Larissa and Gennadi Saveliev offered a three-evening celebration at the Koch from April 9th to 11th 2014 that completely converted this former naysayer into a diehard fan. All of my complaints from 2012 and 2013 have been addressed.

With Fashion Week 2014 under way in the tents at Lincoln Center from February 6th to 13th, New York City Ballet dusted off Peter Martins' 2012 tribute to iconic designer Valentino for the evening performance at Koch Theater on Saturday, February 8th. A description of 'Bal de Couture' on the company's web site enthused that we would feel as though we were 'on a runway at the ballet'. Not so much. The unwieldy black and white ball gowns with red petticoats, described in a handout available in the lobby as 'dazzling', managed to make the svelte ballerinas appear to be thick-waisted as they maneuvered through Peter Martins' uninspired choreography along with male dancers in black suits. Three dancers in tutus darted in and out of the scenes set to the waltz and the polonaise from Tschaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, looking as though they had ended up at the wrong party. The central section, a cliched love triangle to Tschaikovsky's Elegie in G for Strings, went on far too long - as often happens in ballets by Martins.

I promise I'm going to give you a complete and serious review of the New York City Ballet's performance at the Koch Theatre on Saturday, February 1st 2014. However, I can't resist starting with the two most endearing and unforgettable moments of the evening. First, a pair of prodigiously talented little girls danced with astonishing precision and panache as the Pearly Princesses in Balanchine's "Union Jack". Kudos to Natalie Glassie and Phoebe Golfinos who are surely headed for stellar careers if the promise they showed that night does indeed come to full flower.

Nearly 31 years have passed since George Balanchine, the prolific and pioneering 20th century choreographer, died on April 30th 1983. Yet the New York City Ballet, the company he co-founded with Lincoln Kirstein 80 years ago, continues to revere and remember him with equal parts fondness and awe. That legacy of love and respect for Mr. B was especially evident on January 25th 2014, the 4th annual celebration of "Saturday at the Ballet with George" in honor of his birthday. He was actually born on January 22nd 1904 but scheduling the event on a Saturday allows for a daylong series of workshops and performances, all of them affordable and some of them free.

Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) and TenduTV announced today that the highly successful theatrical documentary, Ballet's Greatest Hits, is now available for purchase ($14.99 to $19.99) and rental ($3.99 to $4.99) on iTunes in over 20 countries, including The United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and South Africa. Ballet's Greatest Hits is also available for purchase and rental on Amazon, Google Play and YouTube. In addition, this is TenduTV's first new release on the African continent.

AOL On Originals, AOL's premium video platform, launched its newest documentary series, city.ballet, today, offering a rare behind-the-scenes look at the day-to-day lives of the elite roster of artists who perform with the New York City Ballet.