Photo by Steven Caras “To many of her students, Danilova represented the elegant past of ballet; she was a true ballerina. Darci Kistler,...

Photo by Sasha, 1926 Today we open a two week run of Swan Lake at NYCB. Because my @immortaliconsofdance episode this week focuses on...

Congratulations to the dancers of NYCB! Today is the closing performance of the 2022-23 season which makes this the 170th post I’ve made...

Did you know ... Merrill Ashley debuted in Swan Lake with only 3 days of rehearsal over the course of one week. She talks about the...

One of my favorite stories that Suzanne tells is how her partnership with Jacques began before she met him. You can listen to her tell it...

“Her Odette manages to be both a ballerina’s holiday and a poetic and appealing work of art. In the quality of her movement she has...

It's a three show day at the DHKT so I'll present you with 3 posts featuring Patricia McBride as Odette. Get ready because the next 2...

"Miss Kent's performance was certainly one of the highlights of the evening. It is poetic in the extreme and wonderfully musical. Its...

"Tchaikovsky enjoyed the rehearsals for Swan Lake which began at the Bolshoi. He wrote to his brother, 'If you only knew how funny it is...

When Tanaquil LeClercq debuted as Odette in Swan Lake at 22 years old, the article in the Times the next day was titled: "Dancer...

Heading into a week of Balanchine's Swan Lake! On Diana Adams: “Her Odette is every inch the enchanted princess, imbued with a tender...

(10/10) Lincoln Kirstein told New York Times in 1986, “Our Swan Lake has never been traditional, anyway. Balanchine created it as an...

(9/10) A lot of people say Balanchine’s one-act Swan Lake is cold and stripped of emotion. Although many story elements are absent I...

(8/10) Between Martha’s wonderful captures, Balanchine’s choreography, and the the beauty of the dancers—whittling thousands of photos...

(6/10) I really love picture 4, the diagonal energy that begins in Andre’s back foot and extends all the way through Patty’s arabesque...

(6/10) Darci Kistler danced Odette in Balanchine’s Swan Lake for her SAB workshop performance in 1980 at 15 years old. At 16 she debuted...

(5/10) “Violette communicates the plight of this Odette through daringly held poses that impress a state of feeling upon the viewer...

Today is the 4th out of 10 Swan Lake performances this season. (bottom left) Melissa Hayden & Jacques d’Amboise. Martha Swope, 1967....

(2/10) When Balanchine mounted his own one-act production of Swan Lake in 1951, New York Times critic John Martin was “bewildered” by the...

(3/10) “[Allegra’s potrayal] is poetic in the extreme and wonderfully musical […] Surely here is one of the loveliest of Odettes.”—John...