International Stars Shine at Lincoln Center
It’s a big day for balletomanes here in New York City—ABT’s City Center season is in full swing, with Alexei Ratmansky’s highly anticipated world premiere debuting tonight. Downtown, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet is dancing up a storm at The Joyce. But we’ll be attending the Stars of the 21st Century gala, a one-night-only event on the Koch Theater stage. We’re most looking forward to the U.S. debut of Olga Smirnova, the Bolshoi first soloist who has captivated audiences in Moscow and London as the lead in Diamonds, among other plum roles, in her first year out of the Vaganova Academy. Sarah Lamb and Eric Underwood of The Royal Ballet will bring excerpts of Wayne McGregor’s Limen to the U.S. for the first time. The Bolshoi’s Svetlana Zakharova and Andrei Merkuriev will perform Edwaard Liang’s Distant Cries, about which DM editor in chief Wendy Perron wrote “fit Zakharova’s elegant, slippery way of moving like a glove.” We’re thrilled to see Alicia Graf Mack and Jamar Roberts (who, thank goodness, has rejoined Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater after a season’s hiatus) in Judith Jamison’s Reminiscin’ (and hoping it’s “A Case of You,” a gut-wrenching duet that so clearly expresses their lyricism and fluid strength). The evening will also serve as a(nother) farewell to Vladimir Malakhov, the beloved former ABT star who directs Staatsballett Berlin, who will give his last New York performance in Preljocaj’s Le Parc.
