Instead of trying to remember which were my favorite performances of the year, I’m just going back through my blog archives from January of this year and linking to the most memorable posts. More fun that way! A lot happened in a year…
January
Pacific Northwest Ballet made their debut at the Joyce; it was my first time seeing them live.
The Post‘s Page 6 announced that you know who and you know who are dating, and the ridiculous homewrecker attacks began.
Baryshnikov and Annie Liebovitz starred in a very cool Louis Vuitton ad.
February
I totally fell for New York City Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty.
…and Mark Sanchez 🙂
I found myself quoted in Colin Jarman’s book, Dancing With the Quotes.
I also fell for Sara Mearns’s Odette in Peter Martins’s Swan Lake.
On a personal note, my former judge, the esteemed Honorable Sylvia Pressler, passed away.
The Kings of Dance came to town.
Morphoses shocked the ballet world by announcing that Christopher Wheeldon was leaving the company.
March
My friend’s organization, Art for Change, held a benefit for Haiti after the earthquake.
Rasta Thomas’s Bad Boys of Dance announced that Danny Tidwell and SYTYCD’s Jacob Karr were joining the company.
Corella Ballet Castilla y Leon finally made their NYC debut!
I found myself actually getting press for liking Kate Gosselin – or for not hating Kate Gosselin rather – on Dancing With the Stars.
I fell for Keigwin + Company’s Runaway.
I was delighted to receive an email from NYCB ballerina Yvonne Borree’s aunt regarding of all things, my novel.
April
I had my first experience as a dance writer panelist! Thank you, Marc, from TenduTV!
Tiler Peck appeared on Dancing With the Stars in a Travis Wall routine, which everyone was so excited about. But it ended up amounting to not a whole lot…
Roberto Bolle danced a naked Giselle, in Italy of course.
May
New York City Ballet opened their spring season with premieres of Millepied’s Why Am I Not Where You Are and Ratmansky’s Namouna, both of which I liked, though Ratmansky’s had to grow a bit on me.
Baryshnikov returned to the stage.
I greatly enjoyed ABT’s new production, Lady of the Camellias, though most critics panned it.
June
ABT celebrated Alicia Alonso’s 90th birthday with three all-star Latin American casts (plus Natalia Osipova) dancing in Don Quixote.
Yvonne Borree gave her farewell performance at NYCB.
Bill T. Jones won a Tony for best choreographer for Fela!
Philip Neal gave his farewell performance at NYCB.
Natalia Osipova was mugged right outside of Lincoln Center.
Two of the greatest ballerinas in Europe – Osipova, and Alina Cojocaru – gave back to back Sleeping Beauty performances at ABT.
Albert Evans gave his farewell performance at NYCB.
Tap great Savion Glover made headlines by voicing his annoyance with Alastair Macaulay’s NY Times criticism of him – onstage, during a show.
Conductor Maurice Kaplow gave his farewell performance with NYCB.
Darci Kistler officially ended the era of the Balanchine-trained dancer with her farewell performance with NYCB.
July
Carlos Acosta announced his retirement from ballet and his foray into modern dance.
Alex Wong, probably the second greatest contestant ever on SYTYCD was injured and unable to finish the show.
My friend, Taylor Gordon, was profiled as a freelance ballet dancer in a New York Times article 🙂
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s beloved Denise Jefferson passed away.
Nilas Martins retired from NYCB oddly sans fanfare, sans criticism, sans a performance.
August
I interviewed tWitch about his role in the movie Step It Up. Fun fun interview!
I had a blast covering Ailey Camp.
I nearly fell over when Wendy Perron, esteemed E-I-C of Dance Magazine recommended Swallow on Twitter!
September
NYCB began their excellent “See the Music” series.
October
I loved Ashley Bouder’s Serenade.
Emerging Pictures’s awesomely exciting Ballet in Cinema series began with the Bolshoi’s Flames of Paris.
This cool new Lincoln Center-area street art sprouted up.
One of my favorite posts of the year, though it received no comments, was about Anne Fortier’s novel, Juliet. I jokingly daydreamed about it being made into a film, and which of my favorite ballet stars might take the lead.
November
ABT made an historic visit to Cuba and oh how I wished I could have gone with them.
I think I was the only person in the entire dance world to sympathize with Bristol Palin on Dancing With the Stars.
I had a blast covering New York So You Think You Can Dance auditions.
All of a sudden Black Swan was everywhere.
Nearly fell over again upon hearing Riccardo Cocchi and Yulia Zagoruychenko took the world Latin ballroom title – making them the first U.S. couple ever to do so.
December
My take on SugarPlumpGate.
Black Swan finally premiered which I didn’t love but was happy to have ballet brought back into the spotlight.
I was in awe of Alvin Ailey’s 50-dancer Revelations, staged in honor of the 50th anniversary of that dance. I also loved several other dances in their City Center season – Ailey’s Cry, Ronald K. Brown’s Dancing Spirit, and Geoffrey Holder’s The Prodigal Prince – just to name a few.
Robert Wilson / Roberto Bolle’s Perchance to Dream exhibit in Chelsea was a lot o’ frightening fun.
ABT’s new Nutcracker premiered, which I really enjoyed, almost as much as the Bolshoi’s.
Portman and Millepied revealed they are now engaged and expecting.
I had great fun, despite the crazy snowstorm, going down to Wall Street and covering Judith Jamison’s ringing of the closing bell at the NYSE.
Pretty busy year.
Happy New Year, everyone!