| | Posted by Gwyneth Muller

Ashley Laracey, applying her make up in the dressing room before Thursday night’s performance.

Hey Guys!

As many of you already know, this past Tuesday marked the opening night of NYCB’s spring
season! As a tribute to Lincoln Kirstein, the company performed a series of all-Balanchine programs throughout the week, a total of ten ballets in all. It’s always a wonderful feeling to begin performing again after being away from the stage for a long period of time, but there was something particularly satisfying about coming back to perform so many classic Balanchine masterpieces all at once.

Of course, performing a week’s worth of classic Balanchine programming can also be quite a challenge. In fact, some of the most famous Balanchine works are also some of the most demanding in our repertory. Ballets like Symphony in C, Square Dance and Concerto Barocco are all known for their technical demands, as well as for the ways in which they test your stamina and endurance. It’s a good thing the female corps was feeling refreshed and energized last week, because we were all really dancing our butts off!

On another note, the company completely switched gears last night for the open dress rehearsal of Romeo + Juliet. After so many hours of rehearsing in the studio, it was really exciting for the company to finally perform the ballet in front of an audience. Since my cast won’t perform the ballet until Thursday night, I was able to watch last night’s rehearsal from the front of the house. It was so interesting to experience the ballet with people who were seeing it for the first time! Speaking of, were any of the winger readers in attendance last night?