Tickets for the American Ballet Theatre Fall Season go on sale Monday at Koch Theatre, Lincoln Center. The season runs from October 16-27 and will celebrate Herman Cornejo’s 20 years with the company. There will be a special tribute on October 26 where he will be featured in Balanchine and Twyla Tharp works.
New works consist of a new Tharp piece created for Herman (her 17th for ABT, premiering on the opening night Gala), a work from Corps member Gemma Bond, and the New York Premiere of Jessica Lang’s Let Me Sing Forevermore, set to a medley of songs recorded by Tony Bennett.
Revivals consist of Balanchine’s Apollo and Clark Tippet’s Some Assembly Required. Apollo premiered with Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1928 and had its ABT debut in 1943. ABT last performed it in 2012. Some Assembly Required premiered in 1989 and ABT last performed it in 2009.
ABT performed Balanchine’s Theme and Variations numerous times over the past 30 years. He created the work for Ballet Theatre in 1947. Also returning is Alexei Ratmansky’s The Seasons, which premiered in May (curtain call photo above). I was disappointed by the work, but look forward to seeing it again as it is fast paced with plenty of action. ABT will bring back Jessica Lang’s Garden Blue, which premiered last fall. I thought the work lacked cohesion, meaning, and context. Also returning from the previous Fall Season is Michelle Dorrance’s Dream within a Dream (deferred). Tharp’s Deuce Coupe, set to music by The Beach Boys returns from the Met season.
In the schedule I received, Alban Lendorf is among the Principal Dancers pictured. He has been out with injuries three of the past four Met seasons. There are no photos of David Hallberg and Daniil Simkin.
See the ABT announcement for more detail.
2021 Met Season Changes
Through all of the ups and downs in the world, my eight-week ABT season tickets are an oasis, providing a constant in my life for years. Although it is over a year away, I dread the changes to the ABT Met season schedule in 2021. As I noted last September, the Metropolitan Opera will make a stupid and selfish change in its schedule by adding a three-week break in February, extending its season into late May (in addition to adding Sunday performances and eliminating Monday performances). The extension of the Metropolitan Opera season really messes up ABT’s spring schedule.
Sources tell me that ABT is considering a two-week season at the Koch Theater starting in early June after the New York City Ballet season, followed by a five-week Met Opera House season. Ballet fans will miss one week of ABT while dancers will have one less week of work, consisting of eight performances. As I noted in my article referenced above, ABT is already light on the number of performances relative to other major companies and this will add to the shortage.
I, too, will very much miss ABT’s eight-week spring season at the Metropolitan Opera House. It’s something I always look forward to year after year. There’s nothing else quite like it in the dance world!
I suppose they plan to shrink the season down to seven weeks because they can’t fill up the theater anymore, especially during the first few weeks of the season when they tend to perform mixed bills and/or more avant-garde works. But why can’t they perform all seven weeks at the Met? They won’t necessarily fill all the seats at the Koch Theater either. I remember seeing a shocking number of empty seats during their fall season last year. On the other hand, I think having Sunday performances could turn out to be good. This should hopefully bring in more audience members—maybe tourists, families and people who don’t go to the ballet regularly. Please let us know more when you hear anything.
Thanks so much for your blog and all the lovely photos. And I hope you have a nice summer.