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Lincoln Center Dance Week Virtual Events Include New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Ballet Hispanico and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

POSTED BY
Evelyn Kanter

Lincoln Center Dance WeekNormally, Lincoln Center Dance Week would be live performances in the theaters of the world-famous cultural center.

Since 2020 is not normal, Dance Week is virtual, with performances filmed over more than 40 years. including  New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, The School of American Ballet,  Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Ballet Hispánico,

Ballet performances include such lead dancers as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Suzanne Farrell, Heather Watts and Peter Martins, and a special tribute performance to George Balanchine.

Dance Week is May 30 to June 4, with one or more live streamed performances each day.

Here’s the daily schedule, followed by detailed information about each performance.

All times listed are East Coast time, and available for 45 days after the premiere dates.

Sat 5/30 at 2pm: Ballet Hispánico

Sat 5/30 at 8pm: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, New York City Ballet

Sun 5/31 at 8pm: American Ballet Theatre at the Metropolitan Opera House

Mon 6/1 at 7pm: The School of American Ballet Virtual Workshop Performance Celebration

Tue 6/2 at 8pm: Coppélia, New York City Ballet

Wed 6/3 at 8pm: Tribute to Balanchine, New York City Ballet (photo above)

Thu 6/4 at 8pm: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Scroll down for details about each performance

Performances will be streamed at LincolnCenter.org and on Lincoln Center’s Facebook Page.

Some of these  broadcasts have not been seen in decades and are being unlocked as Lincoln Center offers gems from its media archives, including landmark New York City Ballet works by George Balanchine, the company’s co-founder, with some dancers in the roles that Balanchine created for them.

Dance Week also includes special themed Pop-Up Classrooms, with a full schedule to be announced closer to the start of Dance Week.at a later date.

Lincoln Center will also make available some of its most loved Broadway productions for free with Broadway Fridays, beginning on Friday, June 5, 2020 with Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel with the New York Philharmonic.

Dance Week Detailed Schedule

virtual dance performances

Lincoln Center photo of Ballet Hispanico

CARMEN.maquia and Club Havana: Ballet Hispánico 

Saturday, May 30, 2020 at 2pm EST
(2015 Lincoln Center at the Movies)
 
Ballet Hispánico will “whisk us away to contemporary dance’s hottest spot” (Washington Post) in this imaginative and theatrical showcase of Latin-inspired contemporary dance at its best. In Club Havana, the intoxicating rhythms of the conga, rumba, mambo, and cha cha are brought to life by choreographer Pedro Ruiz, himself a native of Cuba.
 
Hailed as a “masterpiece” by the Chicago Sun-Times, Gustavo Ramírez Sansano’s CARMEN.maquia is a Picasso-inspired, contemporary take on Bizet’s classic opera about a passionate gypsy.
 
Riveting from start to finish, the physically charged and sensual choreography fuses contemporary dance with nods to the Spanish paso doble and flamenco.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, New York City Ballet

Saturday, May 30, 2020 at 8pm EST
(1986 Live From Lincoln Center broadcast)
 
A beloved classic, George Balanchine’s enchanting full-evening adaptation of Shakespeare’s magical comedy is choreographed to music by the great German composer Felix Mendelssohn.
 
The ballet premiered on April 24, 1964, opening New York City Ballet’s first repertory season at the New York State Theater, which since has been renamed  the David H. Koch Theater.
 
The cast includes Maria Calegari (Titania), Ib Anderson (Oberon), and Jean-Pierre Frohlich (Puck). Robert Irving conducts the NYCB Orchestra.
Lincoln Center Dance Week

ABT photo Les Sylphides by Louis Peres

American Ballet Theatre at the Metropolitan Opera House

Sunday, May 31, 2020 at 8pm EST
(1978 Live From Lincoln Center broadcast)

An evening of repertory includes the Act III Grand Pas de Deux of Don Quixote with Natalia Makarova and Fernando Bujones, Michel Fokine’s Les Sylphides, set to music by Chopin, with Rebecca Wright, Marianna Tcherkassky and Ivan Nagy leading the cast, and George Balanchine’s plotless ballet Theme and Variations performed by Gelsey Kirkland and Mikhail Baryshnikov to the glorious Tchaikovsky score.

Rounding out the broadcast is Fokine’s Firebird, a magical tale of the legendary creature who helps two noble lovers overcome an evil sorcerer, set to an iridescent score by Stravinsky. 

lincoln center dance week

SAB photo Agnon courtesy Lincoln Center

The School of American Ballet Virtual Workshop Performance Celebration

Monday, June 1, 2020 at 7pm EST

The School of American Ballet premieres recent outstanding highlights of the School’s annual Workshop Performances at Lincoln Center’s Peter Jay Sharp Theater, with commentary and insight from the School’s artistic leaders, Jonathan Stafford and Kay Mazzo, distinguished alumni Justin Peck and Maria Kowroski, and SAB’s senior faculty member Suki Schorer.

This special event also includes the announcement of the 2020 Mae L. Wien Awards for Outstanding Promise, a distinction awarded to three senior students who show significant potential for high professional achievement.

Past performances to be screened in their entirety include Justin Peck’s In Creases and Jerome Robbins’s Circus Polka (both 2018), the pas de deux from George Balanchine’s Agon (2019 ) – pictured here – , and George Balanchine’s Scotch Symphony (2017).

Coppélia, New York City Ballet

Tuesday, June 2, 2020 at 8pm EST
(1978 Live From Lincoln Center broadcast)

Coppélia, considered one of the greatest comic ballets of the 19th Century, is the tale of a mad inventor and the life-like doll he creates.

Like The Nutcracker, the story is based on the writing of E.T.A. Hoffmann. George Balanchine choreographed his version with ballerina Alexandra Danilova (after Marius Petipa) in 1974, set to the 1870 score by French composer Léo Delibes.

This Live From Lincoln Center rebroadcast features the ballet’s original leading dancers, Patricia McBride, Helgi Tomasson, and Shaun O’Brien.

Tribute to Balanchine, New York City Ballet

Wednesday, June 3, 2020 at 8pm EST
(1983 Live From Lincoln Center broadcast)
 
After George Balanchine’s death on April 30, 1983, the New York City Ballet honored its founding genius in this tribute performance to the legendary choreographer, who co-founded NYCB in 1948 and created more than 120 works for his company.
 
In this Live From Lincoln Center rebroadcast, the company presents three of these ballets:
 
Vienna Waltzes to music by Johann Strauss II, Franz Lehar, and Richard Strauss, features Kyra Nichols and Sean Lavery, Heather Watts and Helgi Tomasson, Elyse Borne and Bart Cook, Karin von Aroldingen and Peter Martins, and Suzanne Farrell and Adam Lüders;
 
Mozartiana to music by Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky, is led by Suzanne Farrell, Victor Castelli, and Ib Anderson; and
 
Who Cares?, to music by George Gershwin as adapted and orchestrated by Hershy Kay, features Lourdes Lopez, Patricia McBride, Heather Watts.
 
Robert Irving conducts the NYCB Orchestra.
 
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photo courtesy Alvin Ailey Company

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: Chroma, Grace, Takademe, Revelations

Thursday, June 4, 2020 at 8pm EST
(2015 Lincoln Center at the Movies)
 
Witness an iconic masterpiece of American dance, Alvin Ailey’s Revelations, described by The New York Times as “one of the great works of the human spirit.”
 
This soulful tour de force draws on African-American spirituals, gospel songs, and holy blues.
 
The program also includes Wayne McGregor’s sumptuous Chroma, with orchestrations of songs by The White Stripes; Ronald K. Brown’s Grace, a powerful meeting of modern and West African dance to music by Duke Ellington, Roy Davis, and Fela Kuti; and Robert Battle’s humorous, high-flying Takademe.
 
Thank you to:

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s production of Revelations, Chroma, Grace, and Takademe for Lincoln Center at the Movies: Great American Dance is supported by a grant from the Howard Gilman Foundation.

Ballet Hispánico’s production of CARMEN.maquia and Club Havana for Lincoln Center at the Movies: Great American Dance is made possible by The Arnhold Foundation.

Special thanks to Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, Ballet Hispánico, New York City Ballet, The George Balanchine Trusts, and The School of American Ballet for their generosity.

New York City Ballet’s presentations are made possible through the cooperation of the American Guild of Musical Artists, American Federation of Musicians Local 802, Theatrical Protective Union Local No. One, Theatrical Wardrobe Union Local 764, and United Scenic Artists Local 829.

More ways to find Lincoln Center virtually

For digital offerings from Lincoln Center’s resident organizations, please visit LincolnCenter.org or individual websites.

Lincoln Center at Home is dedicated to maintaining connections to the arts during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A free, one-stop portal to all digital offerings from across the iconic campus, offerings also include Lincoln Center Pop-Up Classroom, and #ConcertsForKids, as well as an array of archival and livestream performances available for free and on demand at LincolnCenter.org and on Lincoln Center’s Facebook Page.

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