Updating My Lists . . .

I am a maker of lists, and I have decided that the summer months present a good opportunity to update my lists.

On December 14, 2008, I listed the ballet performances Andrew and I had attended from February 2006 through mid-December 2008. The list was not a long one—we had attended only seven ballet performances during that period, a period that covered almost three years—but our pace of ballet attendance has increased significantly since we moved to Boston in August 2008. Indeed, three of the seven ballet performances that appear on my list from December 14, 2008, occurred after our temporary relocation to Boston.

Since December’s list, we have attended another six ballet performances, almost as many as we had attended the previous three years. In fact, we almost attended a seventh ballet performance in the last few months, but we had to skip Boston Ballet’s “The Sleeping Beauty” owing to my study schedule.

Boston has a fine ballet company, while Minneapolis does not. Consequently, Andrew and I have decided to continue to take advantage of our presence in Boston by attending as many Boston Ballet programs as we can.

Next school term, we plan to catch four programs by Boston Ballet: “Giselle”; “The Nutcracker”; “Coppelia”; and an all-Balanchine program.

It is possible that we may catch one or two New York City Ballet programs next term, too.

Below are the ballet performances Andrew and I have attended since my earlier list.

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New York City Ballet
New York State Theater
New York

Chiaroscuro (Francesco Geminiani/Lynne Taylor-Corbett)
Papillons (Robert Schumann/Peter Martins)
Concerto DSCH (Dmitri Shostakovich/Alexei Ratmansky)
Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet (Johannes Brahms-Arnold Schoenberg/George Balanchine)

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Miami City Ballet
City Center
New York

Square Dance (Antonio Vivaldi-Arcangelo Corelli/George Balanchine)
Rubies (Igor Stravinsky/George Balanchine)
Symphony In C (Georges Bizet/George Balanchine)

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New York City Ballet
New York State Theater
New York

Swan Lake (Peter Illich Tchaikovsky/George Balanchine)
The Steadfast Tin Soldier (Georges Bizet/George Balanchine)
“Romeo And Juliet” Balcony Scene (Sergei Prokofiev/Sean Lavery)
Slaughter On Tenth Avenue (Richard Rodgers/George Balanchine)

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Boston Ballet
Wang Theatre
Boston

Emeralds (Gabriel Faure/George Balanchine
Rubies (Igor Stravinsky/George Balanchine)
Diamonds (Peter Illich Tchaikovsky/George Balanchine)

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Boston Ballet
Wang Theatre
Boston

The Prodigal Son (Sergei Prokofiev/George Balanchine)
Spectre De La Rose (Carl Maria Von Weber/Mikhail Fokine)
Afternoon Of A Faun (Claude Debussy/Vaslav Nijinsky)

[By design, Andrew and I skipped the final work on the program, a new staging of “The Rite Of Spring”.]

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The Royal Ballet
Kennedy Center Opera House
Washington

Manon (Jules Massenet/Kenneth MacMillan)

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I’m not sure I even like ballet, but I certainly like some of George Balanchine’s work, and I certainly appreciate the level of artistry at New York City Ballet, a company that can dance rings around every other company I have seen.

A week ago, when I saw The Royal Ballet for the first time, I was dumbfounded how SLOW and HEAVY and IMPRECISE the dancing was. The Royal Ballet was the very antithesis of New York City Ballet, a pack of mules compared to thoroughbreds.