Ballet Season 2019

Another spring season at American Ballet Theatre has come and gone! This was my fourth year to buy the 3-show pass with Alexa, which means I've watched 12 different ballets now. Technically 14 if you include the two I've seen with New York City Ballet! It's an annual tradition I truly look forward to and 100% believe is worth it. As we do each year, we chose ballets based on our favorite performers, Stella Abrera and Misty Copeland (Jeffrey Cirio, we missed you!), and they did not disappoint. I feel like every time I see Stella dance, I fangirl over her more and more. If you've never been to the ballet before and want to see at least one show, she is the one to watch in my humble opinion. 

Whipped Cream • When this ballet's revival was set to debut in 2017 with American Ballet Theatre, Alexa and I were not interested. But since we were running out of new ballets to see and Stella had received such rave reviews for her performances in it, we thought – let's give it a try! It ended up being a lot of fun but totally as weird as we expected it to be. It's about a boy who who overeats at a candy shop, gets sick and starts to hallucinate sweets coming to life in the form of Princess Praline, Princess Tea Flower, Prince Coffee, and the marching Marzipan. It's a bit trippy but the set and costumes are so colorful and Stella was fantastic as usual. I'm glad we finally saw it!

Jane Eyre • Alexa was sick on the day of the show unfortunately so her sister, Rachel, came with me instead! It was fun to catch up and see the debut of Jane Eyre together. Having read the book, I had a lot of reservations about how this could possible play out as a ballet. In short, I was impressed! They did a wonderful job of capturing the important moments and conveying them through dance, which is no easy feat given all that happens. I do think knowing the story ahead of time helped so don't be afraid to read the story in the program book before the show starts. The dancing was beautiful and Misty Copeland was wonderful in the role of Jane. 

Manon • This ballet wasn't familiar to us at all but we picked it because of Stella and the title (if you're a Throne of Glass fan, you'll understand). Even though it wasn't a favorite, I do think it was one of the most provocative and saddest ballets that I've seen. I'm usually not a fan of Hee Seo, a principle ballerina who plays the lead role here, but wow I really liked her in this one. I was impressed by her flexibility and how she moved her body with such fragility and grace. Stella was perfect in the role of mistress as her solo scenes required a bit more sass and humor, which she delivered on. It's also the longest of the three ballets I watched, running at 2.5 hours so if you want to see this one, I'd recommend going on a Friday night instead of a Monday night like we did!

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I can't wait to do this again next year!