Looking back, spotting front
Nutcracker 2025 and Winter Season 2026
George Balanchine revolutionized ballet through his choreography but also in how he trained dancers to perform the work- bigger, faster, higher. He did this by instituting specific technical details: Turning from a long, deep fourth with the back leg straight, holding each finger out distinctively, like the petals of a flower, spotting front rather than where one is traveling, because then you stay open and full and never loose connection to the audience. To allow for all of this, this speed and size and reach while dancing, dancers trained this way keep their weight forward, on the balls of the feet. New York City Ballet is leaning forward in it’s own way right now, preparing for their winter season, right now. But before we look ahead, we must think back to whats already happened, just like how Balanchine needed his storied Russian ballet heritage to build his ballet of the future.
Looking Back- Nutcracker 2025
The great thing about Nutcracker is that it comes back every year. So if you didn’t get to see Dominika Afanasenkov or Kloe Walker in their Dewdrop debuts, or Olivia Mackinnon in her first Sugar Plum, or Olivia Bell’s Marzipan or Ava Sautter’s Coffee, have no fear. Nutcracker 2026 starts in under 11 months!
Shout out to Afanasenkov- you can spot her in Dance Magazine’s 2026 25 to Watch, where she is specifically applauded for her interpretation of Balanchine’s Errante, or below, in her first performance of Dewdrop.
Spotting Front
Beginning Tuesday, when the company returns to the stage for their winter season, accompanied by a cascade of debuts. Emily Kikta (partnered by Roman Mejia in his own debut of the title role) is rehearsing for the Siren in George Balanchine’s Prodigal Son, coached by the former principal Maria Kowroski. The Siren is a role of power and icy cold stares. She must be seductive without having personal attachment. She doesn’t want the Son- she wants to weaken him with her long legs and cool beauty, rob him of all his earthly belongs down to (most of) the clothes off his back, and leave.
Besides Kika and Mejia, the ballet has a few stacked casts this run: the other dancers with performing the Siren this run are principals Miriam Miller and Sara Mearns, alongside Anthony Huxley and Daniel Ulbricht as the Sons, respectively.
Also on the program with Prodigal is artist-in-residence Alexei Ratmansky’s Paquita. Isabella LaFreniere is making her debut in the principal ballerina role January 21, alongside soloist Ryan Tomas (I saw the pair in Nutcracker. They are also tackling the return of August Bournonville’s pas de deux from Flower Festival in Genzano). Opening night has Mira Nadon with Chun Wai Chan as the leads. What can be said about Nadon that hasn’t already? She is divine in everything but Paquita is such a great vehicle for her whiz-bang technique and total abandon. I can’t say I love the costumes (the bodices are clunky and cut off dancer’s lines, but the tutu’s skirts I enjoy) but, below, Nadon makes every step so special, and intentional, I hardly notice.
Beyond reprising Paquita, Nadon has a busy week, including her NYC debut of the Waltz Girl in Balanchine’s Serenade.
Balanchine’s ballet Raymonda Variations is a box-of-chocolates: the choreography and frilly costumes are the chocolate, consistently sweet, holding it all together. The soloists, who dance interspersed with the corps until bursting out with their variations, are the soft or melty or rich fillings that make the ballet shine. Raymonda returns with a healthy dosage of corps ladies debuting in the solos, including Walker, Bell, Sautter, Mia Williams, Grace Scheffel, Allegra Inch, and Rommie Tomasini.
Also returning this season is Le Tombeau de Couperin, a ballet for 8 couples and no principals or soloists. The ballet was part of the company’s 1975 Ravel celebration, completed early on in the hectic process a festival entails. In the whirl of completing many new ballets in a short period of times, Balanchine actually almost forgot the ballet until Rosemary Dunleavy, a ballet mistress, got the cast back together to 1) remember it, and, 2) get it ready for the stage. The cast was enthusiastic- the Baroque-inflicted choreography and sense of community was great fun, with shifting formations and creative breakups of the group.
The two ballets premiering this season are the companies 499th and 500th original productions- that’s an average of 6.41 ballets a year over 78 years!!
Justin Peck’s, titled The Wind-Up and set to Beethoven music (and interesting choice- Balanchine himself avoided the master’s work, regarding it as “impossible” to choreography to) premiers first. Notably, corps member Mia Williams is first cast. Fitting, as the place that I first noticed her in was in this video of her in Peck’s Belles-Lettres.
Notably, new soloist Naomi Corti shares a role with the company’s current master of technical roles with turns and jumps Tiler Peck. Corti is tall and almost Amazonian in her length and power, but her casting (she also shared a role with Emma Von Enck for Peck’s Heatscape) suggests that she is a skilled allegro dancer in her own right. Below, she tears up the stage in Gilbert Bolden III’s new piece at 2025’s Vail Dance Festival.
One more Peck ballet I’m excited for is Everywhere We Go- I am still obsessed with this video of Kikta leaking and kicking her head to Sufjan Stevens.
Ballets to Run to
Antique Epigraphs- either cast looks great. They are jam-packed with talent from across the ranks in the principal roles.
Walpurgisnacht- Mearns returns to the principal ballerina role (created for Suzanne Farrell) which she approaches with attack and fluidity, below, and Miller makes her debut. You can expect her to bring a delicate grace to the virtuoso role that requires everything from adagio skills to, as Mearns says, a jumpy, bravura “men’s solo.” I’m also excited to see Allegra Inch debuting as a demisoloist in the ballet.
Flower Festival in Genzano PDD: besides LaFreniere and Tomas, the couples tackling this ballet are Von Enck (a dancer born for Bournonville if there ever was one) and KJ Takahashi, and Ashley Hod with David Gabriel.
Any and every ballet with the irreplaceable Megan Fairchild! She retires this spring after a legendary career. This season holds her final Raymonda, her final Russian girl in Serenade; get tickets to see her while she’s still here.
Later this season, Sleeping Beauty returns to the stage. So far, Indiana Woodward has confirmed that Von Enck will (finally!!!) be debuting Princess Aurora. Taylor Stanley has also posted a photo of themselves in the Carabosse (the ballet equivalent of Maleficent) costume. I’m dreaming of those two to be cast with Kikta’s Lilac Fairy (the “good” fairy) because then I can splurge and buy tickets (full lengths sell out more) guilt-free.
EDITED: Mira Nadon has hinted at her own debut in Sleeping Beauty as Aurora- she stunned this past summer in the Rose Adagio in Vail.
(End of edits)
Hopefully I will have time to dive into that, and the other ballets the company will be performing this winter. That's all for now- have a wonderful day and stay warm.