Company Life

Our #7Fave Ballets

August 15, 2016


Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s Olivia Kelly and Ruslan Mukhambetkaliyev in Kylián’s Petite Mort (photo via PBT)

Today, the Twittersphere was buzzing with people sharing their #7fave things: movies, TV shows, you name it. Not to be left out, the Pointe team immediately convened to determine each of our #7fave ballets—and the answers might surprise you. We all agree that these lists could change at a moment’s notice, since it’s nearly impossible to pick just seven ballets!

Amy Brandt, Editor in Chief:

“I’m basing these answers off ballets I would see over and over again,” she says.

  1. George Balanchine’s Jewels. “I’ve favored each of the three movements at different stages of my life: “Rubies” as a youngster, “Diamonds” later in my career. Now, I’m obsessed with “Emeralds,” probably because I never got to dance it. It’s the one that got away.”

  2. Giselle

  3. Balanchine’s Serenade

  4. Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet

  5. Jerome Robbins’ Glass Pieces

  6. Alexei Ratmansky’s Concerto DSCH

  7. Jiří Kylián’s Petite Mort


New York City Ballet in Jerome Robbins’ Glass Pieces (photo by Paul Kolnik)

Madeline Schrock, Managing Editor:

  1. William Forsythe’s In the middle, somewhat elevated

  2. George Balanchine’s Apollo

  3. Wayne McGregor’s Chroma

  4. Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon

  5. Antony Tudor’s La Fille mal gardée

  6. Jerome Robbins’ West Side Story Suite

  7. Justin Peck’s Belles-Lettres


The Mikhailovsky’s Anastasia Soboleva and Victor Lebedev in La Fille mal gardée (photo by Stas Levshin)

Hannah Foster, Assistant Editor—Research:

  1. Wayne McGregor’s Eden/Eden. “It was my first introduction to contemporary ballet and it blew my mind when I was a kid.”

  2. Christopher Wheeldon’s Carousel (A Dance)

  3. “Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella, mostly for the music.”
  4. Jerome Robbins’ The Cage
  5. Mercedes’ variation in Don Quixote
  6. Manon’s Act 2 party variation
  7. George Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux

Suzannah Friscia, Assistant Editor:

  1. Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet

  2. Antony Tudor’s La Fille mal gardée

  3. Jerome Robbins’ Fancy Free

  4. Robbin’s Interplay

  5. Justin Peck’s Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes

  6. George Balanchine’s Slaughter on Tenth Avenue

  7. Christopher Wheeldon’s choreography for An American in Paris


Pacific Northwest Ballet principals Karel Cruz and Maria Chapman in Wheeldon’s After the Rain pas de deux (photo by Angela Sterling)

Nicole Loeffler-Gladstone, Assistant Editor:

  1. George Balanchine’s Episodes

  2. Christopher Wheeldon’s After the Rain pas de deux

  3. August Bournonville’s La Sylphide

  4. Justin Peck’s Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes

  5. The “The Dying Poet” pas de deux from Lynn Taylor-Corbett’s Great Galloping Gottschalk 

  6. Giselle

  7. Sylvie Guillem doing anything choreographed by Mats Ek

What are your #7fave ballets? Tweet us @pointe_magazine, or let us know in the comments!

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