REVIEWS

Alastair Macaulay, The New York Times

“New York Theater Ballet is a chamber troupe addicted to modernism, staging works by choreographers, past and present, who have extended and challenged the pure-dance aspects of dance theater. Because plenty of its works are by the dead — Vaslav Nijinsky, Frederick Ashton, Antony Tudor, Agnes de Mille, Merce Cunningham, Jerome Robbins, James Waring — it’s easy to think of it as a nostalgic troupe, picking up small-scale old pieces as an alternative to the ubiquitous Balanchine uptown.

Yet this isn’t nostalgia; it’s active curiosity. Theater Ballet likes its dances tough and lean, with very few wow endings or love stories. Its artistic director is a woman, and it has a good track record in commissioning new dances from other women choreographers. And it likes its music live.

The program it presented on Friday and Saturday, at Florence Gould Hall, exemplified this. On paper, three pieces by Jerome Robbins (usually Mr. Accessible) and a world premiere by Richard Alston (who, at 69, is Britain’s most senior acclaimed choreographer) may look undemanding. In performance, they proved dense, complex, uncompromising: dances about dance and dancing, laden with intricate choreographic detail with an emphasis on tight-knit musicality.”

Deborah Jowitt, Arts Journal

“The dancers of NYTB perform Dark Elegies scrupulously and sensitively. A great achievement. I’m greatly impressed by these dancers-their skill, their attention to style, detail, and nuance.”

Gia Kourlas, The New York Times

“New York Theater Ballet may be small, but its repertory is mighty. For the latest installment of the Legends & Visionaries series, Diana Byer, the artistic director, dusted off some of the company’s amiable works by an array of accomplished choreographers.”

Holly Kerr, Broadway World

“One of New York City's cultural treasures.

New York Theatre Ballet is not only creating beautiful dancers for the professional dance arena but future stage managers, lighting directors, costumers, and dance directors and, most importantly, a new generation of choreographers.

New York Theatre Ballet, founded in 1978 by artistic director Diana Byer, continues to enrich dance education with it groundbreaking and unique approach to live performance for children, building future audiences for dance for many years to come.”

Brian Siebert, The New York Times

“Between Ms. Tanowitz’s piece and a premiere last year by Mr. Alston, New York Theater Ballet is producing new works as good as — and often better than — its bigger siblings.

After intermission, the critic and historian David Vaughn entertained with a reading of Remy Charlip’s “Ten Imaginary Dances.” Then came two more substantial dances: Richard Alston’s “Light Flooding Into Darkened Rooms” and Pam Tanowitz’s “Short Memory.” These two works, the highlights of performances last February, remained revelatory: Mr. Alston’s evoking the 17th century and Vermeer while staying bracingly modern, Ms. Tanowitz’s honoring ballet while wittily turning it inside out. New York Theater Ballet gives these excellent pieces a home.”

Marina Harss, Dance Tabs

“While large theaters in New York remain closed, it has been the smaller organizations that have shown the most enterprising spirit during the pandemic. New York Theatre Ballet, led by Diana Byer, has been a quiet beacon, not just persevering, but commissioning new works for live performance at the company’s studio in the East Village, as far back as last fall.

It is a pleasure to watch dance in this spare, airy studio, without fanfare or elaborate production values. In fact, the whole experience of watching dance in this way feels somehow private, as if the dancers were performing just for you. It’s wonderfully intimate. And though I’ll be happy to return to theaters and the company of hundreds or thousands of fellow audience-members, there is something to be cherished about this transitory moment in which people like Diana Byer and her dancers and musicians are making the best of things, for the pleasure of those lucky few who make it up the steps of St. Marks.”

Jerry Hochman, Critical Dance

“Missing one of New York Theatre Ballet’s Legends & Visionaries presentations is unthinkable…As usual, the company and the choices made by Artistic Director Diana Byer, did not disappoint.”

Siobhan Burke, The New York Times

“The most endearing and engaging part of the show happened before all of that, during a prelude led by the company’s artistic director, Diana Byer. In an effort to acquaint young audiences with the behind-the-scenes work of putting on a ballet, Ms. Byer invited her animated production manager, Pepper Fajans, to demonstrate the meticulous art of marking the stage to indicate where props and dancers should go. This also served as a basic math lesson, as Mr. Fajans divided the floor into halves and quarters with bits of colored tape.

Ms. Byer then ushered out five “dancing examples” (children from New York Theater Ballet’s school) to show how this task helps to organize bodies in a given space. My 8-year-old companion never seemed more enthralled than when other kids her age arrived onstage, dutifully arranging themselves into a diagonal, a triangle, a square. Their simple, swift and spirited performance, more relatable than any fairy tale, was hard to top.”

Boston Globe

“At Wednesday’s opening night performance at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, they killed it. (In the very, very good way.)”

Alastair Macaulay, The New York Times

“Modernist economy is also apparent in Ashton’s earliest extant ballet, “Capriol Suite.” Beneath its mock-Elizabethan idioms, its cool charm and its bubbling inventiveness, the choreography places its faith in pure form. I know of no British company that has performed this work since Ashton’s death in 1988. Here, as throughout this program, New York Theater Ballet does us great service.”

Dance Europe, 2016

Best Director of the Year: Diana Byer
Best Company of the Year: New York Theatre Ballet