Ballet in NYC is presented by some of the world’s leading ballet companies including New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and Dance Theatre of Harlem.
Ballet is a Latin dance. It’s an Italian court dance, developed in France, preserved in Russia and Denmark after the French Revolution (1789-99), relaunched to the Americas by Ballets Russes of Paris (1909-29), and launched in New York City by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein in 1934.
Argentina, Brazil and Cuba produce world-class ballet dancers. For dancers across Latin America, training and performing in Cuba is a jumping off point to an NYC dance career.
NYC Ballet Companies
NYC Latin Ballet Dancers
- Misty Copeland ABT Principal, isn’t Latin, but she broke the mold for all of us. 🇺🇸
- Jovani Furlan City Ballet Principal. @jovani.furlan 🇧🇷
- Carlos Lopez, ABT Director of Repertoire. 🇪🇸@carloslopeznewyork 🇪🇸
- Roman Mejia City Ballet Soloist. @roman.julian.mejia 🇺🇸
- Erica Pereira City Ballet Soloist. @peanutica 🇺🇸
- Aarón Sanz City Ballet Soloist. @aaronsmadrid 🇪🇸
- Sebastian Villarini-Velez City Ballet Soloist. @the_vinyl_seb 🇵🇷
* Thank you for sponsoring New York Latin Culture Magazine!
New York City Ballet 2022 Fall Season is Something Old & Something New
September 20 – October 16, 2022
DAVID H KOCH THEATER
Lincoln Center
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Continue Reading New York City Ballet 2022 Fall Season is Something Old & Something New
New York City Ballet’s “George Balanchine The Nutcracker” 2022
Friday, November 25 – December 31, 2022
DAVID H KOCH THEATER
Lincoln Center
Continue Reading New York City Ballet’s “George Balanchine The Nutcracker” 2022
The BAAND Together Dance Festival 2022 Brings Ailey, ABT, Ballet Hispánico, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and City Ballet to Lincoln Center for Free!
Tuesday-Saturday, August 9-13, 2022
LINCOLN CENTER
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November 2022
New York City Ballet’s George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker is at the David H Koch Theater in Lincoln Center, Friday, November 25 – Saturday, December 31, 2022.
October 2022
World Ballet Day is Saturday, Oct 1, 2022.
September 2022
The New York City Ballet Fall 2022 Season features Balanchine, Robbins, Ratmansky, Peck, and premieres by Reisen and Abraham at the David H Koch Theater in Lincoln Center, September 20 – October 16, 2022. From $38. 🇧🇷🇵🇷🇪🇸🇺🇸
June 2022
The American Ballet Theatre Summer Season is at the Metropolitan Opera House in Lincoln Center, Jun 13 – Jul 16. 🇦🇷
May 2022
Ballet Nepantla “Valentina” is a Contemporary Ballet about the strength and resilience of women in Revolutionary Mexico, at Symphony Space in the Upper West Side, on Fri, May 27 at 8:30pm. From $20. 🇲🇽
April 2022
Queer the Ballet, an Adriana Pierce project (New York City Ballet, Miami City Ballet) focused on queer women and non-binary dancers, is at Chelsea Factory, Tue-Wed, Apr 5-6 at 7:30pm. $45. 🏳️🌈
Dance Theatre of Harlem at the 1st City Center Dance Festival starts with a Gala Performance that includes the NY premieres of “Higher Ground” and an extended “Balamouk” by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa at New York City Center in Midtown, Tue, Apr 5 at 7pm and regular performances Fri-Sun, Apr 8-10. From $35. 🇧🇷🇨🇴🇨🇺🇭🇹🇺🇸
TRAVEL
The Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) NYC semi-finals are at Symphony Space, Feb 13-15. yagp.org The finals are in Tampa, Florida this year on Wed, Apr 13.
The New York City Ballet Spring 2022 Season at the David H Koch Theater in Lincoln Center, is Tue-Sun, April 19 to May 29, 2022. 🇧🇷🇫🇷🇮🇹🇵🇷🇪🇸
March 2022
The City Center Dance Festival is at New York City Center, Mar 24 – Apr 10.
January 2022
The New York City Ballet Winter 2022 Season at the David H Koch Theater in Lincoln Center, is Tue-Sun, Jan 18 – Feb 27. 🇧🇷🇫🇷🇮🇹🇵🇷🇪🇸
December 2021
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo: Nightcrawlers brings all-male Classical Ballet to The Joyce in Chelsea for three weeks Dec 14, 2021 – Jan 2, 2022. From $26. 🏳️🌈
November 2021
COMPLEXIONS Contemporary Ballet is at The Joyce in Chelsea at 7:30pm. Runs for two weeks to Nov 28. From $26. 🇺🇸
October 2021
World Ballet Day gives you a look behind the scenes at a day in the world’s leading ballet companies at worldballetday.com on Tue, Oct 19. 🇧🇷🇨🇦🇨🇺🇲🇽🇵🇷🇺🇸 | 🇫🇷🇮🇹🇷🇺🇪🇸 | 🇨🇳🇭🇰🇰🇷🇯🇵🇸🇬🇹🇭 | 🇦🇺🇳🇿
Dance Theatre of Harlem does pop-up performances inspired by Yayoi Kusama’s sculptures in the Kusama garden at the NY Botanical Garden in The Bronx, Sat-Sun, Oct 16-17 from 2-5pm. From $25. 🇧🇷🇨🇺🇭🇹🇺🇸
American Ballet Theater’s Fall 2021 Season was at the David H Koch Theater in Lincoln Center, Oct 20-31, 2021.
September 2021
NY City Ballet’s Fall 2021 Season was at the David H Koch Theater in Lincoln Center, Tue-Sun, Sep 21 – Oct 17, 2021. 🇫🇷🇮🇹🇲🇽🇵🇭🇵🇷🇪🇸
August 2021
The Battery Dance Festival was at Wagner Park in Battery Park City on Aug 14-20, 2021.
The BAAND Together Dance Festival was at Lincoln Center Aug 17-21, 2021.
August 2019
The Ballet Festival was at the Joyce Theater in August 2019.
Ballet is a Latin Dance
Using the term “Latin” in reference to the Americas is a French construct from the time when a Napoleon tried to conquer Mexico and join the US Civil War in support of the confederacy. The term was adopted by South American politicians when France was the leader of the world, and then adopted by the United Nations in New York in the 1950s.
Ballet is a fifteenth-century Italian court dance brought to France by Italian Queen of France and later Queen Mother Catherine de’ Medici (from the Italian banking family of Florence). [She doesn’t deserve any respect because to stay in power, she set her own people to fight each other.] In France, Ballet developed in the royal court of King Louis XIV. The “Sun King” loved to party.
The dance almost died when the French Revolution shut down the royal court in 1789, but was preserved in the Russian and Danish royal courts. In the modern era, ballet was popularized by Ballets Russes (1909-1929) out of Paris.
New York City is blessed with a connection to Ballet’s European origins through George Balanchine. “Mr. B” danced and choreographed for Ballets Russes before co-founding New York City Ballet. In Europe he was the bridge from Classical Ballet to NeoClassical Ballet to Contemporary Ballet. He also seeded leaders at Dance Theater of Harlem, Washington Ballet and Miami City Ballet. The entire East Coast is Balanchine technique.
Balanchine and America’s first prima ballerina Maria Tallchief (Native American Osage Nation) transformed “The Nutcracker” from an obscure ballet into the world’s most popular ballet. Its performances now support Ballet companies all year long.
Ballet training starts early and is expensive, so it’s long been a sport for rich kids. We tend to lack the technique that years of training produces. Balanchine loved the skinny waif body type. Many Latins have, shall we say “derrière,” and we are regularly told that we don’t have the right bodies for ballet.
Lourdes Lopez at New York City Ballet and Misty Copeland at American Ballet Theatre broke the mold. So did Carlos Acosta, Julio Bocca and Arthur Mitchell. We dance with the best. Don’t let anybody tell you that Ballet isn’t for Latins.