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A winning mixed bill at New York City Ballet, featuring three stylistically and conceptually very different works, yielded many gems. 

Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet comes across as a work with fragments of greatness rather than a masterpiece but the rest of the evening offers sheer brilliance.

Some great and some lacklustre performances in the Jerome Robbins triple bill on opening night of New York City Ballet's winter season – and a missed opportunity.   

The final performance at NYCB’s fall season was the best one. One has to have just pure admiration for this company, its dancers, its history, its future.

Someone at New York City Ballet needs to believe in Orpheus before they present it again.

New York City Ballet marked its 75th anniversary with the same triple bill that caused so much excitement at City Center in 1948: Orpheus, Concerto Barocco and Symphony in C.

An auditorium packed with former company members usher in New York City Ballet's 75th anniversary with George Balanchine's ornamental triptych. 

Audience response for all three ballets was extremely enthusiastic. From 1944 to 1997, Jerry knew how to please audiences.

Recent retirements within NYCB have resulted in uneven performances, but there is still hope for future spring programs.

I must admit I like NYCB’s recent trend away from the themed programming. The combinations can seem strange, but the performances have more variety.

The fall season opens with three Balanchine ballets and what felt like a gesture of thanks to a trio of ballerinas for their many years of service to the company.

George Balanchine's ballet brings joy to audiences year in, year out. 

The Four Seasons is such a happy, appealing ballet that the audience barely notice any unsteady moments. 

A Greek-themed triple bill is presented with mixed success, although Agon still stands up well, with Unity Phelan making her debut in the central pas de deux.

Sterling Hyltin and Adrian Danchig-Waring are exquisitely self-absorbed in Jerome Robbins' Afternoon of a Faun.

The NYCB dancers are very at-home in this idiom, and they threw themselves wholeheartedly into this ballet. It was never less than watchable, but the music cried out for more avante-garde choreography than Peck provided.

Sofia Coppola's film closed on a note of optimism. The message seemed to be: “Normality is just around the corner. We’re coming back.” 

Ashley Bouder, Tiler Peck and Megan Fairchild were at the top of their game in a Balanchine triple bill at New York City Ballet

Judging by the enthusiastic audience reactions to this program one might have to rethink the modern/ballet divide. Maybe there’s only two types of dance – good dance and bad dance. 

Union Jack isn't a Balanchine masterpiece – it's more of a fun-sterpiece, which is even better.

Yet the audience loved it, just as they love every performance of A Midsummer's Night DreamI've ever attended. This ballet is a tribute to Shakespeare, a tribute to love, a tribute to dance. One walks out feeling as if one's "soul is in the sky."

Twelve years after its creation, we’re still talking about what’s going on in Russian Seasons and we’re still looking forward to what the next dancer in gold, or red, or green will do with the role.