Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Divertimento no. 15

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

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.

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

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.” 

Judging by this show, New York City Ballet is doing fine in the aftermath of Peter Martins’s departure.

San Francisco Ballet, one of the oldest, biggest and most prestigious American companies, was last here eight years ago; their return – to judge by the buzzing crowd packing out Sadler’s Wells last night – has been eagerly awaited.

If you "don't get” ballet, you may be thinking too hard. In the words of one friend who went to see Boston Ballet's Balanchine/Robbins program with me on opening night, “you look past it and it appears.” While many ballets tell a story or convey a theme, George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins encourage us to appreciate beauty for the sake of beauty. We don't try to understand a moonrise, after all.