Venue: Lincoln Center, New York City

Perhaps ABT's disclaimer in the program notes should have simply said: "When you watch Le Corsaire, prepare to be both offended and entertained. We hope you'll be more entertained than offended."

If you love Jane Eyre, stick to the novel. There's more female empowerment in those pages than in Cathy Marston's choreography.

As the wonderful Tharp trio program proves, all these years later Twyla Tharp can still make ballet look cool.

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."

A quarter century after its New York première, Corigliano’s Symphony no. 1 has maintained its emotional impact. 

The Seasons is overstuffed, uneven and way too busy. There are so many steps, but they rarely made me "see the music". It was a frustrating ballet, with so many lovely moments that were less than the sum of its parts.

Harlequinade shows Ratmansky's usual scrupulous care when reconstructing Petipa's ballets. His attention to detail and obvious love for the art form are to be admired. But these ballets are also living, breathing works and they need strong performances to be viable in the repertory.

The ending of Stars and Stripesis a sure-fire applause machine. The lowering of the flag while all the regiments march and salute onstage is so corny that only Balanchine could have choreographed it with a straight face. And yet it worked in 1958 and it works in 2019.