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IMPRESSIONS: American Ballet Theatre’s Studio Company Shows Off "Spring Moves" at NYU Skirball
By Hannah Lipman/Substack at @hannahlipman.
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Published on June 11, 2025
YeonSeo Choi. Photo: Emma Zorda
Choreographers: Brady Farrar, Madison Brown, Houston Thomas, James Whiteside, Yannick Lebrun, Rostislav Zakharov, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Kevin McKenzie, and Gerald Arpino
ABT Studio Company dancers: Max Barker, Maximilian Catazaro, YeonSeo Choi, Elijah Geolina, Ptolemy Gidney, Daniel Guzmán, Paloma Livellara, Kayla Mak, Sooha Park, Kayke Carvalho, Audrey Tovar-Dunster, and Natalie Steele
Artistic Director: Sascha Radetsky
Managing Director: Claire Florian
Rehearsal Director: Yan Chen
Production Manager/Lighting: Audrey Schultz
Contributing Rehearsal Director: Luciana Paris
Dates: May 16 - 17 2025
In the current dance sphere, ballet reaches new heights daily. My social feed, like many others, is inundated with a million pirouettes and technique so clean it sparkles. American Ballet Theatre Studio Company’s social media presence is no exception — their dancers demonstrate dazzling 540s and feet so articulate they rival the likes of Sylvie Guillem. But what this two-dimensional rendering cannot capture is the delight and professionalism that the Studio Company dancers display in the flesh in their Spring Moves performance, held at NYU Skirball from May 16 to 17, 2025.
The representatives of ballet’s future radiate with earnest and eager attitudes, each dancer set on charming us through their individually-crafted excellence. At certain points, this unwavering individualism causes some stilted moments, particularly in repertoire that requires cohesive corps work, but all in all the group displays a deluge of talent.
The program consisted of ten pieces varying in length and style — a curation more concerned with spectacle than concision. The array of repertoire outlines the twelve dancers’ versatility, ranging from excerpts from classical ballets like Swan Lake and neoclassical dances like Interplay to contemporary works by principal dancers and ABT Studio Company choreographers.
Among this selection, three solos offer a glimpse into two dancers’ artistic instincts and sensibilities. The opportunity to occupy the stage alone is daunting, but these fearless performers assuage such worry, proving that we are in capable hands.
Kayla Mak astounds in two solo works, Crimson Flame by Madison Brown (ABT Studio Company member from 2022-2023, now a member of the ABT corps) and Human by Yannick Lebrun (lead dancer of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater). Despite the pieces being only two to three minutes in length, Mak manages to stretch time like taffy. Her appendages swing and resist on their own accord, nearly independent from her core. Molding the air around her, she is an elemental architect, contorting and arching through negative space.
Ptolemy Gidney appears in the minute-long GOPAK variation by Rostislav Zakharov, his legs scissoring as he floats through the air. The boisterous solo seems to end all too soon, with Gidney’s showmanship and skillful technical feats left in its wake.
The pas de deux are especially polished and provide the chance to witness a connection bloom between partners and elicit predictions pertaining to the dancers’ future repertoire. Explorations of various relational dynamics unfold through penetrating gazes, unveiling the intricacies of romance. I wondered how the dancer’s inclinations toward musicality and character development will sharpen and solidify, hoping they will have the opportunity to perform such high-caliber roles over the course of their careers. When Sooha Park and Maximilian Catazaro appear in Gerald Arpino’s Birthday Variations Pas De Deux, their artistic maturity emanates in abundance. Mesmerizing, understated partnering transpires between the pair as Verdi’s classical accompaniment, arranged by Jonathan McPhee, coats the theater with a cool, serene air. Park’s legs flutter into a blur as she bourrées backwards, skittering into Catazaro’s unwavering arms. Her lines are light and endless as she développés, looking back at Catazaro with a placid yet sweet expression. The duo dances as if encapsulated in a snow globe, their gauzy elegance enveloping the stage.
Park makes a second appearance with Max Barker in the infamous Swan Lake Act III Black Swan pas de deux, which showcases their stamina and dynamism. Barker appears as if he was born on stage, toying with the music by adding extra pirouettes and tastefully extending each step to fit the contours of Tchaikovsky’s score. Park's épaulement is ceaselessly gracious even as she completes 32 fouettes, throwing double and triple pirouettes into the mix. Despite the pair’s impressive control, the tension required between their characters proves dimly lit. Park appears to be set on charming her prince through feats of technical precision rather than opting for the refined, seductive physicality that comprises Odile’s character–a facet of interpretation that remains ripe for further exploration.
When Gottschalk’s bright signature accompaniment to Balanchine’s Tarantella begins, Paloma Livellara and Elijah Goelina enter, projecting a mix of tentative and explosive energies. As the piece elapses, they shed their nerves and muster springy, daring jumps. Their crisp entrechat six and charming smiles give way to an increasingly confident bravura. Livellara’s solo steps beam with cheerful, coy flirtation; her grand pliés in second en pointe are sustained and picture perfect.
Pensive and brooding, ABT Studio Company member Brady Farrar’s BEYOND THE SILENCE, featuring YeonSeo Choi and Kayke Carvalho, could have been plucked from a fraught wintery Russian novel. Choi leans her hips forward and releases her head back with the dramatism of Cranko’s Onegin or Neumeier’s Lady of the Camellias; her frantic steps conjure a feverish woman, her silken black slip dress points to a torrid love affair. The push-pull dynamics appear elevated and fraught as Carvalho deftly catches Choi in his arms, her abandonment of self accentuated by a forlorn expression and dramatic penchés. Complex whip turns unfolding into expansive lifts accentuate the crescendo in the music. Cultivating breathtaking harmony, Farrar’s intricate steps are a feverish jouissance.
The ensemble works each function through bursts of solos and a smattering of duets. Whiteside’s More Than Nothing, a feel-good trio set to Matthew Whitaker’s arrangement of Jorge Ben Jor’s “Más Que Nada” features Daniel Guzmán, Livellara, and Natalie Steele, who give it all they’ve got. They complete exigent pirouette combinations with easy smiles and airy, sky-high développés. The trio's quest to elicit joy miraculously succeeds despite the choreography’s steady emotional plateau. Thomas’ U Don’t Know Me, set to Avro Pärt’s persistent and frenetic violin accompaniment, invites an endless exploration of darting and sliding across the stage. The six dancers clad in dark blue unitards traverse space like eels, their undulating upper bodies electric and stealthy.
Jerome Robbins’ Interplay, the last and longest piece of the night, engages with the group’s underlying, undeniable dynamic: competition. Throughout the playful ballet, the dancers pick teammates and create medleys of steps akin to a dance-off. Morton Gould’s “American Concertette” rings out with jazzy humor while the group scrambles to nail the punchlines so imperative to Robbins’ choreographic payoff. With each dancer vying for our attention, the moments of unison, which I can only imagine are meant to gesture towards camaraderie, appear haphazard, even lost. These final moments of the show demonstrate what gets edited out of social media content — the endearing imperfections of live performance.
Although the Studio Company seems to thrive most when isolated either through solos — similar to the videos in their Instagram grid — or duets, their capacity to breathe life and zest into their work is invaluable. The skills necessary to dance in a corps de ballet can be learned quickly, but the manipulation of movement beyond pure technical skill requires an innate physical imagination, often referred to as “artistry” — a quality freely flowing from these dancers. Despite the show’s fatigued culmination, it's difficult not to applaud with abandon as I anxiously await these dancers' next moves.
