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Ángel Corella makes his much anticipated debut as artistic director at the Pennsylvania Ballet. The New York Times headed south to Philadelphia to check it out.

In July, the star Spanish dancer Ángel Corella — a principal for many years with American Ballet Theater — was appointed artistic director of Pennsylvania Ballet. On Oct. 16, the company began to perform under his direction, at its main home, the Philadelphia Academy of Musichere, one of America’s most beautiful opera houses; posters have been hanging in downtown Philadelphia with a picture of his face (lightly bearded) to advertise the opening program, “Press Play: The Directorial Debut of Angel Corella.” I attended the Saturday matinee...

Pennsylvania Ballet was founded in 1963 (its first artistic director, Barbara Weisberger, was in Saturday’s audience), and has one of the longest records for performing Balanchine outside New York. (It first danced “Allegro Brillante,” this program’s opener, in 1965.) There were some last-minute cast changes on Saturday, and yet the ballet most affected by substitutions, Mr. Ratmansky’s “Jeu de Cartes” (which joined the Pennsylvania repertory three years ago) was, with “Allegro,” ebullient, with dancers seizing its many opportunities with enthusiasm and glee. Beatrice Jona Affron, the company’s music director and conductor, produced especially fine orchestral playing; there were also excellent contributions from the pianist Martha Koeneman.

Original source: The New York Times
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