Danse Lumiere Pop-Up Ballet at City Center
City Center | 131 W 55th St, New York, NY 10019
March 30, 2026 at 8:30 PM
To be on the audience side of a dress rehearsal is very exciting. You get to see what no one else may see in quite the same way again. Performers are still making discoveries and haven't settled into their performances. Directors or in this case, choreographers are still open to experiment because they have the final element which they require - an audience Danse Lumiere Artistic Director, Katheryn Roszak, has assumed the awesome and daunting task of translating James Joyce's words to dance. The snippet we saw at last night's Pop-up Ballet at City Center was a treat for the senses. Often one feels removed from the performers on a far away stage, but in a rehearsal studio a few feet from the performance you are in the production together. Yes, there is still the grace and beauty of a formal performance, but there is intimacy in the sound of a footfall, the flex of a finger and the perspiration on a browline.
Max Barker and Jonatan Lujan play our Joyce protagonist at different ages. Each of the performances will be part of a much larger whole when it premieres in Ireland this summer. So engaging was last night's performance that I wanted to re-read the works of James Joyce that it intimidated me in high school. Barker and Lujan, from the American Ballet Theatre and Metropolitan Opera Ballet respectively, epitomize why ballet is still vibrant and alive, despite protestations from their contemporary Mr. Chalamet. I marveled at their nuanced, rich interpretations.
The program also included a piece from their Emily Dickinson Series, exquisitely performed by Claire Buchi set to Gordon Getty's operatic compositions. Max Barker returned to the stage with Maisee Anderson accompanied by John Hassell's Nature Boy, though the Nat King Cole version danced through my head, Ms. Anderson and Ms. Buchi team up for the Prelude by Julian Orbon performed by Miles Johnston His skillful execution alone would have been quite the treat, but to be flanked by the two talented ballerinas was thrilling.
The surprise of the evening was a performance by Kaitlyn Sardin, a.k.a. Kaitrock. Ms. Roszak said that she saw Kaitrock performing in an Irish bar on St. Patrick's Day and knew that she must join the company for their upcoming season. The only thing better than a good New York story is an uplifting performance. I cannot wait to hear how she's folded into the company in the coming months.
As if all this was not enough, the program closed with Quiet City. Picture Central Park and a stunning eagle making his presence known much like the eagle atop the former US Embassy in London, designed by Ms. Roszak's grandfather. This eagle, Jonatan Lujan leaves an impression flanked by Ms. Buchi and Ms. Anderson. The trio soared to the music of Aaron Copeland.
In a time when arts funding is under fire and celebrities question the longevity of classics, Danse Lumiere reminds us why their art is important, a cultural touchstone. Someone once said, "The Manhattan Bridge is as functional as the Brooklyn Bridge. But isn't it nice to have the Brooklyn Bridge". Beauty means something. Art is energy and energy is interna. Live performance cannot be displaced by streaming. As Lin Manuel Miranda said, "You got to be in the room where it happens", and I was lucky to be in this one.
Side note: Jack Schlossberg, New York District 12 candidate, came by to make the pre-show speech. He spoke about how his mother always pushed him to attend the ballet with her, but it wasn't until he suffered an injury that he truly began to appreciate ballet. It took Schlossberg four years to regain his ability to walk and during that time, he took ballet lessons as part of his rehab. He closed with a quote from his grandfather, President John F. Kennedy, on the arts, "There is connection, hard to explain logically but easy to feel, between achievement in public life and progress in the arts. The the age of Pericles was also the age of Phidias. The age of Lorenzo de'Medici was also the age of Leonardo da Vinci. The age of Elizabeth was also the age of Shakespeare. And the new frontier for which I campaign in public life, can also be a new frontier for American art."
Editorial by Nicole Jesson.
Published by Theatre Beyond Broadway on April 1st, 2026. All rights reserved.