“I’m so excited to see her dance, it will be a treat,” said Ariana Rockefeller of the Italian prima ballerina Alessandra Ferri, who made her return to American Ballet Theatre’s stage after a nine-year absence. In an appropriate ballet slipper pink Katie Ermilio dress, Rockefeller served as a junior committee cochair for the evening, which celebrated the opening of the ABT’s spring season.
Guests including Diane von Furstenberg, Teen Vogue’s Amy Astley, and Nell Diamond, resplendent in a caped tangerine gown, climbed the crimson-carpeted steps at the Metropolitan Opera House in anticipation of the impressive balletic lineup. In the mix was an Alexei Ratmansky–choreographed world premiere and the reprise of Misty Copeland as the Firebird. Before taking to the stage in an avian-inspired leotard for the evening’s final act, Copeland turned heads in a violet Prabal Gurung number that shimmered with graphic paillettes.
After multiple rounds of applause, guests migrated toward the neighboring David H. Koch Theater, where dinner and dancing commenced in the atrium. Abuzz from the spectacular performances, Vogue’s Hamish Bowles remarked, “I swoon for a ribbon dance any day of the week!” alluding to the artful use of props seen onstage in La Fille Mal Gardée, while Gurung sang Copeland’s praises: “There’s a reason why there’s so much talk and people are in awe of her,” he said of the ballerina. “Dressing her was the highlight of my night!”
