The 2022 ABT Fall Gala Signaled a New Era for the Ballet Company

Two moments very clearly set last week’s American Ballet Theatre Gala apart from the rest. (The company hosts two big galas a year to kick off its spring and fall seasons.) The first was a literal passing of the torch from current artistic director Kevin McKenzie to his successor, Susan Jaffe, who will assume the title by the season’s end. (Prior to the performances, McKenzie passed an iPhone with a flickering flame to Jaffe on stage, noting the building’s fire regulations.) The second moment followed intermission, as choreographer Christopher Rudd’s “Lifted,” the company’s first-ever all-Black production (from the dancers to the choreographer to the orchestra’s conductor) had its world premiere. In that piece, Calvin Royal III, Erica Lall, Courtney Lavine, Melvin Lawovi, and Jose Sebastian—all dressed in costumes by Carly Cushnie—dance amid a series of angled mirrors, each working to multiply or divide the actual number of bodies in motion.

After guests (most in black tie) gathered for a 5:30pm cocktail hour, a word from McKenzie and Jaffe in the David H. Koch Theater preceded the evening’s programming. The pair delivered a scripted dialogue about the responsibilities of an artistic director—heavy is the head that wears the crown!—citing predecessors Lucia Chase, Oliver Smith, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Jane Hermann. McKenzie also impressed upon Jaffe the importance of celebrating the company’s past while propelling it into the future. One of McKenzie’s final commissions for the company was “Lifted,” which guests took in after Jiří Kylián’s “Sinfonietta.” He explained that “like ‘Sinfonietta,’ [‘Lifted’] is a demonstration of the power of the creative voice, exploring [the dancers’] inner landscape and leaving us to see, hear, and feel ours.”

Both ballets (and a standing ovation) gave way to a gala dinner which also honored ABT Trustee Patty Morton. Inside, the theater’s atrium had been decorated with mirrored elements and luminescent tubes—a wink to the stage design, envisioned by Rudd himself. Among those in attendance were Alessandra Ferri, Amy Astley, Anh Duong, Antoni Porowski, Coco Rocha, Nicky Hilton Rothschild, and, to the delight of the guests, dancers Misty Copeland, James Whiteside, Isabella Boylston, and Calvin Royal III. (For the past several galas, COVID-19 protocols kept company members in bubbles, and unable to mingle with their patrons.) Gillian Murphy, who performed in “Sinfonietta,” remarked that the piece had debuted the year she was born, while well-wishers stopped by to congratulate Rudd on his premiere (which followed “Touché,” the work he made for ABT last year). The choreographer revealed that the entire production had come together in under a dozen weeks, a cause for celebration that the dancers, patrons, and galagoers took to the dance floor. All told, the night made for a fitting final bow—and the splendid start of something new.