To compensate for the lack of New York work throughout the year, ABT does more touring, with about 30% of its performances (32 in 2018/2019) outside of New York, with annual engagements in Orange County, Washington, D.C. I envy ballet fans in London and Saint Petersburg with the ability to attend full-length performances most months of the year. As a result, performances for these companies are more spread out over the year. The Royal Opera House, Mariinsky Theater, and Bolshoi Theater house the ballet and opera companies, with the two organizations as partners. Most of the performances at Koch Theater are by NYCB, with limited engagements from ABT in the fall for two weeks and Paul Taylor Dance in the spring, with one-off shows in between. One reason for ABT’s odd schedule is a lack of a home theater, in contrast to New York City Ballet (Koch Theater), Royal Ballet (Royal Opera House), Bolshoi Ballet (Bolshoi Theater) and Mariinsky Ballet (Mariinsky Theater). All companies trail NYCB by a large amount, with NYCB committed to an impressive 169 performances not including its annual Saratoga run. ABT will perform about 108 times this year with 58% of its work in the eight week Met season (63/108).ĪBT has a very odd performance calendar, with 58% of its performances for the year in the eight week Met seasonĪBT’s performance count of 108 trails Royal Ballet by 21 performances (not including Royal’s July Los Angeles tour) and Mariinsky by 16 (not including any Mariinsky tours).
The table below shows the distribution of performances for the 2018/2019 season. Relative to other companies, ABT has a very odd performance calendar, with the majority of performances during the eight week season. I’m sure ABT is not happy about the Met Opera’s decision clearly, ABT is a second class citizen subject to the whims of the resident organization. This has substantial implications for ABT as the bulk of its annual ticket sales is from the Met season. This is quite a shock as ABT’s eight week spring season dates back to its first Met season in 1977. Gelb said that the ballet would reduce its Met season to five weeks from the current eight.” The Times article gave short mention to the impact on ABT, with a flip statement by the head of the Met Opera Peter Gelb: “Mr. American Ballet Theatre’s eight week spring season historically starts after the Met Opera in early May and the extension will cut into the ABT season by three weeks. The opera company will extend its season to early June from early May and introduce a midwinter break in February. The New York Times reported that the Metropolitan Opera will change its calendar starting in the 2020-2021 season.