CELEBRATING ST. LOUIS’ VIBRANT DANCE COMMUNITY
St. Louis Dance HQ’s Blog is a compilation of writings and performance reviews from a variety of St. Louis based dance writers. If you’re interested in sharing your writing on our blog, please email stlouisdancehq@gmail.com.
HQ Review: Saint Louis Ballet Encore
On Saturday, June 13, Saint Louis Ballet closed out it’s 2025-26 season with Encore, a collection of returning audience-favorite works from throughout the season, peppered with two premieres performed by the company’s trainee program. Performed at the intimate Lee Theatre inside the Touhill Performing Arts Center, the evening celebrated the completion of another brilliant season of dance not with grand spectacle but with a thoughtful, stripped-down tribute to the technical excellence of the artists at the center of Saint Louis Ballet’s work.
HQ Review: Saint Louis Ballet presents “Cinderella”
This April 2026, Saint Louis Ballet presented Cinderella, marking Artistic Director Gen Horiuchi’s fifth staging of the ballet. During the Sunday matinee, the theater lobby was full of young families, including many little girls in sparkling dresses and tiaras, filing enthusiastically into their seats.
HQ Review: Saint Louis Ballet presents Call It Love featuring the St. Louis Blues
On February 14th and 15th at Touhill Performing Arts Center, St. Louis Ballet performed Call It Love, featuring St. Louis Blues. Call It Love is one of those evenings at the ballet where movement, music, and emotion align so seamlessly that you leave the theater feeling both exhilarated and quietly reflective. Saint Louis Ballet’s program brings together intimacy, theatricality, and American musical traditions, creating an exploration of connection and romance.
HQ Review: Saint Louis Ballet presents Take Five…More or Less
Red, orange, blue, and purple leap out onto stage as Henri Matisse-inspired costumes paint their way into live performance danced by Saint Louis Ballet. On October 11th and 12th, Saint Louis Ballet debuted Take Five…More or Less, a captivating show featuring three unique works by both guest artists and faculty.
HQ Review: Saint Louis Ballet presents FEELS LIKE BROADWAY
Saint Louis Ballet’s recent production, Feels Like Broadway, presented at the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center, ambitiously sought to bridge the worlds of classical ballet and the showmanship of Broadway’s golden age. Featuring works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Christopher Wheeldon, the program leveraged some of the biggest names in ballet to explore where these two categories converge and contrast. While the evening showcased moments of brilliance, particularly in Wheeldon’s Carousel (A Dance), it also highlighted a shared conservative approach to gender, sexuality, and romance.
Before You Go: Saint Louis Ballet presents “Feels Like Broadway” on April 26-27, 2025
On the weekend of April 26 th and 27 th , The Saint Louis Ballet will premiere its triple bill “Feels
Like Broadway.” Accompanied by live music, performed by the Springfield Symphony Orchestra,
this production will bring together the worlds of Broadway and Ballet. This came to be because of Artistic and Executive Director, Gen Horiuchi. Horiuchi has had an impressive career in both Ballet, working with Jerome Robbins and George Balanchine, and on Broadway. His connections helped bring this remarkable and ambitious production to life. In this article, we will explore each of the program’s three ballets: George Balanchine’s Who Cares, Jerome Robbins’ Interplay, and Christopher Wheeldon’s Carousel.
HQ Review: Saint Louis Ballet presents “To Love!”
Over Valentine’s Day weekend, Saint Louis Ballet presented "To Love!," featuring three pieces choreographed by Justin Peck, Christopher D’Amboise, and artistic director Gen Horiuchi. While the program notes highlight how the evening’s performances draw a through-line between ballet and Broadway—perhaps a foreshadowing of Saint Louis Ballet’s spring performance, "Feels Like Broadway"—and while the name of the show and its Valentine’s weekend timing may have suggested a romantic theme, the evening’s true intrigue stemmed from how the show order showcased growth in multiple forms. The trio of works asked audience members to consider the growth of the organization, the development of dancers within it, and the transformation of dance in popular culture.
HQ Review: Saint Louis Ballet’s “Western Symphony,” “Serenade,” and “After The Rain”
Loose clusters of women stoically stand, arms outstretched diagonally above them. As the romantic swells of Peter Tchaikovsky’s music churn, the dancers’ arms softly ripple through space, and the dance commences with a harmonious simplicity that calls to life the spirit of George Balanchine. This opening tableau came to life when Balanchine first choreographed this work, “Serenade,” in 1934. During the rehearsal process, Balanchine saw the dancers blocking the sun out of their eyes, and he extracted this accidental encounter and utilized it as the opening gesture from which this choreography is born. That is just one of the ways Balanchine expanded how the form of ballet was created. He allowed the process itself to shape a work’s form. In addition, that form did not need anything outside of itself, be it narrative or preconceived context, to evoke emotion. This pioneering work continues to be an evocative piece that brings to life the beginnings of Balanchine’s career in America. It also makes one consider how the legacy of Balanchine continues to have a stronghold upon both the advances and limitations for how ballet exists within America.