NESTLED IN BETWEEN New York City’s Union Square and Madison Square parks is a cornerstone of American dance history. Overlooking Broadway are the dance studios of American Ballet Theatre (ABT), an institution that has served as a home to countless giants of classical dance. That includes legends like famed choreographer Antony Tudor and Misty Copeland, arguably the most well-known contemporary ballerina. Their faces, portraits, stills, and notes line the walls of the dancers’ lounge as a gentle (and aesthetically pleasing) reminder of ABT’s role as a launchpad for brilliant dance professionals through the ages. Walking through the halls on a recent visit, I saw boxes piled with Champagne-pink pointe shoes, heard piano music accompanying young dancers through their barre exercises, and even helped the photographer for our shoot set up her backdrops. Given the buzz of activity, I had to pause to remind myself that for the past three years, these halls have been completely silent.

Since its founding in New York City in 1939, American Ballet Theatre has toured each year throughout the U.S. (playing to an audience of over 300,000 people annually), and completed more than 30 international tours in 45 countries. In 2006, the company was officially recognized as America’s National Ballet Company by an Act of Congress. With 79 current performers hailing from over 15 different countries, ABT is a global conversation starter for the ballet community. The company’s long-standing mission — “To create, to present, to preserve and to extend the great repertoire of classical dancing, through exciting performances and educational programming of the highest quality, presented to the widest possible audience” — all but guarantees that ABT’s productions reach far beyond the company’s spiritual home of New York City.

So as opera and playhouses are opening up this spring and summer, it’s a romantic homecoming for ABT as it launches its new season (June 13–July 16) in New York’s Lincoln Center, on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House (colloquially known as the Met). While an entire industry of dancers and performers is eager to return to some semblance of normalcy, the creative direction at the newly revived ABT will be anything but business as usual. It doesn’t matter if you’ve grown up attending the ballet with your family your whole life, or if this is your first time considering popping into an opera house: Kevin McKenzie, the artistic director of ABT, has worked tirelessly to make this season as accessible and colorful as possible. Ballet is arguably the strictest style of dance when it comes to adhering to tradition and form, but the work of ABT continues to prove that there’s still so much room for stylistic innovations, contagious play, and unconventional storytelling.

According to McKenzie, the ballets slated for the upcoming season, while very different from each other, are connected by one common conceptual thread. “The thing that links the ballets [in this season] is that they are all about the human condition, the choices that humans have to make to get through their lives,” he explains. “And they are usually focused around a love story.”

The season will showcase seven ballets with a variety of entry points, from the easily accessible to the more challenging. Kicking things off is “Don Quixote”; based on the Cervantes novel, its larger-than-life characters and classically grandiose scoring makes it the most accessible piece of the season. Second is “Of Love and Rage,” the work of ABT’s artist-in-residence, Alexei Ratmansky, which originally premiered in California in 2020, just two days before the coronavirus pandemic shut down live performances across the U.S. Based on what many historians believe to be one of the earliest books of fiction in first-century Greece, the ballet examines the fragile nature of human relationships. While the story itself is more realistically honest than conventionally pretty, the style and storytelling are thought-provoking, exploring the question, If one moment of violence can ruin a perfect love, what could open the door to forgiveness? The third and fourth productions in the lineup are the ever-iconic, tour-de-force duo of “Romeo and Juliet,” with choreography created by Kenneth MacMillan in 1965, and “Swan Lake,” choreographed by Kevin McKenzie himself in 2020. It seems fitting that these pillars of international ballet repertoire would be included in this season. While many are familiar with the stories they tell, ballet is an art form that finds a way to breathe new life into the classics while also respecting tradition. Here, both pieces will be reframed to give them a potent new historical context.

Rounding out the season is the repertoire trio “American Splendor.” McKenzie included this piece as an entry point for younger audiences who may not have grown up experiencing ballet, to provide something more approachable than the classics. The three-part production was created solely by ABT-commissioned artists. Within this series, we first have George Balanchine’s “Theme and Variations,” which leans heavily into classical ballet tropes but is only 17 minutes long. So even if it’s not quite for you, McKenzie recommends waiting for the intermission, having a drink, then diving back in. In the second repertoire title, Alonzo King (choreographer) partnered with Jason Moran (jazz musician) on a production that, according to McKenzie, is up for any and every interpretation. At its core, the piece serves as King’s topical analysis of everything that he sees as right and grossly wrong with society today, from climate change to women’s rights. This piece is meant for viewers to analyze and critique; whether you agree to disagree or rally alongside King’s statements, it will be difficult to leave feeling indifferent. The final title in the trio is a tribute to the life and work of Tony Bennet, paying homage to his discography, passion for painting, and the optimism coursing through everything he does.

A brilliant ballet can only shine as brightly as its players. Christine Shevchenko and Calvin Royal III will both be principal dancers this season, which Shevchenko has been preparing for since long before the studio doors opened again, knowing that in order to have the stamina to perform in pieces like “Don Quixote” (which is a three-act, almost three-hour-long ballet) she would need to keep her body and form in pristine condition throughout the tumultuous quarantine period. While she does admit that the first return performance of that title was a little difficult, because of her continued training during the pandemic, she was able to shine as effortlessly as she usually does by the second performance. When thinking of Shevchenko as a dancer, two words come to mind: bright and disciplined. This season, in addition to landing a principal dancer position, she’s been given the opportunity to dance one of the most iconic roles of the ballet world: Juliet. For both Shevchenko and Royal, this will be their first time playing the leads in the timeless love story of “Romeo and Juliet.”