Heather Watts Sets Finale at NYCB

Heather Watts, a member of the New York City Ballet since 1970 and a principal since 1979, will retire after her final performance with the company Jan. 15.

Actually, Watts had appeared briefly with New York City Ballet in 1964, when, as an 11-year-old student dancer in Los Angeles, she was cast as a bug in Balanchine’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the Greek Theatre in Griffith Park.

Thirty years later, her farewell performance at Lincoln Center will showcase Watts in George Balanchine’s “Bugaku” and in Peter Martins’ “Valse Triste.” Her partner on this occasion will be her longtime associate and close friend, Jock Soto.

Recently, Watts described their association for a Playbill magazine interview: “Dancing with Jock became special. Even though he’s a decade younger than I am, our partnership has been a full glass.”

In addition to her onstage career, Watts, 41, was for 13 years director of the New York State Summer School of the Arts in Saratoga Springs. She continues to be active in fund-raising and volunteer programs; at present she is on the board of God’s Love We Deliver, a New York City-based organization that provides hot meals for home-bound people with AIDS.

The Los Angeles native was seen locally in October when NYCB principals danced at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts.

*

FINALE: Arizona Opera concludes its four-year “Ring” Cycle this month when General Director Glynn Ross presents Wagner’s “Gotterdammerung” five times: in Tucson, Jan. 19 and 21, and in Phoenix, Jan. 25, 27 and 29.

Karen Bureau is Brunnhilde, George Gray, Siegfried; among their colleagues are Edward Russell (Hagen), Malcolm Rivers (Alberich), Carla Rae Cook (Waltraute and Second Norn) and Rebecca Ravenshaw, Korby Myrick and Stephanie Marsh (Rhinemaidens).

Veteran Wagner conductor Henry Holt presides over this final Arizona “Ring” installment; Claus Konig is stage director.