American Ballet Theatre’s Stylish Spring Gala Honored Katie Holmes

Reported by Vogue.

American Ballet Theatre's Spring Gala at Cipriani 42nd Street was never going to be a quiet night. The black-tie event honored Katie Holmes — a committed ABT supporter — while previewing artistic director Susan Jaffe's reimagined Don Quixote ahead of its Metropolitan Opera House debut. The evening also landed on a milestone: the 20th anniversary of ABT's designation as America's National Ballet Company by an act of Congress, according to Vogue.

The room dressed accordingly. Jaffe's Don Q set the palette — pinks, reds, gilded warmth — and guests obliged. Author Sarah Hoover worked a voluminous color-blocked peony-and-fuchsia Carolina Herrera gown; Tina Leung moved through the room in a tiered balloon skirt by Alejandra Alonso Rojas that read pure Infanta. Iris Apatow and May Nivola arrived in Rodarte in what any dancer would clock instantly as theatrical pink and ballet pink. Ivy Getty went sequined in sherbet-hued Rat & Boa. Zac Posen, Bach Mai, Michelle Ochs, and Monse's Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim all turned out — a front row fashion world offering its respects to the stage.

The Ballerinas, Off-Duty and Dressed for It

The company's own dancers traded their tutus for something more after-dark. Principal Isabella Boylston, due with her first child next month, wore a Buci black cutaway silk top and maxi skirt accessorized with Van Cleef & Arpels and Cartier jewels — "It's the only time I'm going to have my bump out at a gala," she said. Christine Shevchenko and Catherine Hurlin quick-changed post-performance into Monique Lhuillier feathers and sequins respectively; Chloe Misseldine shimmered in Akris. The men held their own: Luigi Crispino and Patrick Frenette in Giorgio Armani, Calvin Royal III — currently fronting Louis Vuitton's men's pre-fall 2026 campaign — in Issey Miyake, all three finished in LeVian diamonds.

Holmes herself leaned into an all-American edit: a white floral silk jacquard minidress layered over a coordinating balloon skirt by Ashlyn, diamond jewelry by Arielle Ratner, and Herbert Levine heels. Presenting her award — a Lladró porcelain ballerina — actor Alexander Hurt described how Holmes led movement warm-ups during their recent Hedda Gabler run in San Diego. "She makes people feel freer than they're used to feeling," he said. Holmes told Vogue that dance shaped her earliest relationship to performance: "Even a little expression of the arm can tell a whole story."

Between Chilean sea bass and Cipriani chocolate cake, guests got a 38-minute sprint through Jaffe's condensed three-act Don Quixote — what Jaffe called "the Reader's Digest version," deliberately trimmed of mime sequences and group dances with conductor David LaMarche shaping the musical cuts. Jaffe, who performed Kitri in all three of ABT's previous productions, put it plainly: "I just wanted to give it a haircut — everyone is waiting to see the final 32 fouettés anyway."

When the art world and the fashion world show up in the same room this dressed and this deliberate, it's a reminder that ballet's real cultural power has always lived somewhere between discipline and pure spectacle.

Read the original at Vogue.