NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- American Ballet Theatre will not perform at the Metropolitan Opera House in 2021. The company announced the cancellation of its coming season at Lincoln Center on Tuesday, citing the impact that the coronavirus pandemic has had on its ability to prepare for resuming live performances.

A decision has not yet been reached about the company’s shorter fall season at the David H. Koch Theater, another Lincoln Center stage.

Many other performing arts groups in New York, including the Metropolitan Opera and New York City Ballet, canceled their spring engagements earlier this fall. The Ballet Theatre season was scheduled to begin late in the season, in June, which gave its leaders hope that they might be able to persevere with their plans, the company’s executive director, Kara Medoff Barnett, said. But as the pandemic stretched on and COVID-19 cases surged this fall, the company determined that staging a full slate of indoor performances in New York City would not be feasible.

Despite the setback, Kevin McKenzie, Ballet Theatre’s artistic director, said he was confident the company would be able to use what it has learned during the pandemic to find creative ways to make and share dances until it is possible to perform indoors again.

“We know that we can do this and continue to create, because ultimately that’s our lifeblood,” he said. “Otherwise we’d just be, institutionally, trying to keep our pulse alive, but we wouldn’t be following our mission.”

Last week, as a part of a virtual gala, the company presented new video dances by Pam Tanowitz, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Gemma Bond and Christopher Rudd that were created in cloistered “ballet bubbles” in upstate New York and Connecticut. More new work is planned for 2021, with pieces by Alexei Ratmansky, Lauren Lovette and Sonya Tayeh, as well as an expansion by Moultrie of his recent dance, set to debut either virtually or outdoors.

The details are being finalized, but the company’s goal is to begin performing outside in locations around the United States this spring before returning to New York in the summer to dance for audiences in and around the city. Information about the coming events will be released this winter.

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