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Casting ABT at Lincoln Center Fall 2015


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From the company:

CASTING ANNOUNCED FOR

AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE’S 2015 FALL SEASON

AT DAVID H. KOCH THEATER

Casting for American Ballet Theatre’s 2015 Fall Season at the David H. Koch Theater was announced today by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie.

American Ballet Theatre opens its Fall season on Wednesday, October 21 at

6:30 P.M. with a special opening night Gala performance, highlighted by the New York City premiere of a new work by Mark Morris, with music by Johann Nepomuk Hummel (Septet in C Major, No. 2 “Military”) and costumes by Issac Mizrahi, and the Company Premiere of Frederick Ashton’s Monotones I and II set to music by Erik Satie with costumes by Ashton.

The Opening Night Gala performance will also feature the Revival Premiere of Twyla Tharp’s The Brahms-Haydn Variations led by Sarah Lane, Daniil Simkin, Gillian Murphy and Herman Cornejo with debuts by Isabella Boylston, Alban Lendorf, Maria Kochetkova, James Whiteside, Christine Shevchenko and Joseph Gorak. Misty Copeland, Sterling Baca, Luciana Paris, Arron Scott, Stephanie Williams, Blaine Hoven, April Giangeruso, Calvin Royal III, Skylar Brandt and Craig Salstein will debut in these roles on Saturday evening, October 24. The Brahms-Haydn Variations is set to music by Johannes Brahms (Variations on a Theme by Haydn for Orchestra), with costumes by Santo Loquasto and lighting by Jennifer Tipton.

JPMorgan Chase is the Lead Sponsor of American Ballet Theatre’s Opening Night Fall Gala.

On Tuesday evening,, October 22, Marcelo Gomes will debut in the role of Death in Kurt Jooss’ The Green Table. Set to music by F.A. Cohen, The Green Table features costumes by Hein Heckroth, with masks by Hermann Markard and lighting by Brad

Fields after the Jooss/Markard design. Gomes will reprise the role at the matinee on Sunday, October 25 and Tuesday evening, October 27.

Sarah Lane will make her debut as the Young Girl in Michel Fokine’s Le Spectre de la Rose opposite Herman Cornejo as the Spirit of the Rose on Friday evening, October 23. Cassandra Trenary and Daniil Simkin will dance the roles for the first time at the matinee on Saturday, October 24. Set to music by Carl Maria von Weber (Invitation to the Dance), Le Spectre de la Rose features costumes by Léon Bakst, recreated by Robert Perdziola, scenery by Perdziola and lighting by Brad Fields.

Hee Seo and Alban Lendorf will lead the Company Premiere of George Balachine’s Valse Fantaisie on Friday evening, October 23. Devon Teuscher and Joseph Gorak will debut in these roles at the Saturday matinee, October 24. Staged for ABT by Stacey Caddell, the ballet is set to Valse-Fantaisie in B minor by Mikhail Glinka.

The Company Premiere of AfterEffect, choreographed by Principal Dancer Marcelo Gomes, will be given on Wednesday evening, October 28 with Misty Copeland and James Whiteside in the leading roles. Cassandra Trenary and Cory Stearns will make their debuts in the ballet on Saturday matinee, October 31. Set to Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence, Op 70, Gomes’ work features a set design by artist Françoise Gilot and costumes by Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung. Gomes’ work will consist of four movements, the first of which was premiered by American Ballet Theatre as Aftereffect on October 30, 2013 at the David H. Koch Theater.

The first of two performances of Piano Concerto #1 will be given on Thursday evening, October 29 led by Gillian Murphy, Cory Stearns, Daniil Simkin and Maria Kochetkova in her American Ballet Theatre debut in the role. At the November 1 matinee, the cast will be led by Christine Shevchenko, Calvin Royal III, Skylar Brandt and Gabe Stone Shayer. Piano Concerto #1, choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky and set to music by Dmitri Shostakovich (Concerto No. 1 for Piano, Trumpet and Strings, Op. 35), features scenery by George Tsypin, costumes by Keso Dekker and lighting by Jennifer Tipton.

American Ballet Theatre’s 2015 Fall season also includes three performances of Paul Taylor’s Company B. Staged for ABT by Cathy Buck, Company B is set to songs

sung by the Andrews Sisters, with costumes by Santo Loquasto and lighting by Jennifer Tipton, recreated by Brad Fields.

Tickets for American Ballet Theatre’s 2015 Fall season at the David H. Koch Theater, priced from $25, are available online, at the Koch Theater box office or by phone at 212-496-0600. Performance-only tickets for the Opening Night Gala begin at $25. The David H. Koch Theater is located at Lincoln Center, Broadway and 63rd Street in New York City. For more information, visit ABT’s website at www.abt.org.

American Airlines is the Official Airline of American Ballet Theatre. Northern Trust is the Leading Corporate Sponsor of the American Ballet Theatre Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School. ABT is supported, in part, with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

The Mark Morris Premiere has been generously supported through an endowed gift from The Toni and Martin Sosnoff New Works Fund.

The Company Premiere of AfterEffect has been generously underwritten by the Ted and Mary Jo Shen Charitable Gift Fund. Additional support provided by Lillian E. Kraemer. This production has been generously supported through an endowed gift from The Toni and Martin Sosnoff New Works Fund.

Monotones I and II has been generously supported through an endowed gift from The Toni and Martin Sosnoff New Works Fund.

Valse-Fantaisie has been generously supported through an endowed gift from The Toni and Martin Sosnoff New Works Fund.

The Brahms-Haydn Variations has been made possible by the generous support of Patsy and Jeff Tarr and the JCT Foundation. Additional support provided by Michele and Steve Pesner.

Company B has been generously supported by a gift from Marjorie S. Issac in honor of ABT Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie.

David H. Koch is the Lead Underwriter of Piano Concerto #1. Additional leadership support has been generously provided by The Susan and Leonard Feinstein Foundation. ABT gratefully acknowledges Linda Allard for her generous support of costumes for this production. Mary Jo and Ted Shen, Mrs. Marjorie S. Isaac, and

an anonymous donor are Leading Sponsors of this production. Additional support has been provided by Edward and Caroline Hyman, Charlotte and Macdonald Mathey, Michele and Steven Pesner, and Michael and Sue Steinberg. This production has been generously supported through an endowed gift from the Toni and Martin Sosnoff New Works Fund. This production has been made possible with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The 75th Anniversary performances of The Green Table have been generously underwritten by Marjorie S. Isaac in honor of Kevin McKenzie.

The 75th Anniversary performances of Le Spectre de la Rose have been generously underwritten by Marjorie S. Isaac in honor of Kevin McKenzie.

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It looks like Marcelo Gomes is seriously dialing back in his performing, favoring more dramatic roles like Green Table. This doesn't bode well for the Met season next spring! Of course, several things are still TBA, and I suppose he might be featured in Monotones and/or the Morris premiere.

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Nice that they announced the casting early (the casting for Bard in October has not been announced). I had already purchased tickets for the November 1 matinee and am pleased with the casting of Brahms-Haydn because I have not seen Lendorf and Kochetkova before, and Gillian, my favorite ABT dancer, is scheduled as well. Here's hoping no replacements are needed.

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Funny, the main casting I'm interested in is Monotones, but they didn't announce that casting.mad.gif

Given that I don't see Abrera or Part listed, I'm hoping that means they will turn up in Monotones.

They have not started rehearsing yet. The stager will probably a say in the casting.

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Unless Abrera and Part are guesting with other companies this fall, I have to think they will be cast in Monotones and/or the Mark Morris premiere. It would be unprecedented for any available principal dancer to simply go unused in the fall season, I believe (except, perhaps, for that weird short season at Avery Fisher Hall).

Is there any possibility that Semionova could come back for the fall season? Any official reports on her condition? Abrera, Part, Semionova and Seo all seem like viable and likely candidates for Monotones to me.

I remember Hallberg was riveting in The Green Table, but I can't imagine they are keeping that TBA in the hopes he'd come back from his injury to dance in the fall season.

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Another annoying aspect of ABT: The way the mixed bills are organized, if you want to see most of the ballets, you have to see some of them many times. Every time I try to organize what tickets to buy, I realize I will have to see other ballets time and again. City Ballet doesn't usually do this. For example if they are running a few Balanchine programs they don't interchange them - Program 1 tends to have dedicated ballets, and Progeam 2 , other dedicated ballets. While I might choose to see some of these ABT ballets more than once I'd rather not be forced into multiple viewings by a tie in to something else. And worse, some ABT ballets that I might not want to see at all, I may have to see more than once.

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Unless Abrera and Part are guesting with other companies this fall, I have to think they will be cast in Monotones and/or the Mark Morris premiere. It would be unprecedented for any available principal dancer to simply go unused in the fall season, I believe (except, perhaps, for that weird short season at Avery Fisher Hall).

Is there any possibility that Semionova could come back for the fall season? Any official reports on her condition? Abrera, Part, Semionova and Seo all seem like viable and likely candidates for Monotones to me.

I remember Hallberg was riveting in The Green Table, but I can't imagine they are keeping that TBA in the hopes he'd come back from his injury to dance in the fall season.

According to ABT press release, there will be no Hallberg and Semionova, while Stella and Veronika should be part the TBAs: http://www.abt.org/insideabt/news_display.asp?News_ID=524

Principal Dancers for the 2015 Fall season include Stella Abrera, Isabella Boylston, Misty Copeland, Herman Cornejo, Marcelo Gomes, Maria Kochetkova, Alban Lendorf, Gillian Murphy, Veronika Part, Hee Seo, Daniil Simkin, Cory Stearns and James Whiteside.

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Another annoying aspect of ABT: The way the mixed bills are organized, if you want to see most of the ballets, you have to see some of them many times. Every time I try to organize what tickets to buy, I realize I will have to see other ballets time and again. City Ballet doesn't usually do this. For example if they are running a few Balanchine programs they don't interchange them - Program 1 tends to have dedicated ballets, and Progeam 2 , other dedicated ballets. While I might choose to see some of these ABT ballets more than once I'd rather not be forced into multiple viewings by a tie in to something else. And worse, some ABT ballets that I might not want to see at all, I may have to see more than once.

Most companies seem to do it pretty much the way NYCB does, but when NYCB first started that kind of programming (each program a distinct unit and repeated identically with little or no overlapping between programs--and separate marketing monikers for the programs, too, like "Balanchine Black and White") many people on this site complained that if they wanted to see ballet y, then they might well find themselves forced to sit through ballet x with no alternative (and not everyone is simply "okay" with paying for a ticket to see just one ballet on a program--and I assume few are actually happy about it). Even worse if they wanted to see ballet x more than once.

That kind of programming also prevents one from exploring different repertory and musical juxtapositions over the course of a season and, for people who come in from out of town, it usually limits the variety of repertory one can see in a 2-3 day visit (not a priority for programmers or New Yorkers perhaps but one of the issues discussed on this site). I'm actually reasonably happy with the way NYCB does it--especially when some really great programs are on hand that I want to see multiple times--but there is no perfect way to solve the programming conundrum especially for fans who like to go multiple times . And ABT's way of doing it does solve certain problems even as it may create others. (I have no idea why they do it the way they do...they may have entirely other reasons.)

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Given his acting ability, I would be interested to see Roman Zhurbin dance "Death" in Green Table.

Putting Company B on fifty percent of the programs is a big negative for me. So far I have avoided purchasing any tickets to programs with that work as part of the bill. They are overloading the season with Company Bt and to a lesser extent, the Green Table. In contrast, why so few performances of Valse Fantasie and Piano Concerto.

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Way too much Company B.

It was a real struggle finding evenings with no Company B or Gomes' new piece. (I've been scared away from his work based on what others have had to say about his choreography.) I don't mind Green Table so much because I have memories of it being interesting, if perhaps not satisfying in pure dance terms, and it's not a piece that ABT has done to death (no pun intended) like Company B.

Honestly, I wonder who could possibly be clamoring to buy tickets to the Weds., October 28 performance based on the lineup of pieces:

AfterEffect
M. Copeland
J. Whiteside
Company B
Company
The Green Table
Cast To Be Announced
To be able to see both Monotones and Piano Concerto No. 1 (but avoid Company B), I'm having to see Brahms-Haydn variations twice with the same cast, but at least that's a ballet I very much look forward to seeing twice.
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Stuben, mussel mentions above that Hallberg is not listed as a principal dancer appearing in the fall season. This is referenced in the press release on ABT's website, but not the version of the press release that was posted at the beginning of this thread. It's not at all clear from Hallberg's social media channels when he may return to the stage

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Stuben, mussel mentions above that Hallberg is not listed as a principal dancer appearing in the fall season. This is referenced in the press release on ABT's website, but not the version of the press release that was posted at the beginning of this thread. It's not at all clear from Hallberg's social media channels when he may return to the stage

Much appreciate the reminder fondoffouettes, sorry to have missed that bit from the thread flowers.gif Wishing him full recovery soon! I know many of us feel the same.

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