California

The National Endowment for the Humanities just announced 213 new grants. https://www.neh.gov/sites/default/files/inline-files/NEH December 2020 grants state by state.pdf Of special interest, grants to dance: Tuscaloosa University of Alabama Outright: $99,996 [Digital Humanities Advancement Grants] Project Director: Rebecca Salzer; Gesel Mason (co-project director) Project Title: Prototyping an Extensible Framework for Access to Dance Knowledge Project Description: The creation of an online resource to increase accessibility to recordings of works by Black choreographers along with tools to make it easier to study dance by providing the ability to search and create connections across collections. Ofosuwa Abiola Outright: $15,000 [Awards for Faculty] Howard University Project Title: Unwitting Witnesses: Unearthing Narratives of African Dance in PreColonial Logs Project Description: Archival research leading to a book about dance in West Africa prior to 1880. Hampton University Outright: $149,267 [Humanities Initiatives: HBCUs] Project Director: Laura Battaglia Project Title: Documenting the Legacy of Charles H. Williams on the Campus of Hampton University Project Description: A two-year initiative to create teaching and archival resources about dance and campus architectural history and to integrate them into the university curriculum.

Sarasota Ballet has announced a winter-spring digital season with four programs $120 for all four or $35 each https://mailchi.mp/sarasotaballet.org/30th-anniversary-season-winter-spring-season-update-subscribers-407154?e=68308311cb DIGITAL PROGRAM 4 29 January - 2 February 2021 Paul Taylor's Company B Paul Taylor's Brandenburgs DIGITAL PROGRAM 5 26 February - 2 March 2021 George Balanchine's Donizetti Variations Ricardo Graziano's Amorosa DIGITAL PROGRAM 6 23 - 27 April 2021 George Balanchine's Serenade Sir Kenneth MacMillan's Elite Syncopations DIGITAL PROGRAM 7 21 - 25 May 2021 Sir Frederick Ashton's Birthday Offering Twyla Tharp's Nine Sinatra Songs

More Nutcrackers Colorado Ballet: https://www.coloradoballet.org/presents Marquee (no extra charge): Royal Ballet (2016 & 2018) Medici (no extra charge): Mariinsky with Somova and Shklyarov NYCB with Fairchild and de Luz Staatsopera Berlin Amazon Prime (no extra charge): Baryshnikov's Nutcracker NYCB with Macauley Caulkin (and with ads) YouTube (complete Nutcrackers): Russian State Opera Ballet NYCB 1993 Dutch National Ballet St. Louis Ballet Bolshoi National Ballet of China

Totally agree! And it looks like A Night at the Ballet next weekend, from Live Arts Global, also got the message. Judging from their Instagram postings, they're planning classics like Don Q and R&J PdD. I know a lot of dancers are busy creating new work and giving streamed interviews, but I prefer comfort food while we try to get through this pandemic. https://www.liveartsglobal.com/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CIgLczqnytv/

Mikhail Baryshnikov with Mark Morris Dance Group: free through December 29 https://markmorrisdancegroup.org/dance-on-video-vault/

Not finding it on Netflix, but it's free on Amazon Prime (with ads)

I'm not sure where to post this. If you follow Instagram and/or Facebook, you've seen notices for the Live Arts Global, "A Night at the Ballet." It looks like they've been filming in a real theater and will stream the performances December 17-20. It doesn't appear they are charging for access, but are looking for donations. Very intriguing roster: Sarah Lane and Daniel Ulbricht in Flower Festival, Christine Shevchenko and Julian MacKay in Don Q, Shevchenko and Aran Bell in R&J. In Instagram Stories, Bell introduces Shevchenko as his "real" Juliet. No mention of Cate Hurley in any of the listings. https://www.liveartsglobal.com/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CIeOPO9nUnA/

I am reminded, again, of how welcome the complete Ratmansky Nutcracker would be -- definitely worth paying for. Notice that three major companies are selling digital access to the Balanchine Nutcracker (PNB, Pennsylvania, NYCB/Marquee, and the outdoor Miami version - plus the NYCB version on Medici with Fairfield and DeLuz ). It must have seemed like a good idea pre-pandemic to offer local audiences this legendary version in their own theaters. Now that they're trying to sell it virtually, with so much competition, maybe not so much? I saw a weekend's worth of the Ratmansky at Segerstrom a few years ago and enjoyed it. Very different approach, challenging and interesting choreography, a worthwhile contrast to the Balanchine. Is somebody blocking the digital sale: Segerstrom? Ratmansky? Or maybe they're not happy with the recordings they have? Unfortunate, whatever the explanation. Still, we can dream.

10 minutes -- just the PdD. As noted in the news release, it includes Ivanov's original choreography for the female variation. Interesting. Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwQu2iK_1y4

Welcome news, indeed, but true to form, why hasn't ABT sent out a notice to all their current donors? Maybe that will arrive later today. How hard would that be? It looks like we'll get a few brief excerpts, but not the entire thing? Still, the last full paragraph almost sounds like there is a recording of the entire ballet. This is something I'd pay for!

I've been thinking about this, but for different reasons. Some companies are doing a great job mounting digital programs/subscriptions and some aren't. I'd single out SFB, PNB, Sarasota, and Boston as doing a great job. They're bringing in some revenue, keeping at least some dancers employed for some of the programs, and keeping donor interest high with a mix of pre-recorded and new performances, when possible. Others seem to be limping along. ABT showed donors the Manon with Ferri/Bolle, but not much else of interest. Admittedly, they probably don't have much in the digital vault. NYCB has shown a huge amount of stuff and asked for donations each time, but why haven't they pursued the digital subscription mix that we see at SFB and PNB? Maybe that will happen. And some of this reflects union and copyright agreements on the things they do have, of course. We don't know numbers that are available to boards for donations, subscriptions, etc., but I'll bet those start to catch up with some artistic directors.

Sarasota has just announced a digital spring season for 2021: 30th Anniversary Season Winter - Spring Updates Dear Sarasota Ballet Family, With holidays around the corner and 2020 coming to a close in just a few weeks, we wanted to take this opportunity to connect with you and let you know about our plans for the remainder of our 30th Anniversary Season. We are eager to share with you several significant changes to our current 2020-21 Season, in order to ensure a safe and artistically satisfying ballet experience. These Season updates will make it possible for audience members to celebrate this important anniversary with us both digitally and in person. Read on to find out more! We have two major updates to our upcoming third Digital Program. First, we are excited to announce that Digital Program 3 will include Peter Darrell's Othello, a balletic adaptation of William Shakespeare's iconic drama. Darrell's Othello distills the narrative beats of the source play into a one-act production that conveys the story through choreographic nuance and deep characterization. Additionally, to accommodate for rehearsal schedule updates, Digital Program 3 will now be presented to watch 1 - 5 January 2021, having moved two weeks from its originally scheduled viewing dates. With COVID-19's impact continuing into 2021, we reaffirm our dedication to providing a safe and engaging ballet experience accessible to everyone. Therefore, today we announce that the remainder of The Sarasota Ballet's 2020-21 Season will be converted to a digitally formatted series of Programs, titled our Digital Winter - Spring Season. This decision was made with the safety and well-being of our dancers as well as our audience in mind, and we encourage you to join us for our upcoming digital performances. For ballet fans eager to return to live ballet performances and maintain social distancing, we have multiple options in store. In addition to our Digital Winter - Spring Season, we will be scheduling several special outdoor performances over the rest of our Season. These outdoor ballet events will be designed with safety measures in place so that you can comfortably enjoy these in-person ballet events. Dates for outdoor performances will be announced in a future communication. We are also happy to invite our Full Season and Flex Four Ballet Subscribers to an exclusive subscriber performance later on in the Season. More information regarding this will be communicated to Subscribers in the future. This substantial update to the rest of our 30th Anniversary Season also requires changes to our planned performance dates and lineup. While some ballets originally planned for the Season are compatible with the new performance format, others were not. Below you will find a listing of the updated performance dates, as well as the ballets scheduled to be performed this Season! DIGITAL PROGRAM 3 1 - 5 January 2021 Peter Darrell's Othello Christopher Wheeldon's The American, Pas de Deux Sir Matthew Bourne's The Infernal Galop, Merman Solo Sir Peter Wright's The Mirror Walkers Sir Peter Wright's Summertide Sir Kenneth MacMillan's Concerto, Pas de Deux Dominic Walsh's Clair de Lune DIGITAL PROGRAM 4 29 January - 2 February 2021 Paul Taylor's Company B Paul Taylor's Brandenburgs DIGITAL PROGRAM 5 26 February - 2 March 2021 George Balanchine's Donizetti Variations Ricardo Graziano's Amorosa DIGITAL PROGRAM 6 23 - 27 April 2021 George Balanchine's Serenade Sir Kenneth MacMillan's Elite Syncopations DIGITAL PROGRAM 7 21 - 25 May 2021 Sir Frederick Ashton's Birthday Offering Twyla Tharp's Nine Sinatra Songs Purchase Your Tickets Today We hope these announcements have provided clarity regarding The Sarasota Ballet's plans for the next few months. Ticket holders can also expect to receive additional details regarding their tickets via another email to be sent tomorrow. Once again, we appreciate your patience and support as we strive, as always, to deliver world-class ballet to the Sarasota community and beyond. With much love, The Sarasota Ballet

I'm relieved that I'm not the only person who was bored to tears with the ABT offerings, which I could only stand to watch once. I'd happily pay for some great classical stuff, like PdD with Bell-Hurlin or Brandt-Shayer. Do they have a tape of the Ratmansky Nutcracker or his new one, Of Love and Rage, shown in Orange County? It's going to be such a long time before I can see those in the theater. That's about as much innovation as I care for during the pandemic, which looks like it will be seriously with us through at least July.

The Australian Ballet has announced their 2021 season: https://australianballet.com.au/the-ballets/harlequinade This is David Hallberg's first as artistic director and it's a very interesting season: Cranko's Romeo and Juliet, Ratmansky's Harlequinade, Balanchine, Anna Karenina, and a program with Raymonda and Forsythe. If you follow him on Instagram, you know he had an extended good-bye tour in NYC and then two weeks of quarantine in Australia. He introduces it on YouTube:

Thank you! Here's the direct link: https://www.nycballet.com/season-and-tickets/

More Nutcrackers than I can digest in the next month! Amazon Prime: Included: Baryshnikov, Slovak National Ballet + several more with a charge or another subscription Netflix: Dance Dreams: Hot Chocolate Nutcracker (documentary with Debbie Allen) Medici (offering a one-year subscription for $51!): Mariinsky (with Somova and Shklyarov); NYCB (with Fairchild and De Luz); Staatsoper Berlin (1999) DirectTV: Czech National Ballet PBS: local stations are airing local companies in Boston and Colorado -- are there more? Marquee.tv (it overlaps so much with Medici in Ballet, I decided to skip it for now - $60/yr on a new subscription): NYCB (Kowroski/Angle); Royal Ballet (Hayward, Cuthbertson, Bonelli); Moscow Ballet Disney+: No Nutcrackers that I can see. I'm thinking of a one-month subscription to see Hamilton and the SAB documentary series

I watched this twice on-line and really love it, and I so appreciate your detailed analysis. I am particularly curious about the choreography. I don't know the ballet well enough to know what is from the "original" Bournonville and what has been revised over the years. Certainly it seemed in the style of Bournonville, but it sounds like it is essentially Bournonville's choreography. Have historic reconstructions (a la Ratmansky) been attempted? Was a form of notation used at this company?

Thanks for the heads-up. A really gorgeous production of an old classic. Worth a look. EDIT: I'm actually watching this a second time this morning. The stage seems small, certainly compared with the Met or State Theater. Or is that the sets? (I've never seen the RDB in their home theater, although it's on my wish list if we ever get past this pandemic!)

I confess I'm not a Forsythe fan. I saw his Pas/Part at San Francisco Ballet a few years ago and just hated it. I saw his Love Songs with Stuttgart Ballet at the Kennedy Center in 1979 and remember thinking it was the most misogynistic ballet ever made. Anne Nugent published an excellent overview of his work in that era, including Love Songs: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25598043?seq=1 I do appreciate the (too-brief) clips on the Boston Ballet digital program and I'm willing to try again, although I wish we could see even one complete work. He does seem to have a loyal following and I see his work programmed at several companies. Still, I can't imagine seeking out his work in the future. I gather he has softened Love Songs over the years. The YouTube Clip is more recent, but this gives you an idea:

Speaking of comfort food! The second digital program by Sarasota Ballet premiered today and is available through Tuesday. All Balanchine! Tarantella + excerpts from Donizetti, 4Ts, Who Cares, Western. There are so many young, well-trained dancers in the US, that it's great they have opportunities to perform at these smaller regional companies. I hope those companies survive COVID. I'm sure people who enjoy a steady diet of NYCB performances could nitpick details of their performance, but this is a wonderful treat for audience and dancers alike. The final program has been announced for December. I'm not familiar with most of these pieces, but the choreographers are well-regarded, and it looks promising: Digital Program 3 Featuring performances and excerpts of works including: Christopher Wheeldon's The American Sir Matthew Bourne's The Infernal Galop, Merman Solo Sir Peter Wright's The Mirror Walkers Sir Peter Wright's Summertide Dominic Walsh's Clair de Lune Sir Kenneth MacMillan's Concerto Ricardo Graziano's Amorosa, pas de deux Additional one-act ballet and extra content to be announced. https://www.sarasotaballet.org/digital-fall-season-2020

I was relieved to see a lot of "comfort food" -- most notably the Stravinsky Festival I, II, III in May 2022, as well as several program of Balanchine/Robbins. Definitely worth some travelling to gorge on these masterpieces. But I'm seeing a lot of unimpressive experimental stuff on digital programs this fall and I'm not sure I want to see more of it when we can finally get back to live theater performances. At first it seemed odd to announce so far in advance, but the subscription renewals should help their cash flow and the specificity of their plans must be encouraging to dancers and donors. (I'm wondering when ABT will announce something -- does anybody believe they'll perform in Minneapolis and Chicago next April?)

Some quick arithmetic: Orchestra A/Front Ring A = $170/ticket Orchestra B/Second Ring A = $130 A little more than in the past, but not that much. They say nothing about safety that I see - must assume the vaccines will be working by fall 2021.

NYCB has announced their 2021-2022 season at the Koch Theater! https://www.nycballet.com/about-us/for-the-press/new-york-city-ballet-will-not-perform-at-the-david-h-koch-theater-during-the-winter-and-spring-of-2021/ 2021-22 SEASON HIGHLIGHTS The 2021-22 Season will also mark NYCB’s first season fully planned by the Company’s new artistic leadership team, with programming curated by Associate Artistic Director Wendy Whelan working in collaboration with Artistic Director Jonathan Stafford and Resident Choreographer and Artistic Advisor Justin Peck. In announcing the programming for the 2021-22 Season, Whelan said, "While the ongoing shutdown continues to be challenging for everyone, it has been very gratifying to look to the future and make plans to launch this first full season that Jon, Justin and I have programmed. It is certain to be a very exciting and moving year of performances by our amazing company of artists." Six World Premiere Ballets Highlights of the 2021-22 season will include six world premiere ballets, including new works by Sidra Bell and Andrea Miller during the 2021 Fall Season, new works by Justin Peck and Jamar Roberts during the 2022 Winter Season, and new works by Silas Farley and Pam Tanowitz during the 2022 Spring Season. "We are honored to present the most diverse group of choreographers who have ever been commissioned by NYCB during a single season," said Whelan. "I know that these artists will inspire and energize everyone here as we continue our unparalleled commitment to expanding the ballet repertory, as well as continuing our work to make the Company a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive institution." September 21, 2021 – Opening Night Performance New York City Ballet’s 2021-22 Season at Lincoln Center will open on Tuesday, September 21, with a special celebration of the Company’s return to the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center. "This opening night performance at our home theater after more than a year away from its stage will be an unforgettable evening for both the Company and our audiences," said Whelan. Programming for this one-time-only performance will be announced at a later date. Fall Fashion Gala – Thursday, September 30 – Bell and Miller World Premieres The Company’s annual Fall Fashion Gala will take place on Thursday, September 30 featuring the World Premiere ballets by Sidra Bell and Andrea Miller, both of whom are making their first-ever works for the stage at NYCB. The fashion designers who will collaborate with Bell and Miller will be announced at a later date. Winter Season World Premieres by Justin Peck and Jamar Roberts For the 2022 Winter Season, NYCB Resident Choreographer and Artistic Advisor Justin Peck will create a new work that will premiere on Thursday, January 27 as part of the Company’s annual New Combinations Evening, on a program that will also include Merce Cunningham’s Summerspace. The Winter Season will also include a new ballet by Jamar Roberts set to music by Kyle Preston, which was originally announced for the 2020 Spring Season, and will now premiere on Thursday, February 3. In 2019 Roberts was named the Resident Choreographer of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, where he joined as a dancer in 2002. World Premiere by Silas Farley for the 50th Anniversary of NYCB’s 1972 Stravinsky Festival Highlighting the 2022 Spring Season will be a two-week celebration of the 50th Anniversary of NYCB’s legendary 1972 Stravinsky Festival, from Tuesday, May 3 through Sunday, May 15. The celebration will feature ballets to Stravinsky’s music by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Justin Peck, as well as two orchestral works performed by the 62-piece New York City Ballet Orchestra which is led by NYCB Music Director Andrew Litton. The anniversary celebration will also include a World Premiere ballet created in tribute to Stravinsky and Balanchine’s landmark works by former NYCB dancer Silas Farley, who recently retired from dancing to pursue other educational and artistic opportunities. The score for the new ballet will be created by composer and writer David K. Israel and based on a 1946 musical exchange between Balanchine and Stravinsky, in which Balanchine wrote an acrostic poem in Russian as a gift for Stravinsky’s 65th birthday and set it to a simple melody. Stravinsky then harmonized the melody as a gesture of gratitude for Balanchine. The new Farley ballet will premiere on Thursday, May 5 as part of the Company’s annual Spring Gala performance. Spring Season Premieres by Pam Tanowitz and Collaboration with Dance Theatre of Harlem The 2022 Spring Season will also feature the World Premiere of a new work by choreographer Pam Tanowitz set to composer Ted Hearne’s Law of Mosaics for string ensemble, which was originally scheduled to premiere during the 2020 Spring Season, and will now premiere on Friday, April 22. The same performance will also include the NYCB Premiere of Pam Tanowitz’s Gustave Le Gray No. 1, a quartet that was originally created in 2019 for "Ballet Across America" at the Kennedy Center and featured dancers from Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) and Miami City Ballet. For the NYCB premiere of Gustave Le Gray No. 1, which is set to music by Caroline Shaw performed by an on-stage pianist, the work will be performed by two dancers from NYCB and two guest dancers from DTH, marking the first time in 20 years that the two companies have performed together at Lincoln Center. Ask la Cour, Maria Kowroski, Gonzalo Garcia – Farewell Performances The 2021-22 Season will also feature Farewell Performances for three of the Company’s long-time Principal Dancers – Ask la Cour on Saturday, October 9, 2021; Maria Kowroski, on Sunday, October 17, 2021; and Gonzalo Garcia on Sunday, February 27, 2022. "It is always bittersweet for both the Company and our audiences to say goodbye to beloved dancers, but we look forward to celebrating Maria, Ask, and Gonzalo’s incredible careers at these three special performances," said Stafford. Chun Wai Chan Joins NYCB As Soloist Chun Wai Chan, formerly a Principal Dancer with the Houston Ballet, will join NYCB as a Soloist next year. "We are very happy to announce that Chun Wai Chan will join New York City Ballet as a Soloist," said Stafford and Whelan. "We first talked to him in January about becoming a member of NYCB for the start of the 2020 Fall Season, but had to postpone those plans when that season was cancelled. Chun Wai will be a wonderful addition to our roster of dancers and we look forward to working with him when we return to rehearsals for the 2021-22 season." Born in Guangdong, China, Chan trained at the Guangzhou Art School from 2004 to 2010. In 2010 Chan was a finalist at the Prix de Lausanne ballet competition which earned him a full scholarship to study with Houston Ballet’s second company, Houston Ballet II. In 2012 Chan joined Houston Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet and he was promoted to Principal in 2017. His repertory with Houston Ballet included leading roles in ballets by Stanton Welch, Ben Stevenson, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, John Cranko, William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián, Edwaard Liang, Wayne McGregor, Trey McIntyre, and Justin Peck, among others. Chan was also featured in Dance Magazine’s "25 to Watch" in 2016 and Pointe Magazine’s "Standouts of 2017." He has also appeared at the Nijinsky Gala XLI in Hamburg, Germany (2015), New York City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival (2015), and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival (2018). Chan was also a Guest Principal with Hong Kong Ballet in 2018 and 2019. ADDITIONAL 2021-22 SEASON PROGRAMMING Complete programming details for the 2021-22 Season will be announced at a later date, in addition to the new works, repertory highlights will include: 2021 Fall Season – Tuesday, September 21 through Sunday, October 17 George Balanchine’s Serenade, Agon, Symphony in C, Chaconne, Western Symphony, and Slaughter on Tenth Avenue Jerome Robbins’ Glass Pieces and Opus 19/The Dreamer Alexei Ratmansky’s Namouna, A Grand Divertissement Christopher Wheeldon’s Mercurial Manoeuvres and After the Rain (pas de deux) Justin Peck’s Rotunda George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker® – Friday, November 26 through Sunday, January 2 2022 Winter Season – Tuesday, January 18 through Sunday, February 27 George Balanchine’s Diamonds, The Four Temperaments, Mozartiana, La Valse, Pavane, and Prodigal Son, Walpurgisnacht Ballet, and The Unanswered Question from Ivesiana Jerome Robbins’ Moves and Andantino Pam Tanowitz’s Bartók Ballet Peter Martins’ Swan Lake Christopher Wheeldon’s DGV: Danse à Grande Vitesse 2022 Spring Season – Tuesday, April 19 through Sunday, May 29 George Balanchine’s Agon, Apollo, Orpheus, Firebird, Symphony in Three Movements, Rubies, Duo Concertant, Divertimento from 'Le Baiser de la Fée,' Le Tombeau de Couperin, Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Divertimento No 15, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream Jerome Robbins’ The Cage, Circus Polka, Afternoon of a Faun, and Piano Pieces Justin Peck’s Pulcinella Variations and Scherzo Fantastique TICKET SALES Subscription packages for the 2021-22 season will go on sale in mid-November. Single tickets for George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker® and repertory performances for the 2021-22 Season will go on sale next year, date to be announced. Subscription packages and single tickets will be available online at nycballet.com or by phone at 212-496-0600. All performances will take place at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, which is located at West 63rd Street and Columbus Avenue. Programming is subject to change. FAREWELL PERFORMANCES ASK LA COUR – Saturday, October 9 at 8pm Ask la Cour, who joined NYCB in 2002, will give his farewell performance with the Company on Saturday, October 9 at 8pm dancing Balanchine’s Monumentum pro Gesualdo and Movements for Piano and Orchestra, and Christopher Wheeldon’s After the Rain (pas de deux). Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, la Cour began his dance training at the age of nine at the Royal Danish Ballet School. He joined the Royal Danish Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet in 2000, where he performed featured roles in ballets by August Bournonville, John Cranko, Peter Martins, John Neumeier, Alexei Ratmansky, and Lila York. In the fall of 2002 la Cour joined New York City Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet. He was promoted to the rank of Soloist in the spring of 2005 and was named a Principal Dancer in the winter of 2013. Since joining NYCB, la Cour has danced an extensive repertory of ballets by NYCB’s co-founding choreographers George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, and has also performed leading roles in works by Robert Binet, August Bournonville, Boris Eifman, Jorma Elo, Lauren Lovette, Peter Martins, Benjamin Millepied, Justin Peck, Alexei Ratmansky, Susan Stroman, Richard Tanner, and Christopher Wheeldon. In January 2020, la Cour was named the artistic director of the Frank Ohman School of Ballet and New York Dance Theatre, which is based in Commack, New York and was founded in 1979 by former NYCB soloist Frank Ohman who passed away in 2019. MARIA KOWROSKI – Sunday, October 17, 2021 at 3pm Maria Kowroski, who has danced with New York City Ballet for more than 25 years, will give her farewell performance with the Company on Sunday, October 17, 2021 at 3pm. The program for the performance will be announced at a later date. Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Kowroski began her ballet training at age seven with the School of Grand Rapids Ballet. She entered the School of American Ballet (SAB), the official school of NYCB, in the fall of 1992. Kowroski became an apprentice with NYCB in the summer of 1994 and was invited to join the Company as a member of the corps de ballet in January of 1995. In the spring of 1997, she was promoted to the rank of Soloist and in the spring of 1999, Kowroski was promoted to Principal Dancer. During her extraordinary career with NYCB, Kowroski has performed leading roles in a vast range of works by NYCB’s co-founding choreographers George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, and is the only current dancer with NYCB to have worked directly with Robbins. Kowroski has also originated featured roles in works by numerous choreographers including Mauro Bigonzetti, Boris Eifman, Jorma Elo, Eliot Feld, Douglas Lee, Edwaard Liang, Peter Martins, Wayne McGregor, Benjamin Millepied, Matthew Neenan, Justin Peck, Susan Stroman, Helgi Tomasson, and Christopher Wheeldon, among others. Kowroski has performed as a guest artist with the Mariinsky Ballet in productions of Swan Lake, Jewels, Prodigal Son, and most recently Serenade and In the Night. She has performed in international galas and guested with several ballet companies around the world. She appeared in the production of Carmen at The Metropolitan Opera. She was also a recipient of the Princess Grace Award in 1994 and the statuette award in 2006. GONZALO GARCIA – Sunday, February 27, 2022 at 3pm Gonzalo Garcia, who joined NYCB as a Principal Dancer in 2007, will give his farewell performance with the Company on Sunday, February 27, 2022 at 3pm. The program for the performance will be announced at a later date. Born in Zaragoza, Spain, Garcia began studying ballet at the age of eight at Maria Avila’s school. In 1995, he attended the summer session at San Francisco Ballet School and participated in the Prix de Lausanne, becoming the youngest dancer to receive a gold medal. He then returned to the San Francisco Ballet School to resume his studies and joined San Francisco Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet in March 1998. He was promoted to Soloist in 2000, and became a Principal Dancer in 2002. His repertory with SFB included leading roles in works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, William Forsythe, Mark Morris, Yuri Possokhov, Helgi Tomasson, and Christopher Wheeldon. Garcia made his first appearance with NYCB as a guest artist in 2004 when he was invited to perform Balanchine’s Ballo della Regina as part of the Company’s Balanchine Centennial Celebration.Since joining NYCB in the fall of 2007, Garcia has performed numerous featured roles in ballets by Balanchine, Robbins, and many other choreographers, including August Bournonville, Benjamin Millepied, and Twyla Tharp. Garcia has also created featured roles in five ballets by NYCB Resident Choreographer Justin Peck, as well as works by Mauro Bigonzetti, Peter Martins, Wayne McGregor, Alexei Ratmansky, and Christopher Wheeldon, among others. In 2018 Garcia was named to the permanent faculty of the School of American Ballet. CHOREOGRAPHERS FOR WORLD PREMIERE BALLETS SIDRA BELL – World Premiere – September 30, 2021 (Fall Fashion Gala) Sidra Bell is the founder of Sidra Bell Dance New York and a choreographer and educator who is currently a Master Lecturer at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, an Adjunct Professor at Marymount Manhattan College, a Lecturer at SUNY Purchase, and an Adjunct Professor at Ball State University in Indiana. She has been an artist in residence at Harvard University, and an Adjunct Professor at Georgian Court University and Barnard College. Bell received a BA in History from Yale University and an MFA in Choreography from Purchase College Conservatory of Dance. She is the founder and creative director of the award-winning MODULE Laboratory, a New York City-based immersive platform for movement and theater artists. Bell has won several awards, notably a First Prize for Choreography at the Solo Tanz Theater Festival in Stuttgart, Germany and a National Dance Project Production Award from the New England Foundation for the Arts. Her work has been seen throughout the United States and in Denmark, France, Austria, Bulgaria, Turkey, Slovenia, Sweden, Germany, China, Canada, Aruba, Korea, Brazil, and Greece. Bell has created over 100 works notably for BODYTRAFFIC, Ailey II, The Juilliard School, Whim W'Him, Boston Conservatory at Berklee College, River North Dance Chicago, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Sacramento Ballet, Ballet Austin, Springboard Danse Montréal, and Alonzo King's LINES Ballet School, among others. ANDREA MILLER – World Premiere – September 30, 2021 (Fall Fashion Gala) Andrea Miller is the Artistic Director, Choreographer, and Founder of Brooklyn-based company GALLIM. She creates movement-based works for stage, film, museums, and gallery spaces, and is currently working on a series of dance films and site-specific works. Her highly acclaimed dances are performed by GALLIM as well as other leading dance companies around the world. Recent commissions include New York City Ballet, Works & Process at the Guggenheim, Martha Graham Dance Company, A.I.M., Ballet Hispánico, Ailey II, Rambert 2, and The Juilliard School, as well as Netherlands Dance Theater 2, Bern Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Grace Farms, and Noord Nederlands Dans. From 2017–2018, Miller became the first choreographer to hold the distinction of being named Artist-in-Residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has been recognized with fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, Sadler’s Wells, New York City Center, and the Princess Grace Foundation. In October 2018, she was featured in Forbes as a female entrepreneur and leader in the dance world.Film credits include The Death and Life of John F. Donovan (2018), directed by Xavier Dolan; In This Life (2018) starring former NYCB Principal Dancer Robbie Fairchild; Sara (2020) starring NYCB Principal Dancer Sara Mearns and directed by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost; Notes on Gathering (2020) directed by Miller and Ben Stamper; Orilla (2020) directed by Miller and Ben Stamper; and Shaping Absence (2020) directed by Miller and Ben Stamper. Currently an adjunct professor at Marymount Manhattan College, Miller has also served as an adjunct professor at Barnard College, and has been invited to teach across the U.S., recently at Harvard University, The Juilliard School, New York University, Wesleyan University, and the University of California, Santa Barbara, among others. JUSTIN PECK – World Premiere – January 27, 2022 Justin Peck is the Resident Choreographer and Artistic Advisor of New York City Ballet. He has worked with a range of artistic collaborators including composers Dan Deacon, Bryce Dessner, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Sufjan Stevens; visual artists John Baldessari, Jules de Balincourt, Marcel Dzama, Shepard Fairey, Karl Jensen, Stephen Powers, and Sterling Ruby; and fashion designers Tsumori Chisato, Prabal Gurung, Mary Katrantzou, Humberto Leon, and Dries Van Noten. He has created more than 40 works for a range of institutions including New York City Ballet, the Paris Opéra Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Houston Ballet, and L.A. Dance Project, and his works have also been performed by Dutch National Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, and Pennsylvania Ballet, among other companies. A native of San Diego, California and a dancer with New York City Ballet from 2007 to 2019, Peck participated in the New York Choreographic Institute, an affiliate of NYCB, in 2009, and received NYCI’s first year-long choreographic residency in 2011. Peck was named NYCB’s Resident Choreographer, the second in the Company’s history, in July 2014. Peck was the subject of the 2014 documentary Ballet 422, which followed him for two months as he created NYCB’s 422nd original ballet, Paz de la Jolla. In 2015, his ballet Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes won the Bessie Award for Outstanding Production. Peck was the Tony Award–winning choreographer of the 2018 Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, and he is the choreographer of the upcoming film adaptation of West Side Story, directed by Academy Award-winning director Steven Spielberg. JAMAR ROBERTS – World Premiere – February 3, 2022 Jamar Roberts is the Resident Choreographer of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT). A dancer with the company since 2002, Roberts’ first full-length work for the company, Members Don’t Get Weary, premiered at New York City Center in December of 2016 to critical acclaim. In December of 2019 he premiered his next work entitled Ode. Roberts has set his work entitled Gemeos on Ailey II. Roberts is a graduate of the New World School of the Arts and The Ailey School and has danced for AAADT, Ailey II, and Complexions Contemporary Ballet. He won the 2016 Bessie Award for Outstanding Performer and has performed as a guest artist with The Royal Ballet in London and made multiple television performance appearances. He has been commissioned by the Juilliard School Dance Division for both live and virtual works, the March on Washington Film Festival to create a dance on film tribute to the honorable John Lewis, New York City Center’s Fall For Dance Festival, and as a Works and Process Virtual Commissioned artist, where he created the acclaimed short work on film entitled Cooped. PAM TANOWITZ – World Premiere – April 22, 2022 Pam Tanowitz, New York-based choreographer and founder of Pam Tanowitz Dance, is known for her unflinchingly post-modern treatment of the classical dance vocabulary. Tanowitz was recently named the first-ever Choreographer in Residence at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. In 2019, she received the Herb Alpert Award in Dance. Other awards include Baryshnikov Arts Center’s Cage Cunningham Fellowship (2017), City Center Choreography Fellowship (2016), Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University Fellowship (2016), Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University (2013), Guggenheim Fellowship (2011), and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Grants to Artist Award (2010). She received Bessie Awards in 2009 & 2016. In addition to Bartók Ballet (2019) created for NYCB, Tanowitz’s recent works include commissions from American Ballet Theatre, The Royal Ballet, Paul Taylor American Modern Dance, the Kennedy Center’s “Ballet Across America,” Martha Graham Dance Company, The Joyce Theater, Bard Summerscape Festival, Vail International Dance Festival, and New York Live Arts, among numerous others. She has also created or set work for City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival, The Juilliard School, Ballet Austin, New York Theater Ballet, and Saint Louis Ballet; and has been a guest choreographer at Barnard College and Princeton University. Originally from New Rochelle, New York, Tanowitz holds degrees from The Ohio State University and Sarah Lawrence College, and is currently a visiting guest artist at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. SILAS FARLEY – World Premiere – May 5, 2022 (Spring Gala) Silas Farley is a choreographer and an Armstrong Visiting Artist-in-Residence in Ballet at Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts. Originally from Charlotte, North Carolina, Farley danced with New York City Ballet from 2012-2020, and has been a choreographer since age 11. Farley has created ballets for MetLiveArts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Works & Process at the Guggenheim Museum’s Virtual Commissions initiative, the School of American Ballet (SAB), the New York Choreographic Institute, the Columbia Ballet Collaborative, and the Practicing Silence workshop at Grace Farms Foundation. He has been commissioned by The Washington Ballet to create a work scheduled to premiere in June 2021. Farley is a guest teacher at SAB and has also guest taught internationally. He served as the 2018-19 Artist in Residence for Ballet Hartford and was an inaugural Jerome Robbins Dance Division Fellow at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, where his research earned him Lincoln Center’s 2015 Martin E. Segal Award. He has lectured on ballet extensively and is the host of the "Hear the Dance" episodes of NYCB’s City Ballet The Podcast. Since the summer of 2019, Farley has served on the Board of Directors of The George Balanchine Foundation.

Casting for the Colorado Ballet's Nutcracker is announced on the RMPBS site: https://www.rmpbs.org/schedule/nutcracker/ It appears this is the student matinee from 2019. The old costumes and sets, of course. They were hoping to debut new ones this year. (If you're interested in history, these came from SF Ballet when they got new ones -- so you can imagine how old they are.) Francisco Estevez is a principal now and I'm disappointed we're not seeing a performance with his gorgeous torchlift with Asuka Sasaki. (She's Dewdrop.) Fernanda Oliveira is now in the corps at Pennsylvania Ballet and a great loss to Colorado. Tracy Jones has retired, as has Chandra Kuykendall. Tyler Rhoads left to go to Cornell Law School.

Colorado Ballet announces reconceived 2020-2021 season. This seemed inevitable. But I'm glad they'll have dancers back for some limited performing in their black box theater with digital transmission. Colorado Ballet Reimagines Remaining Season All mainstage performances will be rescheduled for future dates and alternative programming will complete the current season. Dear Season Ticket Subscribers, Colorado Ballet announces that we are currently reimagining the remainder of the 2020/2021 season. Given the ongoing restrictions and safety considerations surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, all remaining performances for the 2020/2021 season that were originally scheduled at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House with a live audience will not take place. However, we are delighted to announce that all productions including The Great Gatsby, The Wizard of Oz and Giselle will be rescheduled. With this postponement, all season tickets will be returned. Please see below for your ticketing options. In spite of the current situation that prevents us from gathering together to present and enjoy live mainstage productions, we remain committed to bringing world-class dance to our audiences. We are thrilled to collaborate with Rocky Mountain PBS to bring The Nutcracker into your homes this holiday season in partnership with PNC Bank. In January 2021, Colorado Ballet’s dancers will return to work and begin rehearsals for alternative, mixed-repertory programs that will be performed in February, March and April of 2021, featuring solos and pas de deux. Patrons will have the opportunity to view these intimate performances virtually via digital features online. Also, as health and safety guidelines allow, a limited number of patrons will be able to attend these performances in the Black Box Theater at Colorado Ballet’s Armstrong Center for Dance. Stay tuned as we approach 2021 for more information about how to view and experience these productions. We are excited about the new possibilities our current circumstances present and the opportunity for our dancers to work on and perform different types of repertoire. We will do everything possible to enable our dancers to continue to share their artistry with you. Ticketing Options Please visit our website and login to your account and select the “Request a Return” button below each performance that you have tickets for. You will be given four choices: request a refund, make a donation, receive an on-account credit or exchange your tickets for a gift certificate. Questions? If you have any questions or need further assistance, please contact our friendly Patron Services Representatives at 303-837-8888 ext. 2. Please be aware that call-backs will likely take a bit longer than usual because our Patron Services Representatives are not in the office, but are checking messages remotely.