Alexandra

This just in: AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE’S 2004 FALL SEASON AT CITY CENTER, OCTOBER 20-NOVEMBER 7, ANNOUNCED U.S. PREMIERE OF VIII BY CHRISTOPHER WHEELDON AND WORLD PREMIERE BY TREY McINTYRE TO HIGHLIGHT SEASON Michel Fokine’s Le Spectre de la Rose and Les Sylphides to be Revived American Ballet Theatre’s 2004 Fall season at New York’s City Center, October 20 through November 7, was announced today by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie. The U.S. Premiere of VIII by Christopher Wheeldon and a World Premiere by Trey McIntyre will highlight the three-week engagement along with revivals of Michel Fokine’s Le Spectre de la Rose and Les Sylphides. Principal Dancers for the engagement include Nina Ananiashvili, Maxim Beloserkovsky, Irina Dvorovenko, Jose Manuel Carreño, Angel Corella, Herman Cornejo, Alessandra Ferri, Marcelo Gomes, Guillaume Graffin, Paloma Herrera, Julie Kent, Gillian Murphy, Xiomara Reyes, Ethan Stiefel and Ashley Tuttle. American Ballet Theatre’s 2004 Fall season at City Center will commence with an Opening Night Gala at 7:00 P. M. on Wednesday evening, October 20 featuring ABT’s Principal Dancers performing highlights of the season’s works. Countrywide Financial is the National Sponsor of American Ballet Theatre and Cole Haan is a Leading Benefactor. Graff Jewelers is the 2004 season sponsor of ABT at City Center. ABT’s 2004 Fall season at City Center is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts. United States Premiere A new production of Christopher Wheeldon’s VIII, will have its U.S. and Company Premiere on Friday evening, October 22. Based on the life of King Henry VIII and his first two wives, Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, VIII is set to Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Op. 10 by Benjamin Britten, with new scenery and costumes by Jean-Marc Puissant and lighting by Natasha Katz. Created for the Hamburg Ballet, VIII received its World Premiere in Hamburg on July 1, 2001. In his first work for American Ballet Theatre, Wheeldon has rechoreographed sections of the ballet which will also feature newly designed scenery and costumes by Puissant. World Premiere American Ballet Theatre will present the World Premiere of a new work by choreographer Trey McIntyre on Friday evening, October 22. A former member of Houston Ballet, Trey McIntyre created his first work for Houston, Skeleton Clock, at the age of 20. He has since created five other works for Houston Ballet including the full-length Peter Pan in 2002. He has also created works for a wide range of companies including Stuttgart Ballet, Ballet de Santiago (Chile), Oakland Ballet and Oregon Ballet Theatre. McIntyre is the recipient of two choreographic fellowships from the NEA and a Choo-San Goh Award. The October 22 premiere will mark McIntyre’s first work for ABT. Revivals Two of the most well-known works of Michel Fokine, one of ABT’s founding choreographers, will be revived this season. Les Sylphides, set to the music of Frederic Chopin, will receive its revival premiere on Thursday evening, October 21. This romantic one–act plotless work was premiered by Ballet Theatre, staged by Fokine, at the Company’s inaugural performance on January 11, 1940. Fokine’s staging of the ballet was performed by the Company every season thereafter through 1980. Les Sylphides received its World Premiere as Chopiniana by the Maryinsky Theatre in 1908 and staged for Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes a year later in the form we know today. The revival of Les Sylphides, which will have four performances during the City Center season, will feature scenery by Alexandre Benois and lighting by David K.H. Elliott. Kirk Peterson will stage the revival production of Les Sylphides, after the original by Fokine, with assistance from Susan Jones. Le Spectre de la Rose will be given its revival premiere on Tuesday evening, October 26. A ballet in one act, Le Spectre de la Rose is set to Invitation to the Dance by Carl Maria von Weber with a libretto by Jean Louis Vaudoyer. It was first presented by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes at the Theatre de Monte Carlo in 1911 and received its United States premiere by the same company at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1916. In 1941, a year before his death, Fokine staged Le Spectre de la Rose for Ballet Theatre. Le Spectre de la Rose was last performed by ABT in 1980 with an excerpt presented at ABT’s Gala in 1997 performed by Vladimir Malakhov and Alicia Alonso. ABT’s revival of Le Spectre de la Rose will be staged by Kirk Peterson. Jirí Kylián’s Sinfonietta, last performed by ABT in 1998, will have its revival premiere on Thursday evening, October 21. Set to Leos Janácek’s Sinfonietta, Kylián’s ballet in five movements for fourteen dancers features scenery and costumes by Walter Nobbe. Sinfonietta received its World Premiere by Netherlands Dance Theater in Charleston, South Carolina in 1978 and was first presented by ABT in 1991. Returning Repertory American Ballet Theatre’s three week season at City Center will also feature the return of last season’s Company Premieres of George Balanchine’s Mozartiana, William Forsythe’s workwithinwork and Jirí Kylián’s Petit Mort and Sechs Tänze. Additional repertory will include Balanchine’s Theme and Variations, Kirk Peterson’s Amazed in Burning Dreams and Antony Tudor’s Pillar of Fire. Family Fare A special Halloween matinee for families on October 31 will include a program of Theme and Variations, Le Spectre de la Rose, Sinfonietta and a Pièce d’Occasion performed by PBS Award winning storybook character Angelina Ballerina. Tickets for American Ballet Theatre’s 2004 Fall season at City Center are priced from $35 to $80 and are on sale now by mail or by calling CityTix at 212-581-1212. Discounts are available for packages of three or more performances. The box office will open August 22. City Center is located at West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues in New York City. For more information, please visit ABT’s website at www.abt.org <http://www.abt.org/> . -30-

In the Star Ledger, Robert Johnson reviews Lincoln Center's Ashton Festival.

What a lovely post, GeorgeB fan. I'm glad the season fulfilled your expectations -- and brought some surprises!

Leigh Witchel writes on the Royal's mixed bill, and especially on Scenes de ballet, for DanceView Times: Scenes and Variations: Ashton’s Chic Beauty

Jennifer Dunning reviews the Ashton Celebration in today's NY TImes: With Jitters Gone, an Ashton Feast

Tobi Tobias reviews the Royal Ballet's mixed bill in her ArtsJournal blog: ASHTON CELEBRATION #5

Mindy Aloff reviews opening night of the Royal Ballet's "Cinderella" on DanceView Times: Cinderella

Eric Taub reviews the Ashton mixed bill for ballet.co's magazine: Ashton Mixed Bill

Susan Reiter reviews the Royal Ballet in Newsday.

Robert Greskovic writes about the Ashton Celebration for the Wall Street Journal. There's no link -- this is available only to paid subscribers -- but here's the lead:

Mary Cargill reviews the Ashton Celebration's Divertissements, etc. program for Danceview Times: Hearty Meal

The Royal Ballet opened its first New York season in seven years with an Ashton Festival program. Anna Kisselgoff in the Times Tobi Tobias in her ArtsJournal blog

Mindy Aloff reviews the first Scenes de Ballet/Divertissements/Marguerite and Armand prgoram that opened the Royal Ballet's contribution to Lincoln Center's Ashton Celebration: The Ashton Ballerina

Deborah Jowitt reviews Lincoln Center's Ashton Festival in the Village Voice.

Jennifer Dunning writes of Margot Fonteyn, and the exhibition at the New York Public Library about her career, in the New York Times: Even in Memory, Fonteyn's Aura Can Dazzle

San Francisco dance critic Rachel Howard now has a blog, mostly (though not entirely) devoted to dance: http://www.rachelhoward.com/ She's a very good writer; I recommend bookmarking this one

Monotones II was also filmed for British TV for a show called "Anthony Dowell: All the Superlatives," so you may have seen that as well. It also has Troyte (from Enigma) and Thais. But as far as I know, it's not commercially available.

Leigh! You went?? Thanks for posting that (those, all three). I think one of the ways that Ashton cues you that he's moving from reality to the world of the imagination is that each of the characters has an "entree" of one or two walking (or tricycling) steps. It's very clear in The Lady's first solo (I speak from watching Beriosova in the film). She takes a step or two, and then, almost imperceptibly, she's dancing. He uses a similar device in the "Romeo and Juliet" balcony pas de deux. R&J meet, greet and kiss on the balcony. Then Juliet runs down, off the balcony to the stage. What follows is poetry, not reality -- like all of the death arias in opera. We know the dying character isn't belting out "Our love will never die," or whatever, on her deathbed, but her soul can still sing.

Many thanks to Mme. Hermine for finding this interview, transcribing it, AND getting permission for us to use it! Dick Cavett Interview with Ashton

Thank you, Lisa. Sounds like a happy party.

Thanks dufay! i'll echo your last question. I keep hearing from people who were there, and about who they saw there, yet everyone is strangely silent......... an Ashton blackout?

Yes, please!

Riverdance, musicals, rock and roll. Just a guess. But I don't think they're thinking opera.

I think what Oberon wrote about taking a company for granted is very true -- it's the hardest thing that any director faces, I think, and it's true regardless of repertory. It's understandable, too. It's hard for fans to think, "Ah, Serenade" again -- or "Swan Lake," "Giselle," whatever -- it's my civic duty to attend or the company may go belly up and won't be here next year." As Oberon noted, this often doesn't have anything to do with the quality of the program or the dancers. It could be dancers and a ballet we love. We have to go Christmas shopping tonight, and we can catch it next season.

Thanks -- yes, and a meatier role for Cojacaru. She's also a very musical dancer, and would be interesting to see in "Scenes." You'd get Sylvie either night, though