Dale
-
Posts
3,521 -
Joined
Content Type
Forums
Events
Blogs
Store
Posts posted by Dale
-
-
Official release:
CASTING ANNOUNCED FOR FIRST TWO WEEKS OF
AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE’S 2015 SPRING SEASON
AT METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE
JOEL GREY, SIGOURNEY WEAVER, SUSAN JAFFE AND RUTH ANN KOESUN
TO CO-HOST DIAMOND ANNIVERSARY GALA PERFORMANCE ON
MONDAY EVENING, MAY 18 AT 6:30 P.M.
75th ANNIVERSARY DIAMOND JUBILEE SPONSORED BY ESCADA
Casting for the first two weeks of American Ballet Theatre’s 2015 Spring Season at the Metropolitan Opera House was announced today by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie.
The season will begin on Monday, May 11 with a week of repertory programs celebrating the Company’s heritage. Eight performances, May 11 through 16, will include Michel Fokine’s Les Sylphides, Antony Tudor’s Pillar of Fire and Jardin aux Lilas, Jerome Robbins’ Fancy Free, George Balanchine’s Theme and Variations and Agnes de Mille’s Rodeo.
Hee Seo will lead the season’s first performance of Michel Fokine’s Les Sylphides on Monday evening, May 11 at 7:30 P.M. with Thomas Forster (The Poet), Isabella Boylston (Mazurka) and Melanie Hamrick (Waltz). Misty Copeland will debut in the Waltz on Thursday evening, May 14 at 7:30 P.M. Set to music by Frédéric Chopin, Les Sylphides, a one-act plotless work, was given its Company Premiere at Ballet Theatre's inaugural performance on January 11, 1940 at the Center Theatre in New York City. The ballet received its first performance at the Maryinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg on March 8, 1908. This production of Les Sylphides features scenery by Alexandre Benois and lighting by Nananne Porcher.
The Company will give the season’s first performance of Antony Tudor’s Pillar of Fire on Monday evening, May 11 at 7:30 P.M., with Gillian Murphy in the role of Hagar, Alexandre Hammoudi as The Friend and Marcelo Gomes as The Young Man from the House OppositePillar of Fire, set to Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night), received its World Premiere by Ballet Theatre on April 8, 1942 performed by Nora Kaye (Hagar), Lucia Chase (Eldest Sister), Annabelle Lyon (Youngest Sister), Antony Tudor (The Friend) and Hugh Laing (The Young Man From the House Opposite). ABT's current production was revived in 2003 with scenery and costumes by Robert Perdziola and lighting by Duane Schuler. Pillar of Fire is staged for ABT by Amanda McKerrow and John Gardner.
Jardin aux Lilas will receive its first performance of the season on Tuesday evening,
May 12 at 7:30 P.M., led by Hee Seo in her debut as Caroline, Cory Stearns as Her Lover, Veronika Part as An Episode in His Past and Roman Zhurbin as The Man She Must Marry. Jardin aux Lilas, choreographed by Antony Tudor for Ballet Rambert in 1936, entered the repertory of Ballet Theatre on January 15, 1940. Set to music by Ernest Chausson, Jardin aux Lilas features sets and costumes by Peter Cazalet. Amanda McKerrow and John Gardner staged this production for ABT.
The first of four performances of Fancy Free on Monday evening, May 11 at 7:30 P.M. will be led by Herman Cornejo, Cory Stearns, Marcelo Gomes, Luciana Paris and Isabella Boylston. Sterling Baca will make his debut in Fancy Free on Wednesday evening, May 13 at 7:30 P.M. Jerome Robbins’ Fancy Free, the story of three sailors on shore leave in New York City during World War II, is set to a score by Leonard Bernstein and features scenery by Oliver Smith, costumes by Kermit Love and lighting by Jennifer Tipton after original designs by Nananne Porcher. Robbins’ work received its World Premiere by American Ballet Theatre on April 18, 1944 at the Metropolitan Opera House. Fancy Free is staged for ABT by Jean-Pierre Frohlich.
George Balanchine’s Theme and Variations will have its first performance on Tuesday evening, May 12 at 7:30 P.M., led by Sarah Lane and Herman Cornejo. Theme and Variations, set to music by Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, received its World Premiere on November 26, 1947, danced by Alicia Alonso and Igor Youskevitch. This production, featuring sets and costumes by Zach Brown, with lighting by Brad Fields, received its World Premiere at the David H. Koch Theater on October 30, 2013, led by Gillian Murphy and James Whiteside.
Xiomara Reyes and James Whiteside, in his New York City debut, will lead the season’s first performance of Agnes de Mille’s Rodeo on Tuesday, May 12 at 7:30 P.M. as the Cowgirl and the Champion Roper, respectively. Misty Copeland will make her New York City debut in the role of the Cowgirl, opposite Craig Salstein as the Champion Roper, on Wednesday afternoon, May 13 at 2:00 P.M. Rodeo, featuring music by Aaron Copland and scenery by Oliver Smith, was first presented by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo at the Metropolitan Opera House on October 16, 1942, with Agnes de Mille as the Cowgirl, Frederic Franklin as the Champion Roper and Casimir Kokitch as the Head Wrangler. Rodeo was first performed by Ballet Theatre in Wiesbaden, Germany on August 14, 1950. A new production, featuring sets by Oliver Smith and costumes by Santo Loquasto, was given its Revival Premiere in 1989 in St. Louis, Missouri. Rodeo is staged for ABT by Paul Sutherland.
Breaking with tradition, ABT’s Spring Gala, celebrating the Company’s Diamond Jubilee, will be held during the second week of the Met season, on Monday, May 18 at 6:30 P.M. Co-hosted by Joel Grey, Sigourney Weaver, Susan Jaffe and Ruth Ann Koesun, the evening will feature performances spanning ABT’s seven and a half decades. Excerpts of film and dance will honor the historic ballets and the dancers who have shaped the Company's identity. See attached casting for performance details. The gala evening will be sponsored by ESCADA.
Commissioned by American Ballet Theatre in 1997, Lar Lubovitch’s Othello, a Dance in Three Acts, will have its Revival Premiere on Tuesday evening, May 19 at 7:30 P.M. with Julie Kent as Desdemona, Marcelo Gomes as Othello, James Whiteside in his debut as Iago, Stella Abrera as Emilia and Joseph Gorak in his debut as Cassio. On Wednesday afternoon, May 20 at 2:00 P.M., Alexandre Hammoudi will debut in the role of Othello opposite Gillian Murphy as Desdemona, with other debuts including Cory Stearns in the role of Iago and Veronika Part in the role of Emilia. Choreographed by Lubovitch and set to a commissioned score by Elliot Goldenthal, the full-length work features scenery by George Tsypin, costumes by Ann Hould-Ward and projections by Wendall K. Harrington. Othello, a Dance in Three acts, last performed by ABT in 2007, received its World Premiere on May 23, 1997 at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City led by Desmond Richardson (Othello) and Sandra Brown (Desdemona). Othello will be given four performances through May 21.
The second week of performances will conclude with the classic Giselle. The first performance on Friday evening, May 22 at 7:30 P.M. will be led by Hee Seo in the title role, opposite Cory Stearns as Albrecht and Gillian Murphy as Myrta. Returning Guest Artist Vladamir Shklyarov will make his American Ballet Theatre debut in the role of Albrecht, opposite Polina Semionova in the title role and Veronika Part in the role of Myrta, on Saturday evening, May 23 at 8:00 P.M. Set to music by Adolphe Adam, with scenery by Gianni Quaranta, costumes by Anna Anni and lighting by Jennifer Tipton, Giselle features choreography after Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot and Marius Petipa and has been staged for ABT by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie. The world premiere of Giselle, one of the oldest continually‑performed ballets, occurred at the Theatre de l’Academie Royale de Musique in Paris on June 28, 1841. The ballet was first presented by ABT (then Ballet Theatre) at the Center Theatre in New York City on January 12, 1940 with choreography by Anton Dolin and scenery and costumes by Lucinda Ballard. The leading roles were danced by Annabelle Lyon and Anton Dolin. American Ballet Theatre’s sixth production, featuring scenery by Gianni Quaranta and costumes by Anna Anni, was created for the film Dancers, produced in 1987 by Cannon Films. This production’s first public performance was given on March 20, 1987 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, with Marianna Tcherkassky as Giselle and Kevin McKenzie as Albrecht. The current staging is by McKenzie, using the Quaranta and Anni designs.
Tickets for American Ballet Theatre’s 2015 Metropolitan Opera House season, beginning at $20, are available online, at the Met box office or by phone at 212-362-6000. The Metropolitan Opera House is located on Broadway between 64th and 65th streets in New York City. For more information, visit ABT’s website at www.abt.org.
Othello is generously supported through an endowed gift from Ruth and Harold Newman. This production has been made possible with public funds from the New York State
Council on the Arts.
Les Sylphides has been made possible with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Pillar of Fire is generously sponsored by an endowed gift from Avery and Andrew F. Barth and Carmen Barth in honor of Antony Tudor. Additional support is generously provided by Nancy Zeckendorf.
Jardin aux Lilas has been generously underwritten by Marjorie S. Isaac.
Fancy Free was originally underwritten by a grant from David A. Klein and the Equitable Financial Companies. Fancy Free is underwritten by an endowed gift from Avery and Andy Barth in honor of Laima and Rudolf Barth.
ABT gratefully acknowledges Mr. and Mrs. John C. Sites, Jr. for their generous support of Theme and Variations through both an endowed gift and an additional special Leading Sponsor gift for costumes in 2013. Cindy and Chip Murphy are also Leading Sponsors of Theme and Variations. Additional support has been provided by the Lloyd E. Rigler-Lawrence E. Deutsch Foundation and Rose Ellen and Gerald Greene.
American Ballet Theatre's performances of Giselle are generously supported through an endowed gift from Sharon Patrick.
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.
Follow American Ballet Theatre on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ABTBallet
on Facebook at http://facebook.com/AmericanBalletTheatre
or on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/ABTBalletTheatre
-
The only place I can catch these is the Coolige Corner Cinema in Brookline near Boston.
-
Event to be held at the following time, date, and location:
Thursday, April 30, 2015 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (EDT)
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Bruno Walter Auditorium
111 Amsterdam Ave
New York, New York 10023 -
Official release:
CASTING ANNOUNCED FOR
THE JOYCE THEATER’S PRESENTATION OF
THE ROYAL BALLET
THE COMPANY’S FIRST NEW YORK CITY ENGAGEMENT IN OVER 11 YEARS
AT
DAVID H. KOCH THEATER
LINCOLN CENTER
JUNE 23 – 28, 2015
ENGAGEMENT OPENS WITH JUNE 23 GALA PERFORMANCE
HONORING
CHRISTOPHER WHEELDON
(NEW YORK, NY) The Joyce Theater Foundation, Linda Shelton, Executive Director, announced today casting for the highly anticipated NYC return of the UK’s Royal Ballet – first time in over 11 years – at the David H. H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center beginning with a gala performance honoring Christopher Wheeldon on June 23, followed by two mix-billed programs of works by Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan, Wayne McGregor, Liam Scarlett and Christopher Wheeldon through June 28. Tickets for The Royal Ballet can be arranged online at www.DavidHKochTheater.com or by calling (212)-496-0600.
Casting for The Joyce Theater’s presentation of The Royal Ballet
June 23, 7:30pm – Gala Performance supporting The Joyce Theater and The Royal Ballet
The Dream -- Sarah Lamb/Steven McRae
PROGRAM ONE
June 24, 7:30pm
The Dream -- Sarah Lamb/Steven McRae
Song of the Earth -- Marianela Nuñez/Nehemiah Kish/Carlos Acosta
June 25, 7:30pm
The Dream -- Natalia Osipova/Matthew Golding
Song of the Earth -- Laura Morera/Nehemiah Kish/Edward Watson
June 26, 8pm
The Dream -- Natalia Osipova/Matthew Golding
Song of the Earth -- Lauren Cuthbertson/Rupert Pennefather/Edward Watson
PROGRAM TWO
June 27, 2pm
The Age of Anxiety -- Sarah Lamb/Alexander Campbell/Johannes/Stepanek/Federico Bonelli
Divertissements:
Voices of Spring -- Akane Takada/Valentino Zucchetti
Borrowed Light -- Marcelino Sambé
The Dying Swan -- Calvin Richardson
Le Train Bleu
‘Le beau gosse’ -- Vadim Muntagirov
Aeturnum pas de deux -- Claire Calvert/Ryoichi Hirano
Carousel pas de deux --Lauren Cuthbertson/ Matthew Golding
Infra Meaghan Grace Hinkis/Olivia Cowley/Yasmine Naghdi/Sarah Lamb/Fumi Kaneko/Camille Bracher/Matthew Ball/Tristan Dyer/Federico Bonelli/Nicol Edmonds/Sander Blommaert/Luca Acri
June 27, 8pm
The Age of Anxiety -- Laura Morera/Steven McRae/Bennet Gartside/Tristan Dyer
Divertissements:
Voices of Spring -- Yuhui Choe/Alexander Campbell
Borrowed Light -- Marcelino Sambé
The Dying Swan -- Matthew Ball
Le Train Bleu
‘Le beau gosse’ -- Vadim Muntagirov
Aeturnum pas de deux -- Marianela Nuñez/Federico Bonelli
Carousel pas de deux -- Sarah Lamb/Carlos Acosta
Infra -- Francesca Hayward/Natalia Osipova/Marianela Nuñez/Lauren Cuthbertson/Melissa Hamilton/ Yuhui Choe/Edward Watson/Ryoichi Hirano/ Ricardo Cervera/Eric Underwood/James Hay/Paul Kay
June 28, 2pm
The Age of Anxiety -- Sarah Lamb/Alexander Campbell/Johannes
Stepanek/Federico Bonelli
Divertissements:
Voices of Spring -- Akana Takada/Valentino Zucchetti
Borrowed Light -- Luca Acri
The Dying Swan -- Matthew Ball
Le Train Bleu
‘Le beau gosse’ -- James Hay
Aeturnum pas de deux -- Claire Calvert/Ryoichi Hirano
Carousel pas de deux -- Lauren Cuthbertson/Matthew Golding
Infra -- Meaghan Grace Hinkis/Olivia Cowley/Yasmine Naghdi/Sarah Lamb/Fumi Kaneko/Camille
Bracher/Matthew Ball/Tristan Dyer/Federico Bonelli/Nicol Edmonds/Sander Blommaert/
Luca Acri
June 28, 7:30pm
The Age of Anxiety -- Laura Morera/Steven McRae/Bennet Gartside/Tristan Dyer
Divertissements:
Voices of Spring -- Yuhui Choe/Alexander Campbell
Borrowed Light -- Marcelino Sambé
The Dying Swan -- Calvin Richardson
Le Train Bleu
‘Le beau gosse’ -- Vadim Muntagirov
Aeturnum pas de deux -- Marianela Nuñez/Federico Bonelli
Carousel pas de deux -- Sarah Lamb/Carlos Acosta
Infra -- Francesca Hayward/Natalia Osipova/Marianela Nuñez/Lauren Cuthbertson/Melissa Hamilton/Yuhui Choe/Edward Watson/Ryoichi Hirano/ Ricardo Cervera/Eric Underwood/James Hay/Paul Kay
The Royal Opera House reserves the right to change the cast and program due to events beyond its control
* * *
From June 23 through 28, The Joyce Theater Foundation will proudly present The Royal Ballet in its first New York appearance since 2004. The engagement opens with a gala performance of Frederick Ashton’s 1964 classic ballet The Dream, inspired by Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and created to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth. For its premiere, Ashton cast two young dancers, Anthony Dowell and Antoinette Sibley, as Oberon and Titania and it proved to be the start of one of the most celebrated partnerships of 20th century ballet. This engagement also coincides with the 50th anniversary of the first performance of The Dream in the USA.
The New York engagement also includes two programs celebrating the work of British choreographers closely associated with The Royal Ballet. Program One features Kenneth MacMillan’spowerful Song of the Earth which was created in 1965. Set to Gustav Mahler’s great song cycle, MacMillan explores the fragility of human life and features six episodes which are atmospheric rather than literal interpretations of the text. Song of the Earth will be performed with Frederick Ashton’s The Dream from June 24 – 26.
Program Two is a mixed bill comprised of Infra by Royal Ballet Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor, The Age of Anxiety by Royal Ballet Artist in Residence Liam Scarlett, and highlights from The Royal Ballet’s repertory, or Divertissements, including the central pas de deux from Royal Ballet Artistic Associate Christopher Wheeldon’s award winning Aeternum.
Infra, meaning “below,†premiered at the Royal Opera House in 2008. McGregor collaborated with artist Julian Opie who created digital images of walking figures below which McGregor’s choreography unfolds through solos, pas de deux and group ensembles as dancers meet, pass and move on. The haunting electronica score by Max Richter sets the tone of an impersonal cityscape. The ballet is about people, a fragmented narrative exploring partial views of humanity and emotion.
Liam Scarlett’s most recent work for the Company takes its name from Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No2 The Age of Anxiety, and is inspired by WH Auden’s 1946 poem of the same name. John Macfarlane’s lavish set and costume designs create a backdrop of 1940s wartime New York against which four disparate characters meet in a bar and try to make sense of their shifting worlds.
The Joyce Theater Foundation’s presentation of The Royal Ballet marks a continued presence of programming by The Joyce Theater Foundation at Lincoln Center. Since April 2012, The Joyce has successfully presented annual week-long engagements at the David H. Koch Theater, beginning with Sylvie Guillem’s 6000 miles away. Nederlands Dans Theater followed in 2013, Ballet Preljocaj’s Snow White last April (2014) and the National Ballet of Canada’s production of Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in September 2014. The Joyce plans to continue to present at the Koch Theater, helping to ensure that New York City experiences a diversity of outstanding large-scale dance productions while increasing The Joyce’s capacity to engage new audiences.
Kevin O’Hare is Director of The Royal Ballet. Appointed in July 2012 following the retirement of Monica Mason, he is responsible for driving the artistic direction of the Company. He is committed to the promotion of outstanding creativity and artistic excellence, developing talent and widening the Company’s performing platform. O’Hare was born in Yorkshire, England. He trained at The Royal Ballet School and, through an exchange program, with the Royal Danish Ballet. He began his performing career with The Royal Ballet’s sister company Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, and stayed with that company as a Principal during its transformation to Birmingham Royal Ballet. During this time he performed extensively in the UK and internationally, including as a guest artist with many leading companies. His repertory included all the leading classical roles, such as “Prince Siegfried†(Swan Lake), “Prince Florimund†(The Sleeping Beauty), “Albrecht†(Giselle) and “Romeo†(in BRB’s first performance of Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet). O’Hare has worked with many leading figures in the ballet world, including Ninette de Valois, Peter Wright, Frederick Ashton, MacMillan and David Bintley, and created several roles, including “Amynta†(in Bintley’s Sylvia). He also produced many galas and choreographic evenings. O’Hare retired from the stage in 2000, entering into a traineeship in company management with the Royal Shakespeare Company. This led to the post of Company Director with BRB in 2001, and in 2004 he joined The Royal Ballet as Company Manager. He was made Administrative Director in 2009 before being appointed to his current role. In 2013 he was appointed to the board of Dance UK.
Kenneth MacMillan (Choreographer) (1929–1992) was one of the leading choreographers of his generation. His close association with The Royal Ballet began when he joined The Sadler's Wells School (now The Royal Ballet School) at age 15. He was Director of the Company 1970–1977 and Principal Choreographer 1977â–1992. His ballets are distinguished by their penetrating psychological insight and expressive use of classical language. These qualities are demonstrated in his many works for the Company, which include Romeo and Juliet, Gloria, Manon, Mayerling and Requiem. MacMillan was born in Dunfermline, Scotland and discovered ballet while evacuated to Rutford during World War II. At age 15, he forged a letter from his father to Ninette de Valois requesting an audition. He joined Sadler’s Wells School on a full scholarship, later entering the Company. He created his first major work, Danses concertantes, in 1955 and went on to become one of the world’s leading choreographers. Positions away from the Company included Director of Deutsche Oper Ballet Berlin (1966–1969) and Asssociate Director of American Ballet Theatre (1984–1990). He coontinued to create masterpieces throughout his life, including The Prince of the Pagodas (1989) and his last work, The Judas Tree, in 1992. He died backstage at the Royal Opera House during a revival of Mayerling. Some of MacMillan's most significant muses included Lynn Seymour, Christopher Gable, Monica Mason, Marcia Haydée, David Wall, Darcey Bussell and Irek Mukhamedov.
Frederick Ashton (Choreographer). Founding Choreographer of The Royal Ballet Frederick Ashton (1904–“1988) was one of the most influential dance figures of the 20th century. In his work with the Company, he developed the distinctive “English style†and left a vast corpus of works that are regularly performed by The Royal Ballet and companies around the world, among them La Fille mal gardée, Marguerite and Armand and Symphonic Variations. Ashton was born in Ecuador to British parents. He first saw ballet when Anna Pavlova performed in Lima in 1917, later claiming, “From the end of that evening I wanted to dance.†In England, Ashton was tutored by Leonid Massine and made his choreographic debut for Marie Rambert in 1926. After working with Rambert and Ida Rubinstein he was appointed principal choreographer of Vic-Wells Ballet (later The Royal Ballet) by Ninette de Valois in 1938. With De Valois Ashton played a crucial role in determining the course of the Company and The Royal Ballet School. In 1963 he took over from De Valois as Director of the Company and introduced several significant works, including Nijinska's Les Noces and Balanchine's Serenade, and commissioned MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet. He retired in 1970 but continued to choreograph throughout his life, producing his last major work, Rhapsody, in 1980. Ashton's style is distinctive for its épaulement (the way the head and shoulders are held) and fleet footwork. All are notable for their combination of elegance and breathtaking technical demands.
Christopher Wheeldon (Choreographer). English choreographer Christopher Wheeldon is Artistic Associate of The Royal Ballet. He trained at The Royal Ballet School and danced with the Company 1991 through 1993. For The Royal Ballet, he created the one-act ballets Tryst (2002), DGV: Danse à grande vitesse (2006), Electric Counterpoint (2008), ‘Trespass’ (Metamorphosis: Titian 2012, in collaboration with Alastair Marriott) and Aeternum (2013, winner of the Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production), as well as the full-length ballets Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 2011 (The Royal Ballet's first full-length commission in 20 years) and The Winter's Tale in 2014. Wheeldon was born in Yeovil, England and trained at The Royal Ballet School. In 1991 he won gold medal at the Prix de Lausanne with a solo of his own creation and that year entered The Royal Ballet, where Kenneth MacMillan encouraged him in his choreographic work. In 1993 Wheeldon joined New York City Ballet and was promoted to soloist in 1998. He created his first work for NYCB, Slavonic Dances, in 1997 and became the company’s first Resident Choreographer in 2001. Works for NYCB include Polyphonia (2001, winner of a London Critics’ Circle Award and the Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production), An American in Paris (2005) and The Nightingale and the Rose (2007). Wheeldon choreographs regularly for leading companies, including Boston Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Dutch National Ballet and Pennsylvania Ballet. In 2007 he founded Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company and became the first British choreographer to create a new work for the Bolshoi Ballet. In 2012 he collaborated with Alastair Marriott on the closing ceremony of the London Olympic Games, watched by 23.2 million people worldwide.
Liam Scarlett (Choreographer). English choreographer Liam Scarlett trained at The Royal Ballet School and danced with The Royal Ballet, retiring as a dancer in 2012 to focus on his choreographic career. That year he was appointed The Royal Ballet’s first Artist in Residence. His works for The Royal Ballet include Despite and Vayamos al Diablo (2006), Consolations and Liebestraum (2009 – nominated for a Critics’ Circlle Award), Asphodel Meadows (2010 – nominated for a South BBank Award and an Olivier Award, and winner of a Critics’ Circle Award), Sweet Violets, ‘Diana and Actaeon’ from Metamorphosis: Titian 2012 (2012), Hansel and Gretel (2013) and the Jubilee pas de deux in celebration of HM The Queen's Diamond Jubilee. In the 2014/15 Season, he returned to create a new work, The Age of Anxiety. Scarlett was born in Ipswich, England and trained at the Linda Shipton School of Dancing before joining The Royal Ballet School, White Lodge. While at the School, he won both the Kenneth MacMillan and Ursula Moreton Choreographic Awards, and was the first recipient of the De Valois Trust Fund Choreographers’ Award. He graduated into The Royal Ballet in 2005 and was promoted to First Artist in 2008. His repertory as a dancer included “Peter Rabbit†(Tales of Beatrix Potter), “Vicar/The March Hare†(Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) and roles in Swan Lake, The Prince of the Pagodas, and La Fille mal gardée. Scarlett's works for other companies include Hinterland (2007) and Indigo Children (2008) for Ballet Black, Gargoyles for New York City Ballet (2009), Viscera (2012) and Euphotic (2013) for Miami City Ballet (also designed by Scarlett), Promenade Sentimentale for K-Ballet (2013), Serpent for BalletBoyz: The Talent (2013) and No Man's Land for English National Ballet (2014).
Wayne McGregor (Choreographer). English choreographer Wayne McGregor was appointed Resident Choreographer of The Royal Ballet in 2006, becoming the first contemporary choreographer to hold the post. His many works for The Royal Ballet include Raven Girl (2013), Ambar (2012), ‘Machina’ (part of Metamorphosis: Titian 2012), Carbon Life (2012), Live Fire Exercise (2011), Limen (2009), Infra (2008), Nimbus (2007), Chroma (2006), Engram (2005), Qualia (2003) and Symbiont(s) (2001). He directed and choreographed Dido and Aeneas and Acis and Galatea (2009) for The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera. He curated Deloitte Ignite 2008 and directs Draft Works, an annual celebration of developing choreographic talent within the Company. McGregor was born in Stockport, England and studied at Bretton Hall, West Yorkshire, and the José Limón School, New York. In 1992 he founded Wayne McGregor | Random Dance, now a resident company of Sadler's Wells. His interest in cross-discipline collaboration has seen him work across dance, film, music, visual art, technology and science. McGregor has created works for Paris Opera Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, New York City Ballet, Australian Ballet, ENB, NDT1 and Rambert, among others. His works are also in the repertories of leading companies including the Bolshoi, Royal Danish Ballet, Boston Ballet and Joffrey Ballet. He has directed movement for theatre and film, including Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and music videos, including the Grammy-nominated Lotus Flower for Radiohead. In 2012 McGregor delivered a TED talk on the choreographic process and in 2014 presented the exhibition Thinking with the Body at the Welcome Collection. He was appointed a CBE in 2011.
The Joyce Theater Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization, has proudly served the dance community and its audiences for three decades. The founders, Cora Cahan and Eliot Feld, acquired and renovated the Elgin Theater in Chelsea, which opened as The Joyce Theater in 1982. The Joyce Theater is named in honor of Joyce Mertz, beloved daughter of LuEsther T. Mertz. It was LuEsther’s clear, undaunted vision and abundant generosity that made it imaginable and ultimately possible to build the theater. One of the only theaters built by dancers for dance, The Joyce Theater has provided an intimate and elegant home for more than 320 domestic and international companies. The Joyce has also commissioned more than 130 new dances since 1992. In 2009, The Joyce opened Dance Art New York (DANY) Studios to provide affordable studios for rehearsals, auditions, classes, and workshops for independent choreographers, non-profit dance companies, and the dance/theater communities. New York City public school students and teachers annually benefit from The Joyce’s Dance Education Program, and adult audiences get closer to dance through informative Dance Talks and post-performance Dance Chat discussions. The Joyce Theater now features an annual season of approximately 48 weeks with over 340 performances for audiences in excess of 135,000.
The Royal Ballet, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, is Great Britain’s most prestigious ballet company and one of the great classical ballet companies of the world. Led by Director Kevin O’Hare, the Company has a wide-ranging repertory that showcases the great 19th century classics alongside heritage works including those of its two great 20th century choreographers, Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan. In addition, The Royal Ballet performs new works by Royal Ballet Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor and Royal Ballet Artistic Associate Christopher Wheeldon, two of the foremost international choreographers of today. The Royal Ballet continues to create and encourage new choreography and appointed Liam Scarlett as Royal Ballet Artist in Residence in 2012.
The Joyce Theater presents The Royal Ballet of London at the David H. Koch Theater from June 23 – 28. The engagement opens wwith a Gala performance of Frederick Ashton’s The Dream on Tuesday, June 23 at 6:30pm. Program One (The Dream / Song of the Earth) will be Wednesday, June 24 & Thursday, June 25at7:30pm and Friday, June 26 at 8pm; Program Two (The Age of Anxiety / Highlights from The Royal Ballet’s repertory / Infra) will be Saturday, June 27 at 2pm & 8pm and Sunday, June 28 at 2pm & 8pm. Tickets, ranging in price from $35-$150, can be purchased through www.DavidHKochTheater.com or by calling (212)-496-0600. Please note: ticket prices are subject to change. For more information, please visit www.Joyce.org.
* * *
Major foundation support for Joyce Theater Presentations at Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater has been provided by the Ford Foundation, The Howard Gilman Foundation, and The Pasculano Foundation. Major individual support has been provided by David Herro and Jay Franke. Additional major individual support has been provided by Kerry Clayton and Paige Royer. Additional major corporate support has been provided by First Republic Bank.
Leadership support for The Joyce Theater 2014–20015 season has been received from the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust. Major support has been provided by the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, and The Shubert Foundation. Additional major support has been provided by The Harkness Foundation for Dance, Northern Trust, The Jerome Robbins Foundation, The SHS Foundation, and the Windhover Foundation.
The Joyce’s presenting initiative at the David H. Koch Theater is supported by a grant award from the National Endowment for the Arts; and made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; as well as supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council. -
Additionally:
2016 REPERTORY SEASON LISTING
Program 1
7 FOR EIGHT
Bach/Tomasson/Woodall/Finn
MAGRITTOMANIA
Krasavin after Beethoven/Possokhov/ Hartshorn/Connaughton
PAS/PARTS^#+
Willems/Forsythe/Galloway
Jan. 24 mat, 26 eve, 28 eve, 30 mat & eve,
Feb. 3 eve, 5 eve
Program 2CONTINUUM©
Ligeti/Wheeldon/Katz
SCARLETT WORLD PREMIERE*
RUBIES
Stravinsky/Balanchine/Karinska/Bates
Jan. 27 eve, 29 eve, 31 mat, Feb. 2 eve, 4 eve,
6 mat & eve
Program 3
FULL-LENGTH PRODUCTION
SWAN LAKE
Tchaikovsky/Tomasson after Petipa, Ivanov/Fensom/Tipton/Ortel/Ward
Feb. 19 eve, 20 mat & eve, 21 mat, 23 eve,
24 eve, 25 eve, 27 mat & eve, 28 mat
Program 4
FULL-LENGTH PRODUCTION
COPPÉLIA
Delibes/Danilova & Balanchine/di Bagno/Chiarelli
March 8 eve, 9 eve, 10 eve, 11 eve, 12 mat & eve, 13 mat & eve
* World Premiere
^American Company Premiere
+North American Premiere
#SF Ballet Premiere
2016 Repertory Season Calendar/Page 2
Program 5
DANCES AT A GATHERING
Chopin/Robbins/Eula/Tipton
SWIMMER
Eshima, Waits, Brennan, Bryars/Possokhov/Nichols/Zappone/
Finn/Duhamel
March 16 eve, 17 eve, 18 eve, 19 mat & eve,
20 mat, 22 eve
Program 6
PRISM
Beethoven/Tomasson/Pakledinaz/Stanley
SEVEN SONATAS#
Scarlatti/Ratmansky/Hynes/Fields
Rush©
Martinů/Wheeldon/Morrell/Stanley
April 5 eve, 6 eve, 8 eve, 10 mat, 14 eve, 16 mat & eve
PROGRAM 7
DRINK TO ME ONLY WITH THINE EYES
Thomson/Morris/Loquasto/Chybowski
JUSTIN PECK WORLD PREMIERE*
THEME AND VARIATIONS
Tchaikovsky/Balanchine/Benois/Elliot
April 7 eve, 9 mat & eve, 12 eve, 13 eve, 15 eve, 17 mat
Program 8
FULL-LENGTH PRODUCTION
Onegin
Tchaikovsky/Cranko/Loquasto/Ingalls
April 30 eve, May 1 mat, 3 eve, 4 eve, 5 eve,
6 eve, 7 mat & eve, 8 mat
-
Official release:
SAN FRANCISCO BALLET ANNOUNCES 2016 SEASON
SEASON HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE THE NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
OF FORSYTHE’S PAS/PARTS & NEW WORKS BY PECK & SCARLETT
Plus Works by Balanchine, Cranko, Morris, Possokhov,
Ratmansky, Robbins, Tomasson & Wheeldon
SAN FRANCISCO, Thursday, April 23, 2015—San Francisco Ballet, the oldest professional ballet company in America, has announced its 2016 Repertory Season program and schedule.
2016 SEASON
The 2016 Season will begin with Nutcracker, which runs December 16-31 for a total of 29 performances. Following the Opening Night Gala on Thursday, January 21, 2016, the season will consist of eight programs, from January 24 to May 8.
“This season is particularly exciting because of the incredible diversity of choreographers represented,” said SF Ballet Artistic Director & Principal Choreographer Helgi Tomasson. “In addition to legendary choreographers such as George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, I’ve programmed works by some of the most exciting contemporary choreographers working today, including Mark Morris, Alexei Ratmansky, and Christopher Wheeldon—we’re lucky to have such a long and rich history with each of them. I’m also delighted to present a world premiere by New York City Ballet Resident Choreographer Justin Peck, who will create his first work for the Company, as well as a world premiere by Liam Scarlett. Finally, I’m thrilled that San Francisco audiences will see the North American premiere of William Forsythe’s Pas/Parts; SF Ballet is honored to be the first American company to perform the work.”
Program 1 opens Sunday, January 24 and includes Helgi Tomasson’s 7 for Eight, Choreographer in Residence Yuri Possokhov’s Magrittomania, and the North American premiere of William Forsythe’s Pas/Parts. Tomasson’s 7 for Eight, set to four keyboard concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach, was premiered by the Company in 2004. Of the work for eight dancers, the San Jose Mercury News noted, “It is just such images [from 7 for Eight] that keep ballet fans returning season after season…” Possokhov’s Magrittomania premiered in 2000 as part of the Company’s Discovery Program. The whimsical work, reprised most recently in 2006, was inspired by the work of Belgian surrealist René Magritte. The ballet is set to music by Ludwig van Beethoven that has been rearranged for a film score by Russian composer Yuri Krasavin. Forsythe’s Pas/Parts was premiered by Paris Opéra Ballet in 1999 and features 15 dancers. The music, by Thom Willems, is comprised of 20 sections of various styles from jazzy to orchestral. The work is rarely seen and SF Ballet’s presentation will be a North American premiere as well as an American company premiere; SF Ballet is only the second company to perform the work. Called “superb” by The New York Times, Pas/Parts features scenic and lighting design by William Forsythe and costume design by Stephen Galloway.
Program 2 opens on Wednesday, January 27 with Christopher Wheeldon’s Continuum©, a world premiere by Liam Scarlett, and Balanchine’s “Rubies.” Christopher Wheeldon’s Continuum©, set to the music of György Ligeti, premiered during the 2002 Season and was last performed in full on the 2006 Season. The work for four couples was called “a dazzling realization of Ligeti’s piano music” by The Financial Times (London). In addition to his upcoming world premiere, Scarlett has created one work on SF Ballet—Hummingbird—which debuted to audience and critical acclaim in 2014. Scarlett, who retired as a dancer from The Royal Ballet in 2012 to pursue choreography, has created works for companies including The Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, English National Ballet, and Miami City Ballet, among others. He currently holds the title of artist in residence at The Royal Ballet. Set to music by Igor Stravinsky, Balanchine’s “Rubies” is the middle piece in a full evening-length ballet, Jewels. Created in 1967 for New York City Ballet, the ballet in three parts (“Emeralds,” “Rubies,” “Diamonds”) was inspired by the jewelry of Van Cleef and Arpels and is distinct in mood and style. “Rubies” was last performed by SF Ballet as part of Jewels in 2009 and was first performed by the Company in 1987.
Program 3 opens on Friday, February 19 with Helgi Tomasson’s full-length Swan Lake. Tomasson choreographed his first production of Swan Lake for SF Ballet in 1988 and in 2009, he created a new version, featuring scenery and costume design by Jonathan Fensom; lighting design by Jennifer Tipton; projection and video design by Sven Ortel; and hair, wig, and makeup design by Michael Ward. Upon its premiere, the production was called “striking” and “a runaway box office hit” by the San Francisco Chronicle. The first production of Swan Lake was premiered by the Bolshoi Ballet in 1877, but it is the 1895 version by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov that is the most renowned. Notably, SF Ballet performed the first American production of Swan Lake in 1940, choreographed by Willam Christensen.
Program 4 opens on Tuesday, March 8 with George Balanchine’s Coppélia. The popular comedic ballet, set to a score by Léo Delibes, was first performed by the Paris Opéra Ballet in 1870, with original choreography by Arthur Saint-Léon. In 1939, SF Ballet presented the first production of Coppélia choreographed by an American choreographer (Willam Christensen). This new production of Alexandra Danilova and Balanchine’s Coppélia from 1974, includes commissioned scenic and costume design by Roberta Guidi di Bagno, with lighting design by Randall G. Chiarelli. SF Ballet first performed the new production, a co-production with Pacific Northwest Ballet, on the 2011 Season and of the work, the San Francisco Chronicle noted, “Hurry…to the War Memorial Opera House, where the San Francisco Ballet's new production of the 19th century classic “Coppélia” radiates a freshness and charm that will enhance any season…”
Program 5 opens on Wednesday, March 16 with Jerome Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering and Yuri Possokhov’s Swimmer. Dances at a Gathering, set to music by Frédéric Chopin, is widely considered a masterpiece. Created in 1969 for New York City Ballet, the hour-long work, set to 18 piano pieces, features ten dancers. SF Ballet first presented the work in 2002 and most recently, on the 2015 Season where the Bay Area Reporter deemed it a “feast of pure dancing…” Possokhov’s Swimmer, inspired by the John Cheever story entitled “The Swimmer,” pays homage to American art of all types—literature, film, fine art and music—that has inspired Possokhov in some way. The multi-media work features music by Shinji Eshima, Tom Waits, Kathleen Brennan, and Gavin Bryars; with scenic design by Alexander V. Nichols, costume design by Mark Zappone, lighting design by David Finn, and video design by Kate Duhamel. Swimmer premiered to much acclaim and the San Jose Mercury News called it “youthful, quirky and visually arresting.”
Program 6 opens Tuesday, April 5 with Helgi Tomasson’s Prism, the SF Ballet premiere of Alexei Ratmansky’s Seven Sonatas, and Christopher Wheeldon’s Rush©. Tomasson’s Prism, set to the music of Ludwig van Beethoven, features costume design by Martin Pakledinaz and lighting design by Mark Stanley. The work was premiered by New York City Ballet in 2000 as part of The Diamond Project and a year later, it received its SF Ballet premiere. New York magazine described the piece as “[one that] revel in the rich resources of the classical vocabulary and the challenge of manipulating lots of people…eloquently—through kaleidoscopic permutations in a grand-scale space.” Ratmansky’s Seven Sonatas, an SF Ballet premiere, is set to music by Domenico Scarlatti, with costume design by Holly Hynes, and lighting design by Brad Fields. The work for three couples was premiered by American Ballet Theatre in 2009. Of the ballet, the New York Times remarked, “The choreography…exposes uncertainty in relationships while revealing so many facets of dancing, it’s like holding a diamond in sunlight.” Wheeldon’s Rush©, set to Bohuslav Martinů’s Sinfonietta La Jolla, was premiered by SF Ballet at the Edinburgh Festival in 2004. Rush©, last performed in full by the Company in 2010, features scenic and costume design by Jon Morrell and lighting design by Mark Stanley.
Program 7 opens Thursday, April 7 with Mark Morris’ Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes, a world premiere by Justin Peck, and George Balanchine’s Theme and Variations. Morris’ Drink to Me… was premiered in 1988 by American Ballet Theatre. The work for 12 dancers is set to music by Virgil Thomson, with costume design by Santo Loquasto and lighting design by Michael Chybowski. An excerpt from the ballet was given its premiere at the Dancing for Life Benefit in 1987 (Baryshnikov was an original cast member) and SF Ballet first performed the work in 1996, and most recently in 2008. New York City Ballet Soloist and Resident Choreographer Justin Peck will be creating a new work for SF Ballet’s 2016 Season. Peck has choreographed for companies and organizations including Miami City Ballet, the School of American Ballet, and the New York Fall for Dance Festival, among others. In 2011, New York City Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins appointed him to receive the first year-long residency at the New York Choreographic Institute and he is the second person in the history of New York City Ballet to hold the position of resident choreographer. Balanchine’s Theme and Variations for 26 dancers, was created in 1947 for Ballet Theatre (now American Ballet Theatre). The work is set to the final movement of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s third orchestral suite, consisting of 12 variations. SF Ballet first performed the work in 1986 and most recently, in 2011.
Program 8 opens Saturday, April 30 and features the return of John Cranko’s Onegin. Last performed by SF Ballet in 2013, this dramatic full-length production is based on Alexander Pushkin’s novel in verse Eugene Onegin, set to a score by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky and orchestrated by Kurt-Heinz Stolze. The ballet features scenic and costume design by award-winning designer Santo Loquasto, with lighting design by James F. Ingalls, and was first performed by Stuttgart Ballet in 1965. Of the work, which has been performed by more than 20 companies around the world, the San Francisco Chronicle noted, “Remarkably imaginative and dramatically coherent, Cranko's masterpiece still has the power to transport and astonish the audience...”
During the 2016 Repertory Season, the Company will perform a total of 62 performances. Friday and Saturday evening performances are at 8pm. New this season: Tuesday and Thursday evening performances, in addition to Wednesday evening performances, will now be at 7:30pm; Saturday and Sunday matinees are at 2pm. The SF Ballet Orchestra will accompany all programs.
Connecting with SF Ballet’s Online Communities
Follow us @sfballet, there’s a channel for everyone. SF Ballet has a rich digital presence offering numerous ways to connect with the artists of the Company. Join our Facebook community and connect with the largest group of SF Ballet fans online (facebook.com/sfballet). Follow us on Twitter to join in a global conversation about ballet (twitter.com/sfballet). Experience a backstage photographic journey from the perspective of the SF Ballet dancers on Instagram (instagram.com/sfballet). For unique behind-the-scenes perspectives read short essays and interviews on our blog (sfballetblog.org). Visit our YouTube page to see SF Ballet in motion (youtube.com/sfballet).
“Meet the Artist” Interviews and “Pointes of View” Lecture Series
SF Ballet will continue to present the entertaining and informative “Meet the Artist” series at Friday evening and Sunday Matinee performances. The 30-minute interviews with Company artists, management, and guests of SF Ballet begin one hour prior to performance; all ticket holders are invited to attend free of charge. In addition, SF Ballet will present “Pointes of View” lectures on Wednesdays during the season, which are free and open to the public. For more information, visit sfballet.org.
Subscription Tickets
Three, five, and eight program subscription packages to SF Ballet’s 2016 Repertory Season range in price from $75-1,504 and go on sale to the public on July 7, 2015. For information, please call Ticket Services at 415.865.200o or visit sfballet.org. Phone hours are Monday through Friday, 10am to 4pm.
Single Tickets
Individual tickets for SF Ballet’s 2016 Repertory Season, starting at $24, will be available for advance sale online at sfballet.org beginning November 18, 2015 or by calling 415.865.2000, beginning January 4, 2016.
________________________________________________________________
2017 SEASON CO-PRODUCTION
As previously announced, SF Ballet will partner with The Royal Ballet on a co-production of the gothic classic, Frankenstein, choreographed by The Royal Ballet’s Artist in Residence Liam Scarlett. Scarlett’s concept is grounded in Mary Shelley’s original novel and the production will feature a new score commissioned by Lowell Liebermann, designs by John Macfarlane, and lighting design by David Finn. For more information, visit sfballet.org/about/media_center/ press_releases.
San Francisco Ballet
As America’s oldest professional ballet company, San Francisco Ballet has enjoyed a long and rich tradition of artistic “firsts” since its founding in 1933, including performing the first American productions of Swan Lake and Nutcracker, as well as the first 20th-century American Coppélia. San Francisco Ballet is one of the three largest ballet companies in the United States. Guided in its early years by American dance pioneers and brothers Lew, Willam and Harold Christensen, San Francisco Ballet currently presents more than 100 performances annually, both locally and internationally. Under the direction of Helgi Tomasson, the Company has achieved an international reputation as one of the preeminent ballet companies in the world. In 2005, San Francisco Ballet won the prestigious Laurence Olivier Award in the category of “Outstanding Achievement in Dance” and in 2006, it was the first non-European company elected “Company of the Year” in Dance Europe magazine’s annual readers’ poll. In 2008, the Company marked its 75th anniversary with a host of initiatives including an ambitious New Works Festival. Recent highlights include the United States premiere of John Neumeier’s The Little Mermaid, which was broadcast internationally, as well as nationally on PBS’s Great Performances “Dance in America” in 2011. In 2012, SF Ballet’s ambitious tour schedule included London and Washington, D.C., plus first-time visits to Hamburg, Moscow, and Sun Valley, Idaho. In October 2013, the Company performed at New York’s David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, where The New York Times declared SF Ballet “a national treasure.” In July 2014, the Company toured to Paris as part of Les Etés de la Danse Festival, marking the 10th anniversary of its inaugural engagement with the festival. At Théâtre du Châtelet, SF Ballet presented over 20 works by 15 choreographers over a gala evening and 17 performances. 2015 marks the 30th anniversary of Helgi Tomasson’s tenure as artistic director of San Francisco Ballet.
-
Thanks all for the program. Since the Burns doc, I've been stuck in ad hell. But I can finally see a Romeo and Juliet bit.
-
Did the Giselle excerpt start the 8pm show? Or was it from the earlier one? I'm trying again. We'll see how long it takes for me to get frustrated.
Yes, the ads must be programmed to go off at timed intervals regardless of what's going on. I much prefer the ads that pop on the corner or bottom of the screen.
-
Yes, finally streaming but is anybody else getting undone by these ads? It was bad enough when it interrupted the interviews but it just cut in T&V with a chicken finger ad! And then I lost the streaming. They promised a taped video. I might have to watch it then.
-
Later in the post, Arthurs runs through some of the reasons why a senior corps dancer like Prottas might never have danced the role before. She also points out something that I can't believe I haven't noticed in 30+ years of watching Symphony in C: the height of the corps dancers in each of the ballet's sections relative to the heights of the principals. It's details like these that make her blog such a worthwhile read.
Yes, I noticed that the corps in the 2nd movement, which has principals that are usually tall, has the smallest dancers. Conversely, the third movement, which is often led by smallish jumpers, has tall corps.
And thank you for reminding me about Arthurs blog. I've got to remember to check in with that regularly.
-
From ABT:
MISTY COPELAND NAMED TO
TIME MAGAZINE’S ANNUAL TIME 100 LIST
American Ballet Theatre Soloist Misty Copeland has been named by TIME Magazine to the 2015 TIME 100, its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. The full list and related tributes appear in the April 27 issue of TIME.
Born in Kansas City, Missouri and raised in San Pedro, California, Misty Copeland began her ballet studies at the age of 13 at the San Pedro City Ballet. She joined ABT’s Studio Company in September 2000, then joined American Ballet Theatre as a member of the corps de ballet in April 2001 and was appointed a Soloist in August 2007. With ABT, she has danced such leading roles as Swanilda in Coppélia, Clara, The Princess in
The Nutcracker, the title role in Firebird, the Cowgirl in Rodeo and Odette-Odile in Swan Lake. Copeland received the 2008 Leonore Annenberg Fellowship in the Arts and was named National Youth of the Year Ambassador for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America in 2013. In 2014, President Obama appointed Copeland to the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition. She is the recipient of a 2014 Dance Magazine Award and the author of the best-selling memoir, Life in Motion and the children’s book Firebird.
The TIME 100, now in its twelfth year, recognizes the activism, innovation and achievement of the world’s most influential individuals. As TIME Editor Nancy Gibbs has said of the list in the past, “The TIME 100 is a list of the world's most influential men and women, not its most powerful, though those are not mutually exclusive terms …. While power is certain, influence is subtle…. As much as this exercise chronicles the achievements of the past year, we also focus on figures whose influence is likely to grow, so we can look around the corner to see what is coming."
For more information on American Ballet Theatre, please visit www.abt.org. Follow @TIME for updates about the list on Twitter and at Facebook.com/TIME and #TIME100
-
Some news:
NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY TO UNVEIL CONSERVED PICASSO CURTAIN FOR “LE TRICORNE,” A LEGENDARY ARTWORK WITH NEW YORK CITY PEDIGREE
Picasso’s “Le Tricorne” on view May 29, 2015 – Summer 2016NEW YORK, NY, April 8, 2015– This spring, the New-York Historical Society will unveil a recently acquired and conserved masterpiece by the Spanish born, French artist Pablo Picasso – the painted theater curtain for the balletLe Tricorne (1919). Donated by the Landmarks Conservancy to New-York Historical, theLe Tricorne curtain was installed like a tapestry for 55 years at the iconic Four Seasons Restaurant in the Seagram Building in New York City. Believed to be the largest painting by Picasso in the United States, the 20 x 19 foot theater curtain is the first work by the artist in New-York Historical’s collection.
The curtain will be on long-term view at New-York Historical beginning May 29, 2015. From May 29 through summer 2016, an exhibition with related highlights from New-York Historical’s collection and special loans will complement the monumental artwork. Curated by Dr. Roberta J.M. Olson, New-York Historical’s Curator of Drawings, the exhibition will illustrate the European tradition―with works by artists that inspired Picasso or, alternatively, works representing trends that he rebelled against―and showcase American art of the era. Among the artists represented are George Bellows, El Greco, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Francisco de Goya, Childe Hassam, Elie Nadelman, Maurice Prendergast, John Sloan, Adriaen van Utrecht, Judocus de Vos, and others.
"Le Tricorne has been an icon of New York for more than half a century, embodying both an influential social milieu and an important moment in the city’s cultural development,” said Louise Mirrer, President and CEO of the New-York Historical Society. “As an institution that preserves, studies, and exhibits the artifacts of a continually changing city, we areproud to welcome the work into our permanent collection.”
History of Picasso’s Le Tricorne
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) was commissioned to design and paint the stage curtain for the two-act balletThe Three-Cornered Hat (“Le Tricorne” or “El sombrero de tres picos”) by the impresario Serge Diaghilev for his avant-garde, Paris-based Ballets Russes, the most influential ballet company of the early 20th century and a crucible of experimental modernism. Picasso was most intensely involved with the Ballets Russes while married to Olga Khokhlova, a dancer with the troupe. Choreographed by Léonide Massine who was also the principal male dancer, with music by the Spanish composer Manuel de Falla, Le Tricorne was based on a Spanish romantic novella and featured fiery flamenco and folkloric dances.
Picasso created the curtain for Le Tricorne over a period of three weeks in 1919 in London with Diaghilev’s scene painter Vladimir Polunin and his wife Elizabeth Violet. Working with paintbrushes affixed to broom-handles and toothbrushes, Picasso and the Polunins wore slippers to stand on the canvas as they painted. The ballet―which premiered on July 22, 1919, at the Alhambra Theatre in London, with sets, costumes and the monumental stage curtain by Picasso―was a resounding critical success.
Shown during Le Tricorne’s overture, Picasso’s curtain signaled a quintessentially Spanish vignette: a bullfight. In the foreground of the painting, five spectators and a young fruit vendor are watching the bullfight from a classicizing colonnaded balcony. In the background, a slain bull is dragged out of the arena, the violent image partially concealed by spectators. The scene is painted in ochre yellow and reddish orange, the traditional colors of the bullring, and the figures are outlined in black, in the bold style of posters then in vogue. Although unrelated to the libretto’s plot, Picasso’s curtain clearly set the Iberian mood for the ballet.
In 1928, in need of money to finance new shows, Diaghilev cut out the center of the large curtain and sold it to a private collector. In 1957, it was first acquired by Phyllis Lambert, architectural historian and daughter of Samuel Bronfman, CEO of the Seagram Company Ltd. (now Vivendi), who displayed it in the Four Seasons restaurant in the Seagram Building from 1959-2014. Vivendi gifted Picasso’sLe Tricorne curtain to the New York Landmarks Conservancy in 2005 as a “Gift to the City.” The Conservancy has now entrusted the New-York Historical Society with this New York City landmark.
Other Exhibition Highlights
Inspired by Picasso’s painting for Le Tricorne, the exhibition will explore stylistic and thematic connections between the curtain and artworks and objects in New-York Historical’s holdings, supplemented by three special loans. Among the collection highlights are two large, recently-conserved tapestries that have not been displayed for decades – Judocus de Vos’The Triumph of Apollo (ca. 1715), which dates to the end of the reign of the French “Sun King” Louis XIV, and the Art DecoBelgian Settlers Landing on Manhattan Island in 1623 (1939), created by Floris Jespers for the New York World’s Fair of 1939. Masterworks by El Greco and Goya, on loan from the Hispanic Society of America, will showcase Picasso’s artistic influences.
Picasso’s “Le Tricorne” also will present works by American artists who were Picasso’s contemporaries, many of who participated in the 1913 Armory Show that introduced modernism to U.S. audiences.The Circus (1912) by George Bellows, on loan from the Addison Gallery of American Art, will underline the importance of the Armory Show, where Picasso also showed his work. Elie Nadelman, who also exhibited at the Armory Show, met Picasso in Paris in 1908 and whose terracotta sculpture The Four Seasons (ca. 1912) shows a similar classical inspiration, sometimes claimed that in fact he – not Picasso – had invented Cubism. On the other hand, Russian immigrant artist Abraham Manievich’sThe Bronx (1924) applied a Cubist-Futurist style to the New York cityscape.
The exhibition also will note the craze for Spanish culture inspired by the success ofLe Tricorne, showcasing ivory and lace fans and a lace shawl that echo the fashions of Picasso’s painted figures, as well as dance-related objects from the collection that relate to New York City, such as Malvina Hoffman’s bust of acclaimed Russian dancer Anna Pavlova (1924). It also will feature a video of the 1994 performance of Le Tricorne by the Paris Opera Ballet.
About the New-York Historical Society
The New-York Historical Society, one of America’s pre-eminent cultural institutions, is dedicated to fostering research and presenting history and art exhibitions and public programs that reveal the dynamism of history and its influence on the world of today. Founded in 1804, New-York Historical has a mission to explore the richly layered history of New York City and State and the country, and to serve as a national forum for the discussion of issues surrounding the making and meaning of history.
New-York Historical is recognized for engaging the public with deeply researched and far-ranging exhibitions, such asAlexander Hamilton: The Man Who Made Modern America; Slavery in New York;Lincoln and New York; Audubon’s Aviary; WWII & NYC, The Armory Show at 100: Modern Art and Revolution;and Chinese American: Exclusion/Inclusion. Supporting these exhibitions and related education programs is one of the world's greatest collections of historical artifacts, works of American art, and other materials documenting the history of the United States and New York. -
Official release:
JOSEPH GORAK TO RECEIVE 2015 LEONORE ANNENBERG ARTS FELLOWSHIP
American Ballet Theatre Soloist Joseph Gorak has been awarded a 2015 Leonore Annenberg Arts Fellowship. The Fellowship, which recognizes young artists of extraordinary talent, provides additional resources to help them realize their full potential.
To encourage the personal and artistic development of young artists, the one-year Leonore Annenberg Arts Fellowship will provide funds to cover training and expenses outside of ABT’s regular season, such as guest coaches/teachers, master teachers, a physical therapist/trainer, specialty teachers to explore artistic areas outside of dance, pianists and studio space, as well as college courses and business/entrepreneurial interests.
Joseph Gorak began his classical ballet training with North Central School of Ballet in Texas. He has studied under full scholarships at the International Ballet Competition Summer School, as well as ABT’s Summer Intensive in Austin, Texas, Orlando Ballet’s Summer Intensive and the School of American Ballet’s Summer Intensive. In 2004, Gorak trained at the Orlando Ballet School and, in 2005, joined Orlando Ballet under the direction of Fernando Bujones.
Gorak joined ABT’s Studio Company in 2006 and was named an apprentice with American Ballet Theatre in January 2009. He joined ABT as a member of the corps de ballet in January 2010 and was promoted to Soloist in August 2014. His repertoire with the Company includes the Bronze Idol in La Bayadère, the Prince in Cinderella, Franz in Coppélia, the Dancing Master in Gaîté Parisienne, the peasant pas de deux in Giselle, the Beggar Chief in Manon, the Nutcracker Prince, the Chinese Dance, Russian Dance and the Recruit in Alexei Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, Lensky in Onegin, Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet, Prince Désiré and the Bluebird in Ratmansky’s The Sleeping Beauty, Benno and the Neapolitan Dance in Swan Lake, The Poet in Les Sylphides, a Goat in Sylvia and roles in Bach Partita, In the Upper Room, Raymonda Divertissements, Seven Sonatas, Symphony in C and Theme and Variations. He created the role of Ferdinand in Ratmansky’s The Tempest and leading roles in Dumbarton and Private Light.
The Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund for the Performing and Visual Arts is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Leonore Annenberg (1918-2009) served as U.S. Chief of Protocol during the first term of President Ronald Reagan. Her philanthropic work focused on education, the arts and civic affairs. Visit www.leonoreannenbergscholarships.org for more information.
-
A release:
The American Cancer Society
Monday, April 27, 2015 at 7pm
at AXA Equitable TheaterProducers Erin Fogarty and Daniel Ulbricht have partnered with the American Cancer Society to present the 5th annual Dance Against Cancer on Monday, April 27, 2015 at the AXA Equitable Theater, 787 Seventh Avenue (between 51st and 52nd Streets). VIP guests will enjoy cocktails and passed hors d'oeuvres at 6pm, followed by world premiere dance performances at 7pm from companies including New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Gallim Dance, members of NYC's Broadway community and more. Tickets are $150 for General Admission, $300 for VIP and $500 for Preferred VIP with dress rehearsal access and are available at dacny.org. All proceeds from this event will benefit research initiatives as well as all patient and family service programs that American Cancer Society funds. Since its inauguration, Dance Against Cancer has raised over $325,000 in support of the American Cancer Society.
This year's artists include New York City Ballet's Maria Kowroski, Sara Mearns, Tiler Peck, Robert Fairchild, Amar Ramasar, Taylor Stanley, Daniel Ulbricht; American Ballet Theatre's Stella Abrera, Herman Cornejo, Marcelo Gomes; Alvin Ailey's Matthew Rushing; as well as Desmond Richardson, Sasha Radetsky with more to be announced in the coming weeks.
-
Official release:
ABT STUDIO COMPANY AND THE ROYAL BALLET SCHOOL TO PERFORM AT THE AILEY CITIGROUP THEATER, APRIL 21 AND 22, 2015
ABT Studio Company and the graduate students of The Royal Ballet School (RBS) will perform a shared bill at The Ailey Citigroup Theater on Tuesday, April 21, and Wednesday, April 22, 2015 at 7:00 P.M. Performances by ABT Studio Company will include the New York City premiere of Susan Jaffe’s Metallurgy and excerpts from Marius Petipa’s Le Corsaire and Merce Cunningham’s Duets. The RBS repertory will feature Derek Dean’s Chanson, Liam Scarlett’s Classical Symphony and the First Movement of Christopher Wheeldon’s Rush.
The shared performances are part of a unique exchange, which began in 2003, between ABT Studio Company and The Royal Ballet School. During past exchanges the companies have traveled to each other’s respective homes for performances, master classes and training sessions with senior coaching staff.
Limited tickets, priced at $20, are available for purchase online through Thursday, April 16. To purchase tickets, please visit the following, http://web.tututix.com/ABTCompany or call 855-222-2TIX.
The Ailey Citigroup Theater is located at 405 W 55th Street at 9th Avenue in
New York City.
(
For more information on ABT Studio Company and performances with The Royal Ballet School, please visit ABT’s website, www.abt.org.
-
Here are the schedules.
-
Yes.
Spring season - April 19-May 29
Winter season - Jan 19-Feb 28
Fall season September 22-October 18
-
Official release:
NEW YORK CITY BALLET ANNOUNCES 2015-16 SEASON
HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE SEVEN WORLD PREMIERE BALLETS TWO BY NYCB RESIDENT CHOREOGRAPHER AND SOLOIST JUSTIN PECK ONE BY NYCB CORPS MEMBER TROY SCHUMACHER AND ONE EACH BY CHOREOGRAPHERS ROBERT BINET, KIM BRANDSTRUP, MYLES THATCHER, AND CHRISTOPHER WHEELDON
THE SEASON’S REPERTORY WILL FEATURE THE MUSIC OF 47 COMPOSERS INCLUDING COMMISSIONED SCORES FROM BRYCE DESSNER OF THE NATIONAL AND ELLIS LUDWIG-LEONE OF SAN FERMIN AND THE INAUGURAL PERFORMANCES OF MUSIC DIRECTOR ANDREW LITTON
TWENTY-ONE WEEK SEASON TO FEATURE A TOTAL OF 58 BALLETS WITH 28 WORKS BY NYCB CO-FOUNDER GEORGE BALANCHINE INCLUDING THE FULL-LENGTH JEWELS AND A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM AND THE ANNUAL HOLIDAY SEASON OF GEORGE BALANCHINE’S THE NUTCRACKERThe Season Will Also Feature Works By NYCB Co-Founding Choreographer Jerome Robbins and Works by NYCB Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins Including Martins’ Stagings of Swan Lake and August Bournonville’s La Sylphide As Well as Additional Works by Alexei Ratmansky, Justin Peck, and Christopher Wheeldon
The Travelers Companies, Inc. is the Global Sponsor of New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet will open its 2015-16 Season at Lincoln Center on Tuesday, September 22 with eight performances of Peter Martins’ production of Tschaikovsky’s Swan Lake, through Tuesday, September 29, to launch the Company’s 2015 Fall Season, which will continue for four weeks through Sunday, October 18.The year of performances will continue with the annual holiday season of George Balanchine’s The NutcrackerTM (November 27 through January 3); the 2016 Winter Season (January 19 through February 28); and the 2016 Spring Season (April 19 through May 29).
The 21-week season of performances at the David H. Koch Theater will feature 58 ballets performed by the Company’s 94 dancers and the 62-piece New York City Ballet Orchestra.
In keeping with New York City Ballet’s unparalleled commitment to new work, the 2015-16 Season will feature seven world premiere ballets, including two from NYCB’s Resident Choreographer Justin Peck (fall and winter season), and one each from choreographers Robert Binet (fall season), Kim Brandstrup (fall season), Myles Thatcher (fall season), Troy Schumacher (fall season), and Christopher Wheeldon (spring season). The season will also include commissioned scores from the acclaimed American composers Bryce Dessner, for Peck’s winter season premiere, and Ellis Ludwig-Leon, for Schumacher’s fall season premiere.
The 2015-16 Season will also be highlighted by the inaugural performances of NYCB Music Director Andrew Litton who was appointed last year and will conduct his first performances as the Company’s new Music Director during the opening weekend of the 61st annual season of George Balanchine’s The NutcrackerTM, beginning Friday, November 27.
Litton will also conduct the opening night of the 2016 Winter Season on Tuesday, January 19, in a program that will feature the music of three American composers whose works have had a major influence on Litton’s career – Leonard Bernstein (Candide Overture and Jerome Robbins’ Fancy Free), Samuel Barber (Peter Martins’ Barber Violin Concerto), and George Gershwin (George Balanchine’s Who Cares?). Litton, who will be the sixth Music Director in NYCB history, also serves as Music Director of both Norway’s Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Denver’s Colorado Symphony Orchestra, and is also an acclaimed pianist and a Grammy Award-winning recording artist with a discography of more than 120 recordings.
All performances will take place at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, which is located at West 63rd Street and Columbus Avenue. Subscription tickets for the 2015-16 Season will be available beginning April 28; single tickets for repertory performances will go on sale on August 3; and single tickets for performances of George Balanchine’s The NutcrackerTM will go on sale on September 20. Tickets are available online at nycballet.com, by phone at 212-496-0600, or in person at the David H. Koch Theater Box Office.2015 FALL PERFORMANCES – September 22 through October 18 Featuring World Premiere Ballets by Justin Peck, Troy Schumacher, Robert Binet, Myles Thatcher, and Kim Brandstrup; Eight Performances of Peter Martins’ full-length staging of Swan Lake; and Two All Balanchine Programs
New York City Ballet’s 2015 Fall Season will open on Tuesday, September 22 at 7:30 p.m. with the return of Peter Martins’ full-length staging of Swan Lake. Set to Tschaikovsky’s beloved score and featuring sets and costumes by the acclaimed Danish painter Per Kirkeby and lighting by Mark Stanley, the production was last performed by NYCB in the fall of 2013 to sold-out houses. For the 2015 Fall Season the production will be performed eight times, through Tuesday, September 29.
Following the eight-performance run of Swan Lake, the Company will present its annual Fall Gala performance on Wednesday, September 30. The evening will feature four World Premiere ballets, including works by NYCB Resident Choreographer and Soloist Justin Peck, and NYCB Corps de Ballet member Troy Schumacher, who will make his second work for NYCB. The evening will also feature ballets by choreographers Robert Binet and Myles Thatcher, both of whom will be making their first-ever works for NYCB. In addition, once again this year the evening will celebrate the worlds of dance and fashion with costumes created by some of the fashion world’s most acclaimed designers. The costume designers for the four Fall Gala premieres will be announced at a later date.
Troy Schumacher World Premiere – Fall Gala The Schumacher premiere will feature a commissioned score from composer Ellis Ludwig-Leone,
who has previously collaborated with Schumacher on several works for BalletCollective, the dance, music, and art collective founded by Schumacher in 2010 and where Ludwig-Leone serves as Composer and Music Director. Ludwig-Leone is also the frontman and composer for the baroque pop band San Fermin, whose self-titled debut album was named one of the “50 Best Albums of 2013” by National Public Radio. Born in Rhode Island, and raised in rural Massachusetts, Ludwig-Leone studied composition at Yale University and currently resides in Brooklyn.
The Fall Gala premiere will be the second work that Schumacher, who has danced with NYCB since 2005, has created for the Company. His first piece for NYCB, Clearing Dawn, was created for the 2014 Fall Gala.Justin Peck World Premiere – Fall Gala Peck, NYCB’s Resident Choreographer, will work with Steve Reich’s Variations for Vibes, Pianos
and Strings for his Fall Gala premiere, which will be the ninth work that Peck has created for NYCB since 2012.
Peck, who is a Soloist with NYCB and has also created ballets for such companies as Miami City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and LA Dance Project, among others, is also the subject of the acclaimed documentary film Ballet 422, which is currently playing in movie theaters across the country. Named NYCB’s second-ever Resident Choreographer in 2014, Peck’s recent works for NYCB include ‘Rōdē,ō: Four Dance Episodes, which premiered during the 2015 Winter Season, and his acclaimed collaborations with composer Sufjan Stevens – Year of the Rabbit (2012) and Everywhere We Go (2014).
Robert Binet Premiere – Fall Gala For his first-ever ballet for NYCB, Canadian-born choreographer Robert Binet will work with two
movements from Miroirs – “Oiseaux Tristes” and “Une Barque sur l’Ocean” – a piano score by Maurice Ravel. In 2013 Binet, who trained at Canada’s National Ballet School, was appointed Choreographic Associate at The National Ballet of Canada. Prior to this appointment, Binet served as the first-ever Royal Ballet Choreographic Apprentice, a position the British company created expressly for Binet in which he was mentored by the company’s Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor.
In addition to creating works for The National Ballet of Canada and Wayne McGregor│Random Dance, Binet has also created works for The Royal Ballet as part of the company’s Draft Works program which showcases new choreography. In addition, in 2011 Binet shadowed The Hamburg Ballet’s Artistic Director John Neumeier as he created a full-length work, and in 2012 Binet created his own full-length work for the German National Youth Ballet, The Hamburg Ballet’s second company. Binet has also participated in working sessions at the New York Choreographic Institute, an affiliate of NYCB, during the spring of 2011 and the fall of 2014.
Myles Thatcher World Premiere – Fall Gala The final premiere of the Fall Gala evening will be created by Myles Thatcher, a member of the
San Francisco Ballet’s corps de ballet since 2010, who will choreograph to the first movement of William Walton’s Piano Quartet in d minor, for his first-ever work for NYCB.Thatcher is currently one of seven artists participating in the 2014-15 Rolex Mentor & Protégé Arts Initiative, which matches emerging artists in various disciplines with established artists working in the same fields. Thatcher was selected for the program by his mentor, choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, and has spent the last year observing Ratmansky at work on various projects, including time at New York City Ballet while Ratmansky was choreographing Pictures at an Exhibition for NYCB’s 2014 Fall Season.
As a dancer Thatcher has performed numerous corps and soloist roles with the San Francisco Ballet, and has also participated in a number of choreographic workshops and showcases with both the San Francisco Ballet and School. Thatcher’s first work for his home company, called Manifesto and set to excerpts from Bach’s Goldberg Variations and The Musical Offering, premiered in February 2015.
Kim Brandstrup World Premiere – Thursday, October 8 On Thursday, October 8, NYCB will present the final premiere of the 2015 Fall Season which will
be created by the Danish-born, British-based choreographer Kim Brandstrup, who will make his first-ever work for an American dance company. The ballet will be set to Claude Debussy’s Jeux, the French composer’s last orchestral work, which was commissioned by Serge Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes and premiered in May 1913.
Brandstrup, who studied film at the University of Copenhagen, founded Arc Dance Company in Britain in 1985 where he created numerous works over a span of 20 years. Brandstrup is the recipient of two Olivier Awards, one for Outstanding Achievement in Dance in 1990 (Orfeo – London Contemporary Dance Theater) and one for Best New Dance Creation in 2010 (Goldberg: The Rojo/Branstrup Project, a collaboration with the ballerina Tamara Rojo at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Studio).
Brandstrup has worked extensively in Britain where he has created works for The Royal Opera and Royal Ballet Covent Garden, the English National Ballet, and the Rambert Dance Company. He has also created works for the Royal Danish Ballet, Danish Dance Theater, Royal Swedish Ballet, and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, among others. In New York, Brandstrup’s work has been seen at the Metropolitan Opera where he has created choreography for two productions – Death in Venice (1994), and Eugene Onegin (2013).Other highlights of the 2015 Fall Season will include two All Balanchine Programs, the first featuring Liebeslieder Walzer and Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3, and the second, a Black & White program consisting of Concerto Barocco, Monumentum pro Gesualdo, Movements for Piano and Orchestra, Episodes, and The Four Temperaments. A program featuring the works of five American composers will include Martins’ Ash, to a score by Michael Torke; Richard Tanner’s Sonatas and Interludes, to a score by John Cage; Peck’s ‘Rōdē,ō: Four Dance Episodes, to a score by Aaron Copland; and Balanchine’s Tarantella, to a score by Louis Moreau Gottschalk, and Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, to a score by Richard Rodgers.
The final program of the fall season will feature Balanchine’s charming commedia dell’arte story ballet Harlequinade, set to a score by Riccardo Drigo and featuring more than 80 dancers from both NYCB and the School of American Ballet; and Robbins’ N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz, which the choreographer created to a score by Robert Prince in 1958, one year after his landmark musical West Side Story opened on Broadway.
George Balanchine’s The NutcrackerTM
November 27, 2015 through January 3, 2016
New York City Ballet will present its annual engagement of the holiday classic George Balanchine’s The NutcrackerTM from Friday, November 27, 2015 through Sunday, January 3, 2016.
Balanchine’s beloved production, which premiered on February 2, 1954 at the City Center of Music and Drama in New York, helped to establish The Nutcracker and its score as perennial favorites in the United States, evident by the now countless versions of the ballet performed all over the country. NYCB’s acclaimed production is seen by more than 100,000 people annually and has been performed more than 2,300 times.
Set to Tschaikovsky’s glorious score, George Balanchine’s The NutcrackerTM features choreography by Balanchine, scenery by Rouben Ter-Arutunian, costumes by Karinska, and lighting by Mark Stanley, after the original designs by Ronald Bates. The production includes the Company’s entire roster of more than 150 dancers and musicians, as well as more than 125 children, in two alternating casts, from the School of American Ballet, the official school of New York City Ballet.
The 2015 season of George Balanchine’s The NutcrackerTM is once again sponsored by The Travelers Companies, Inc.2016 Winter Season Performances – January 19 through February 28 Featuring a World Premiere by Justin Peck to a Commissioned Score by Bryce Dessner with Sets and Costumes Designed by Artist Marcel Dzama; NYCB’s New Music Director Andrew Litton to Conduct January 19 Opening Night Performance; and George Balanchine’s Annual Birthday Celebration – Saturday at the Ballet with George
Music Director Andrew Litton Conducts Winter Season Opening Night Performance New York City Ballet will open its 2016 Winter Season on Tuesday, January 19 with an evening
designed by NYCB Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins and NYCB’s new Music Director Andrew Litton to celebrate the music of three American composers who have had a major influence on Litton’s career – Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, and George Gershwin -- whose music will accompany ballets by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Peter Martins.
The evening will begin with the New York City Ballet Orchestra performing the overture from Bernstein’s Candide, followed by Martins’ Barber Violin Concerto, Robbins’ Fancy Free (music by Bernstein), and Balanchine’s Who Cares? (music by Gershwin).
A native New Yorker, Litton grew up on New York’s Upper West Side and received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School of Music in piano and conducting. In addition to his duties with the Bergen Philharmonic and Colorado Symphony, Litton regularly appears with orchestras throughout the world and has also conducted for many of the world’s leading opera companies including The Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera Covent Garden, and Deutsche Oper Berlin. Litton is also recognized as an authority on the music of George Gershwin and led the Covent Garden premiere of the composer’s Porgy and Bess.
While still a student at Juilliard Litton’s first professional experiences were with the ballet world, collaborating with both Rudolph Nureyev and Natalia Makarova, including performing as the onstage pianist for Nureyev’s legendary Broadway performances in the 1970s.
Justin Peck World Premiere – February 2 New York City Ballet’s annual New Combinations Evening on Tuesday, February 2 will feature a
World Premiere Ballet by NYCB Resident Choreographer and Soloist Justin Peck. For this new work, Peck will create his first-ever narrative ballet, which will be based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale The Most Incredible Thing, the story of a young man who creates a magnificent clock in an effort to win a contest and the incredible consequences that ensue.For this one-act story ballet Peck is collaborating with composer Bryce Dessner on a commissioned score and artist Marcel Dzama for the visual and costume design. The ballet will also be Peck’s largest work to date featuring more than 50 dancers, including 11 children from the School of American Ballet.
Dessner, the co-founder and guitarist for the Grammy Award-nominated rock band The National, is a Brooklyn-based composer who holds a master’s degree in music from Yale University and has collaborated with such artists as Steve Reich, Philip Glass, David Lang, Sufjan Stevens, Nico Muhly, and the Kronos Quartet, among many others. He is also the founder of the influential MusicNOW Festival, the Cincinnati-based showcase for contemporary music from around the world that recently celebrated its 10th anniversary. Dessner and Peck previously collaborated in 2013 on Murder Ballades for LA Dance Project.
Dzama is one of the contemporary art world’s most celebrated young artists whose work is characterized by an idiosyncratic visual language that draws from a wide range of references and influences including Dante, William Blake, and Marcel Duchamp. Best known for his prolific drawings, the Canadian-born Dzama received his B.F.A from the University of Manitoba, and in recent years has also worked in sculpture, painting, diorama, film and video. Represented by the David Zwirner Gallery in New York, Dzama has exhibited extensively in solo and group presentations in the U.S. and abroad, and his work is held in the collections of such institutions as the Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and the Tate Gallery in London. Dzama currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
The New Combinations Program, which will premiere on Tuesday, February 2 with encore performances on Saturday, February 6 at 8 p.m., and February 9, 10 and 11 at 7:30 p.m., will also feature the new Schumacher, Binet and Thatcher ballets from the winter season, and the return of Christopher Wheeldon’s Estancia, which was created for NYCB’s Architecture of Dance Festival in 2010.
Estancia is set to the score of the same name by the Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera, which was commissioned in 1941 by NYCB Co-Founder Lincoln Kirstein and intended to be choreographed by Balanchine for American Ballet Caravan. Wheeldon’s ballet brought Ginastera’s score to the NYCB repertory nearly 70 years after it was commissioned by Kirstein in a production that features set designs by the acclaimed architect Santiago Calatrava. Estancia now returns to the NYCB repertory to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ginastera, who was born in Buenos Aires on April 11, 1916.Other highlights of the 2016 Winter Season include the Company’s annual celebration of George Balanchine’s birthday – “Saturday at the Ballet with George” – on Saturday, January 23. The festivities will include two All Balanchine programs consisting of Walpurgisnacht Ballet, Sonatine, Mozartiana and Symphony in C at the 2 p.m. matinee; and Ballo della Regina, Kammermusik No. 2 and Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3 at the 8 p.m. evening performance. The day will also feature pre-performance talks and other special events that will be announced at a later date. 2016 will mark the 112th anniversary of George Balanchine’s birth on January 22, 1904.
The winter season will include an additional All Balanchine program, consisting of the Black & White leotard ballets Episodes, Agon, and The Four Temperaments, which will be performed during the final week of the season – February 24, 26, 27 (eve), and 28.
Other winter season highlights include the return of Peter Martins’ staging of August Bournonville’s La Sylphide, which will be performed with Balanchine’s Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2 for eight performances from February 12 through 19.
Contemporary works returning to the repertory during the winter will include Wheeldon’s This Bitter Earth, Martins’ The Infernal Machine, and Peck’s Paz de la Jolla, the creation of which was chronicled in Jody Lee Lipes’ acclaimed documentary film Ballet 422.
2016 Spring Performances – April 19 through May 29. Featuring a World Premiere Ballet by Christopher Wheeldon George Balanchine’s Jewels and A Midsummer Night’s Dream; and Works by Bournonville, Robbins, Martins, Peck, and Ratmansky
New York City Ballet’s 2016 Spring Season will open on Tuesday, April 19 with a performance of George Balanchine’s Jewels, the three-act, evening length work that was created for New York City Ballet in 1967. Each section of the ballet is distinct in both music and mood with Emeralds to music by Fauré an evocation of France, Rubies to music by Stravinsky epitomizing the speed and rhythms of America, and Diamonds to music by Tschaikovsky recalling the grandeur of Imperial Russia and the Maryinsky Theater, where Balanchine received his early ballet training. Jewels will receive five performances during the 2016 Spring Season – Tuesday, April 19, Saturday, April 23 (eve), Wednesday, April 27, Thursday, April 28 and Sunday, May 1.The opening week of the spring season will also feature a Contemporary Choreographers program consisting of Christopher Wheeldon’s Estancia, which premiered in 2010; Alexei Ratmansky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, which premiered in 2014, and Justin Peck’s Everywhere We Go, which also premiered in 2014; an American Music program consisting of Peter Martins’ Barber Violin Concerto, Jerome Robbins’ N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz, and Justin Peck’s winter season premiere to music by Bryce Dessner; and a final program consisting of August Bournonville’s Bournonville Divertissements, Robbins’ Moves, and Balanchine’s Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux and Symphony in Three Movements.
Other program highlights include an All Balanchine program consisting of Ballo della Regina, Kammermusik No. 2, and Vienna Waltzes; and an All Robbins program consisting of Dances at a Gathering and West Side Story Suite.
The final week of the 2016 Spring Season will feature seven performances of Balanchine’s beloved full-length staging of A Midsummer Night’s Dream from May 24 through May 29.
Christopher Wheeldon Premiere – Spring Gala, May 4, 2016 The final World Premiere of the 2015-16 Season will be created by Christopher Wheeldon and will
take place at NYCB’s annual Spring Gala performance on Wednesday, May 4. Wheeldon, who danced with NYCB from 1993 to 2000 and was the Company’s Resident Choreographer from 2001 to 2008, has created 19 works for NYCB since 1997. The score for Wheeldon’s new work and additional Spring Gala programming will be announced at a later date.Currently an Artistic Associate of The Royal Ballet, Wheeldon has created numerous works for the British company, including his acclaimed full-length productions of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (a 2011 co-production with the National Ballet of Canada) and The Winter’s Tale (2014). This spring Wheeldon is directing and choreographing the Broadway production of An American in Paris, which stars NYCB Principal Dancer Robert Fairchild and The Royal Ballet’s Leanne Cope, and is currently playing at the Palace Theatre. Wheeldon has also created numerous works for ballet companies around the world including American Ballet Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, and Royal Danish Ballet. He has also choreographed for The Metropolitan Opera, and for his own company, Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company, which he founded in 2009.
-
True that.
In defense of Hartford Symphony, they are doing a program in April that includes Sleeping Beauty with dancers from the Nutmeg Ballet school. I can only hope the Beauty bits are staged by Kirk Peterson, who is often a guest teacher with the school.
-
Info on screening:
WORLD PREMIERE SCREENING OF
RIC BURNS’ NEW DOCUMENTARY
AMERICAN MASTERS: AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE
MONDAY, MARCH 23 AT 6:00 P.M.
AT THE KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
The Kennedy Center Millennium Stage hosts the World Premiere screening of American Masters: American Ballet Theatre on Monday, March 23 at 6:00 P.M. in the Terrace Theater at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
American Masters: American Ballet Theatre, a feature-length documentary directed by award-winning filmmaker Ric Burns, celebrates ABT’s legacy through rehearsal footage, performances and interviews with key figures from the Company’s rich history. Beginning production in 2006, Burns was given unprecedented access to the Company and shot hundreds of hours of original footage, including live performances in Paris and Havana, studio rehearsals in New York City and slow-motion captures at Kaatsbaan International Dance Center in Tivoli, New York. The film also includes hundreds of carefully curated still photographs and rare archival footage of ballet icons, providing a comprehensive look at American Ballet Theatre and the world of professional ballet.
Free general admission tickets will be distributed in the Kennedy Center’s States Gallery starting at approximately 5:30 P.M. on March 23, up to two tickets per person.
American Masters: American Ballet Theatre will have its national broadcast premiere on Friday, May 15 at 9:00 P.M. on PBS (check local listings). The film is a production of Steeplechase Films, Inc. and THIRTEEN PRODUCTIONS LLC’s American Masters for WNET. Ric Burns is producer and director. Bonnie Lafave is
producer. Emily Williams and Mikaela Shwer are editors. Katie O’Rourke is co-producer for Steeplechase Films. Susan Lacy and Michael Kantor are executive producers.
Funding for American Masters: American Ballet Theatre is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, Rosalind P. Walter, Lewis Ranieri, Madeline Eckett Oden, and Ruth and Harold Newman and Jody and John Arnhold. American Masters is made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Rosalind P. Walter, The Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation, Rhoda Herrick, Vital Projects Fund, Michael & Helen Schaffer Foundation, Rolf and Elizabeth Rosenthal, Jack Rudin, The André and Elizabeth Kertész Foundation and public television viewers.
-
When I look at the repertoire at local symphony orchestras (not Boston Symphony or the New York Philharmonic) but Hartford Symphony and Springfield Symphony, more and more there are programs like the music of Michael Jackson or Billy Joel (real Hartford Symphony programs) or movie music. I can't blame them. Those programs sell. I got a survey from Hartford Symphony asking me which program I would go to more: the music of Led Zeppelin or the music of Queen. I said neither. When I want to listen to either of those I listen to their recordings (note: always fill out these surveys. You get invited to more surveys and focus groups which lead, sometimes, to free tickets and such. Plus, you can try to influence things. But they didn't listen to me and there is a Queen program this year!). On the other hand, I love the New York Phil's Bugs Bunny program. Those cartoons were/are my favorites. Like Balanchine, they married high and middle culture. And they didn't water things down. That was real Wagner music in those cartoons!
We are at a challenging place with the arts. I feel torn. I want to support the broadcasts at my local theaters but I can't abide by some of the programs. I didn't go see the Royal's Manon earlier in the season and now that theater isn't carrying Swan Lake or La Fille mal gardée
-
With nearly half of these a repeat, I think only Giselle and Don Q might be of interest to me. Total shame about the one-act ballets. But we've been hearing for nearly 20 years that mixed bills don't sell to the casual ballet fan. I do think a little creative packaging could help to sell a few mixed bills. You could have a "Ballet Russe" bill with Les Presages, Le Tricorne and Apollo. Yes, Les Presages was for the de Basil’s Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, but we can fudge that
Or a "Party" program with Paquita grand pas, Gaîté Parisienne, and Jeu de cartes. Heck, I'd even take a repeat of Coppelia.
-
Here is the official release:
Pathé Live and BY Experience Announce the 2015-16 Bolshoi Ballet Cinema Season Featuring Seven Productions Including Brand New Ballets
Direct from Moscow to Select Cinemas across the U.S. and Canada March 16, 2015 – New York, NY – Pathé Live and BY Experience proudly announce the new 2015-16 Bolshoi Ballet in Cinema season featuring seven exceptional productions, with four live performances (captured earlier the same day of the cinema broadcast from Moscow) and three pre-recorded programs, screened as Sunday matinees to over 500 cinemas and performing arts centers across the U.S. and Canada.
Opening the sixth season of cinema events is one of the greatest romantic ballets, GISELLE performed live on October 11 followed by George Balanchine’s opulent JEWELS (recorded) on November 15 starring the celebrated young prodigy Olga Smirnova in Diamonds. John Neumeier’s tragic masterpiece, THE LADY OF THE CAMELLIAS, which only recently entered the Bolshoi’s repertoire to incredible success, will be performed live on December 6, followed by THE NUTCRACKER (recorded) on December 20. For the very first time, North American audiences will be able to see Jean-Cristophe Maillot’s brand new production of Shakespeare’s comedy THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, specially created for the Bolshoi, on January 24, 2016. SPARTACUS (recorded), Grigorovich’s signature ballet is set for March 13, and closing the season is a same day as live broadcast of Fadeyechev’s dazzling production of DON QUIXOTE on April 10. Tickets will go on sale in the U.S. and Canada on June 19, 2015 at www.BolshoiBalletinCinema.com
The new season combines classic and brand-new productions -- some never-before-seen in the U.S. -- featuring the Bolshoi Ballet of today at their absolute best. Starring the company’s exquisite roster of dancers in works by contemporary choreographers John Neimeier and Jean-Cristophe Maillot, and ranging from iconic George Balanchine to more timeless pieces in the classical ballet canon, this season is one not to miss. See descriptions of each production below.Giselle – Sunday, Oct.11, 2015 at 12:55 p.m. ET / 11:55 a.m. CT / 10:55 a.m. MT and 12:55 p.m. PT/AK/HI
Music Adolphe Adam
Choreography Yuri Grigorovich
The young peasant girl Giselle dies when she learns that the man she loves, Albrecht, has betrayed her. Against her own will, she joins the wilis, vengeful spirits who now turn against Albrecht and condemn him to dance until he dies of exhaustion. This treasure of romantic ballet is one of the oldest and greatest in classical repertoire, touching upon the great romantic themes: a doomed love affair ending in tragedy, a dive into fantasy and ultimate redemtion through the power of love. The Bolshoi is renowned for its intimate and emotionally intense interpretation of this beloved drama.
Jewels (recorded) – Sunday, Nov. 15, 2015 at 12:55 p.m. local time
Music Gabriel Fauré (Emeralds), Igor Stravinsky (Rubies), Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Diamonds)
Choreography George Balanchine
This opulent triptych was inspired by Balanchine’s visit to the famous jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels on New York’s Fifth Avenue, celebrating the citites and dance schools of Paris, New York and St. Petersburg, each bound to its own precious stone. With this first abstract ballet, Balanchine built an homage of captivating beauty to the dance schools that had forged his style: Paris, New York, and St Petersburg, each represented by a contrasting jewel: emerald, ruby, and diamond. Jewels offers a unique occasion to enjoy Balanchine’s visually captivating work, as the Bolshoi is only company authorized by the Balanchine Trust to film and broadcast his masterpiece. Starring Olga Smirnova, Semyon Chudin, Vladislav Lantratov, Anna Tikhomirova, Ekaterina Krysanova, and the Bolshoi Corps de Ballet.
The Lady of the Camellias (Sunday, December 6, 2015 at 12:55 p.m. ET / 11:55 a.m. CT / 10:55 a.m. MT and 12:55 p.m. PT/AK/HI
Music: Frédéric Chopin
Choreography: John Neumeier
A young bourgeois, Armand Duval, falls madly in love with Marguerite Gautier, a gorgeous courtesan celebrated by the Parisian high society. Despite her infidelity, Armand will do all he can to win the beautiful woman’s heart and convince her to leave her indulgent life. The Bolshoi breathes new life into John Neumeier's tragic masterpiece, inspired by Alexandre Dumas' novel and accompanied by Chopin's exquisite score. This production assumes a new emotional and dramatic texture that only the Bolshoi’s dancers can deliver. “Neumeier’s character-rich ballet has found a company that is equal to its challenges” – Financial Times.
The Nutcracker – Sunday, Dec. 20, 2015 (recorded) at 12:55 p.m. local time
Music: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Choreography: Yuri Grigorovich
On Christmas Eve, Marie is given a wooden nutcracker as a gift. When the clock strikes midnight, the Nutcracker transforms into a prince and saves Marie from the Mouse King and his army. This beloved holiday classic will enchant the whole family with its fairytale setting and Tchaikovsky’s timeless score. The Bolshoi’s version of The Nutcracker has a unique and beautiful sense of romance and philosophy, danced by the heroic Denis Rodkin as the courageous Prince and the magical Anna Nikulina as Marie.
The Taming of the Shrew – Sunday, Jan. 24, 2016 at 12:55 p.m. ET / 11:55 a.m. CT / 10:55 a.m. MT and tape-delayed to 12:55 p.m. PT/AK/HI
Music: Dmitri Shostakovich
Choreography: Jean-Christophe Maillot
Many suitors dream of marrying the lovely and docile Bianca, including Luciento. However her father will not let anyone marry her before her elder sister, the ill-tempered shrew Katharina, is herself married. French choreographer Jean-Christophe Maillot lands a coup with his adaptation of Shakespeare's comedy tailored specifically to the Bolshoi dancers, and achieves a magnetic two hours of breathtaking, nonstop dance unlike any other, portraying the Bolshoi’s audacity and energy in a completely new way. This new production was staged exclusively for the Bolshoi and cannot be seen anywhere else!
Spartacus (recorded) – Sunday, March 13, 2016 at 12:55 p.m. local time
Music Aram Kachaturian
Choreography Yuri Grigorovich
In ancient Rome, Spartacus, a Thracian king, is turned captive by Crassus with his wife Phrygia. Forced to fight as a gladiator and kill one of his friends, Spartacus plots an unprecedented upheaval. Grigorovich's Spartacus was created at the Bolshoi in 1968 and has since remained the Russian company’s signature ballet. This most spectacular production is an epic tour de force, giving full expression to the virility and strengh for which the Bolshoi’s male dancers are renowned. Principal dancer Mikhail Lobukhin is stunning in the role of the legendary gladiator, along with Svetlana Zakharova as Aegina and Vladislav Lantratov as Crassus.
Don Quixote – Sunday, April 10, 2016 at 12:55 p.m. ET / 11:55 a.m. CT / 10:55 a.m. MT and tape-delayed to 12:55 p.m. PT/AK/HI
Music Leon Minkus
Choreography Alexei Fadeyechev (after Marius Petipa and Alexander Gorsky)
Cervantes’ eccentric hero Don Quixote leaves on journey full of adventures with his loyal squire Sancho Panza in search of his perfect woman. On the way he meets Kitri, the dazzling daughter of an innkeeper who he thinks might be his ideal love. The Bolshoi's panache and excellence are combined in Fadeyechev’s critically acclaimed staging of this exalting performance with Leon Minkus’ famous score. Featuring brand new sets and costumes to accompany this colorful and technically challenging production, DON QUIXOTE is quintessential Bolshoi, abounding with life and not to be missed!
More information on these productions, venues, and tickets coming soon. Please visit www.BolshoiBalletinCinema.com for updates.
# # #
About Bolshoi Ballet
The Bolshoi Theatre of Russia, one of the greatest music and dance stages in the world, was founded in 1776 and to this day remains a spearhead of Russian culture. With more than 250 dancers, the Bolshoi Ballet is one of the largest and most celebrated ballet companies in the world. Its annual repertoire of up to 30 titles per year includes classical masterpieces, rare productions and outstanding works by the most famous contemporary choreographers. Moreover, thanks to its school, the Bolshoi keeps the revered tradition of classical ballet alive through new generations of talented young dancers. For the 5th season, the Bolshoi Ballet will continue to open its doors and allow viewers across the world to attend their outstanding performances in over 1,200 cinemas internationally.
About BY Experience
BY Experience kicked off the digital revolution of live events to movie theaters and other locations globally with David Bowie’s 2003 Reality album launch and since then, over 22 million tickets have been sold worldwide for cinema events BY Experience has distributed globally. Current cinema series credits: Distribution Representative, The Met: Live in HD (Worldwide; since 2006), the U.K.’s National Theatre Live (Ex-UK; since 2009), Bolshoi Ballet (North America; since 2014), Stratford Festival HD (Ex-Canada, since 2014). Additionally, BY Experience has executive produced and/or distributed several diverse programs for cinema including numerous rock concerts, radio programs, fine art exhibits, and other special content events. BY Experience distributes to over 60 countries, to over 2,000 movie screens. www.byexperience.net.
About Pathé Live
Pathé Live, a Gaumont-Pathé subsidiary since 2008, is the European leader in the distribution of alternative programs in cinemas. Its network is rapidly expanding and now counts more than 130 cinemas venues in France and over 1000 venues around the world. Thanks to its unique system of high definition and video transmission by satellite, Pathé Live is able to deliver high quality live and recorded events everywhere across the globe. Pathé Live has, over the years, been providing a wide variety of programs such as operas, ballets, concerts, exhibitions and has also been a pioneer in the broadcast of 3D live shows. Pathé Live is the distributor of the Met Live in HD in France and Switzerland.
Pathé Live has also been producing and distributing the Bolshoi Ballet shows since 2010 live or near live in 1000 cinemas across the world and will launch with the new 2014-2015 season, its 5th Bolshoi Ballet in cinemas season. These shows, specifically shot for the big screen with 5.1 sound and 10 HD cameras, will continue to provide a unique opportunity for the audience to experience an unprecedented proximity with the artists and enjoy a unique look behind the scenes of the most renowned ballet company in the world. -
Official release:
PALOMA HERRERA TO GIVE FAREWELL PERFORMANCE
WITH AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE IN GISELLE
ON MAY 27 MATINEE AT METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE
American Ballet Theatre Principal Dancer Paloma Herrera will give her farewell performance with the Company at the 2:00pm matinee of Giselle on Wednesday, May 27, 2015 at the Metropolitan Opera House. Ms. Herrera's farewell performance was previously scheduled for Tuesday, June 9 as Princess Aurora in the Company's new staging of The Sleeping Beauty.
Ms. Herrera has decided to change the date of her final ABT performance to dance a role she has performed since 2001, and one that is very familiar to New York audiences. American Ballet Theatre's 2015 Spring season runs from May 11 through July 4. Individual tickets go on sale beginning Sunday, March 22 at 9:00am at the Metropolitan Opera House box office, by phone at 212-362-6000 and online at www.abt.org.
Or a "Party" program with Paquita grand pas, Gaîté Parisienne, and Jeu de cartes.
ABT 2015 Met season casting weeks 1-2
in American Ballet Theatre
Posted
Casting:
AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE
Metropolitan Opera House - Spring, 2015
FIRST WEEKMon. Eve., May 11, 7:30 P.M. LES SYLPHIDES – Seo, Forster, Boylston, Hamrick
PILLAR OF FIRE – Murphy, Hammoudi, Gomes
FANCY FREE – Cornejo, Stearns, Gomes, Paris, Boylston
Tues. Eve., May 12, 7:30 P.M. THEME AND VARIATONS – Lane, Cornejo
JARDIN AUX LILAS – Seo+, Stearns, Part, Zhurbin
RODEO – Reyes, Whiteside+++
Wed. Mat., May 13, 2 P.M. LES SYLPHIDES – Part, Gorak, Abrera, Lane
JARDIN AUX LILAS – Reyes, Forster, Underwood, Hammoudi
RODEO – Copeland+++, Salstein
Wed. Eve., May 13, 7:30 P.M. THEME AND VARIATIONS – Semionova, Stearns
PILLAR OF FIRE – Kent, Zhurbin, Stearns
FANCY FREE – Simkin, Baca+, Whiteside, Abrera, Murphy
Thurs. Eve., May 14, 7:30 P.M. LES SYLPHIDES – Seo, Forster, Boylston, Copeland+
PILLAR OF FIRE – Murphy, Hammoudi, Gomes
RODEO - Reyes, Whiteside
Fri. Eve., May 15, 7:30 P.M. THEME AND VARIATIONS – Murphy, Whiteside
JARDIN AUX LILAS – Reyes, Forster, Underwood, Hammoudi
FANCY FREE – Cornejo, Stearns, Gomes, Paris, Boylston
Sat. Mat., May 16, 2 P.M. LES SYLPHIDES – Part, Gorak, Abrera, Lane
PILLAR OF FIRE – Kent, Zhurbin, Stearns
FANCY FREE – Salstein, Baca,Whiteside, Abrera, Murphy
Sat. Eve., May 16, 8 P.M. THEME AND VARIATIONS – Boylston, Simkin
JARDIN AUX LILAS – Seo, Stearns, Part, Zhurbin
RODEO – Copeland, Salstein
SECOND WEEKMon. Eve., May 18 6:30 P.M. GALA –
AMERICAN:
Billly the Kid (First Episode) – Company
Fancy Free (excerpt) – Cornejo, Stearns, Gomes
Rodeo (excerpt) – Reyes, Salstein
Black Tuesday (“Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”) – Simkin
Push Comes to Shove (4th Movement) – Cornejo
THEATRE:
Fall River Legend (excerpt) – Murphy, Zhurbin
Les Noces (excerpt)– Company
Pillar of Fire (excerpt) – Kent, Stearns
The Bright Stream (excerpt) – Simkin, Barbee
Manon (Act I Pas de Deux) – Vishneva, Gomes
Swan Lake (Act IV excerpt) – Copeland, Whiteside
BALLET:
La Bayadère (Act II opening adagio) - Corps Ladies
Sinfonietta (3rd Movement) – Teuscher/Forster, Part/Hoven,
Boylston/Whiteside
The Leaves Are Fading (Pas de Deux) – Seo, Stearns
Piano Concerto #1 (4th Movement) – Shevchenko/Royal,
Brandt/Shayer
Études (excerpt) – Murphy, Gorak
Giselle (Act II excerpt) - Semionova, Abrera
La Sylphide (Act I James variation) – Whiteside
Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux (ballerina solo) – Herrera
La Bayadère (Solor variation) – Cornejo
La Bayadère (Gamzatti variation) – Seo
Le Corsaire (Slave variation) – Simkin
Don Quixote (Coda from Act III Pas de Deux) – Boylston, Stearns
Theme and Variations (Finale) – Lane, Gorak
Tues. Eve., May 19, 7:30 P.M. OTHELLO - Gomes, Kent, Whiteside+, Abrera, Gorak+
Wed. Mat., May 20, 2 P.M. OTHELLO - Hammoudi+, Murphy, Stearns+, Part+, Hoven
Wed. Eve., May 20, 7:30 P.M. OTHELLO - Gomes, Kent, Whiteside, Abrera, Gorak
Thurs. Eve., May 21, 7:30 P.M. OTHELLO - Hammoudi, Murphy, Stearns, Part, Hoven
Fri. Eve., May 22, 7:30 P.M. GISELLE - Seo, Stearns, Murphy
Sat. Mat., May 23, 2 P.M. GISELLE - Boylston, Hammoudi, Teuscher
Sat. Eve., May 23, 8 P.M. GISELLE - Semionova, Shklyarov*++, Part
*Guest Artist
+Editors please note first time in a role
Tues. Eve., 5/12 – Seo (Caroline) in Jardin Aux Lilas
Wed. Eve., 5/13 – Baca (Sailor) in Fancy Free
Thurs. Eve., 5/14 Copeland (Waltz) in Les Sylphides
Tues. Eve., 5/19 – Whiteside (Iago) and Gorak (Cassio) in Othello
Wed Mat., 5/20 – Hammoudi (Othello), Stearns (Iago) and Part (Emilia) in Othello
++Editors please note first time in a role with ABT:
Sat Eve., 5/23 – Shklyarov (Albrecht) in Giselle
+++Editors please note first time in a role in New York
Wed. Eve., 5/23 – Copeland (Cowgirl),Whiteside (Champion Roper) in Rodeo