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NYCB 2008 Spring Season


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Thanks to an alert reader! :flowers:

For info on NYCB's Spring ballets and programs, see -->here.

Among the Robbins treats (for me, anyway) are Les Noces, which I haven't seen in its NYCB incarnation, and Four Bagatelles, which I've never seen, period. Brahms-Handel and Andantino are also on the bill.

The site doesn't yet offer a single page to compare series and programs, so for now, you'll just have to click your way through the links.

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And any prediction on the coaching of Watermill? According to the NYCB website, the ballet is as much "Eddie's" as it is "Jerry's".

The marketing team (or whoever makes up the program names) have outdone themselves this time: All German and Some Tharp, Generation Next (the choreographer and all the composers on this program are dead!), French Cuisine (nothing to do with food, they really meant French Chic but decided that a one syllable word just wouldn't cut it)...

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The juxtaposition of "Here and Now" and "Then and There" is pretty amusing. :smilie_mondieu:

My candidates for Watermill are Woetzel and Evans. Hubbe will be gone :speechless-smiley-003:, and I don't think any of the other senior men can carry it. I'm not terribly interested in seeing it on a younger man, but ask me in 15 years and I'll probably suggest TAngle.

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Look close and you shall find. There's some happy surprises in the press release for the spring season. Hint: guest stars.

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New York City Ballet Announces Programming For Jerome Robbins Celebration

The Jerome Robbins Celebration to Feature 33 Ballets by the Great American Choreographer Who Made NYCB his Artistic Home for Nearly 40 Years

Guest Artists to Include Dancers From American Ballet Theatre, Paris Opera Ballet, and The Royal Ballet

The 2008 Spring Season to Also Include a World Premiere by Alexei Ratmansky as Well as Works by George Balanchine, Mauro Bigonzetti, Peter Martins, Susan Stroman, and Christopher Wheeldon

Principal Dancer Damian Woetzel to Give Farewell Performance on Wednesday, June 18

This spring New York City Ballet will celebrate Jerome Robbins, the groundbreaking choreographer and director who transformed American musical theater, and who also made NYCB his artistic home for nearly 40 years.

The Jerome Robbins Celebration, which will mark the 90th anniversary of the choreographer’s birth in 1918, will take place at the New York State Theater from April 29 through June 29, 2008, and will feature 33 ballets that Robbins created over a span of more than 50 years.

Highlights of the celebration, which will focus on Robbins’ work for the ballet stage, will include an historic recreation of his original 1965 staging of Les Noces, as well his 1983 collaboration with Twyla Tharp, Brahms/Handel, which has not been performed since 1991. The season will include several other ballets that have not been performed by NYCB for many years, including Watermill, Other Dances, and Four Bagatelles.

The Jerome Robbins Celebration will begin on Tuesday, April 29 with a special one-time-only Spring Gala performance featuring Circus Polka, The Four Seasons, and West Side Story Suite. The celebration will continue through June 29 and will feature ten all-Robbins programs, each showcasing a different aspect of the choreographer’s work.

In addition to the ten all-Robbins programs, NYCB’s 2008 spring season will include seven additional programs featuring ballets by George Balanchine, Mauro Bigonzetti, Peter Martins, Alexei Ratmansky, Susan Stroman and Christopher Wheeldon. These 17 unique programs will feature a total of 54 different ballets.

Jerome Robbins

Jerome Robbins was one of the major cultural figures of the 20th century. He was born in New York City on October 11, 1918, and began his ballet career in the 1940s with Ballet Theatre (now American Ballet Theatre), where he excelled as a performer in works by such choreographers as Michel Fokine, Antony Tudor, Leonide Massine, and Agnes de Mille. In 1944, for Ballet Theatre, he created his first ballet, Fancy Free, a landmark collaboration with the young composer Leonard Bernstein.

In 1949 Robbins was invited by George Balanchine to join New York City Ballet as Associate Artistic Director, and initially he both choreographed and danced for the Company. Several of the early works he created for NYCB – The Cage (1951), Afternoon of a Faun (1953), Fanfare (1953), and The Concert (1956) – will be performed this spring.

In addition to his ballet work, Robbins spent part of his early career working on Broadway, first as a dancer in the late 1930s, and later as a choreographer and director. The first Broadway show he conceived and choreographed, On the Town (1945), was developed out of the scenario he and Bernstein created for Fancy Free.

Other early Broadway shows, which Robbins choreographed while simultaneously creating ballets and dancing for NYCB, include Billion Dollar Baby (1946), High Button Shoes (1947), Call Me Madam (1950), and the celebrated dance sequences for Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I (1951).

In 1957 Robbins turned his focus away from New York City Ballet, and that year his groundbreaking West Side Story opened on Broadway. Robbins conceived, choreographed, and directed this legendary work, which featured a score by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents. He also co-directed the 1961 film version of the musical, for which he received an Academy Award. Other landmark Broadway musicals that Robbins conceived, choreographed, and directed during his years away from New York City Ballet include Gypsy (1959) and Fiddler on the Roof (1964).

In 1969 Robbins created the ballet masterpiece Dances at a Gathering, which marked his return to New York City Ballet, and he spent the rest of his life working almost exclusively with the Company. After Balanchine’s death in 1983, he became NYCB’s co-Ballet Master in Chief, a position he shared with Peter Martins. Robbins stepped down as co-Ballet Master in Chief in 1989, but continued to make NYCB his artistic home until his death in 1998.

In 1988 Robbins made a brief return to the Broadway stage to create Jerome Robbins’ Broadway, a retrospective of his extraordinary Broadway career. The show was the recipient of six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and Best Direction of a Musical for Robbins

In addition to the Academy Award for West Side Story and numerous Tony Awards, Robbins was a recipient of the Handel Medallion of the City of New York (1976), Kennedy Center Honors (1981), and the National Medal of the Arts (1988). He established and partially endowed the Jerome Robbins Film Archive of the Dance Collection of the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center.

Robbins was also posthumously honored by the City of New York, which gave the name “Jerome Robbins Place” to the northwest corner of Columbus Ave. and W. 62nd St., the location of the stage entrance of the New York State Theater, the home of NYCB.

Robbins’ final works for New York City Ballet were Brandenburg, which premiered on January 22, 1997, and a new staging of his 1965 work Les Noces, which premiered on May 20, 1998. He died in New York City on July 29, 1998.

Jerome Robbins Celebration and Spring Gala Performance

The Jerome Robbins Celebration will open with New York City Ballet’s Spring Gala performance on Tuesday, April 29 at 7 p.m. The program will feature Circus Polka, Robbins’ charming pièce d’occasion featuring 48 students from the School of American Ballet; The Four Seasons, his extravagant romp through to the music of Verdi; and West Side Story Suite, his thrilling distillation of the dance sequences from the Broadway musical.

The honorary chairman for the Spring Gala is Mica Ertegün, who was a close friend of the choreographer’s. The chairmen for the evening are Charlotte Moss and Barry S. Friedberg, and Veronique and Robert Pittman. The corporate chairman is Richard D. Beckman of the Condé Nast Media Group, and the evening’s vice chairman is Eric Nederlander.

The Jerome Robbins Celebration will continue through Sunday, June 29 with 10 distinct all-Robbins programs focusing on various aspects of his work for the ballet stage. There are programs exploring his musical inspirations and collaborations, his work with Leonard Bernstein (Fancy Free, Dybbuk, and West Side Story Suite), the music of Chopin (Dances at a Gathering, Other Dances, and The Concert), the music of French composers (Mother Goose, Afternoon of a Faun, Antique Epigraphs, and In G Major), American composers (Interplay, I’m Old Fashioned and Ives,Songs), and Russian composers and themes (Andantino, Opus 19/The Dreamer, Piano Pieces, and Les Noces).

Highlights of the celebration will include an historic recreation of Les Noces, a work Robbins created for American Ballet Theatre in 1965, set to Igor Stravinsky’s monumental score. In 1998, as his last creation for NYCB, Robbins re-staged the ballet to a recording of the score by a group of Russian folk singers. For the Jerome Robbins Celebration, NYCB will remount Les Noces in its original staging, which featured the musicians – including four pianists, six percussionists, four solo voices, and full chorus – sharing the stage with the dancers.

The celebration will also feature the return of Robbins’ 1983 collaboration with Twyla Tharp, Brahms/Handel, which NYCB last performed in 1991.

The Jerome Robbins Celebration will also feature an exhibition focusing on Robbins’ work for both ballet and Broadway that will be on display in the New York State Theater throughout the spring season, as well as two Monday evening seminars on May 5 and June 19 that will focus on Robbins’ life and work.

Guest Artists

During his lifetime Robbins allowed only a few companies other than New York City Ballet to present his ballets, and as part of the Jerome Robbins Celebration, dancers from three of these companies will perform with NYCB as guest artists.

American Ballet Theatre’s Julie Kent will appear in Other Dances on Wednesday, June 4, and Saturday, June 21 (matinee). Three ABT principal dancers will also appear in three separate performances of Fancy Free: Ethan Stiefel on Thursday, May 1; Jose Manuel Carreño on Sunday, May 4; and Herman Cornejo on Tuesday, May 6.

Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg of London’s Royal Ballet will perform Other Dances on Friday, June 6, and Nicolas Le Riche of the Paris Opera Ballet will perform the solo work A Suite of Dances on Saturday, June 14 (matinee), and Tuesday, June 16.

Spring Season Highlights:

Other highlights of the 2008 spring season include a world premiere ballet by Alexei Ratmansky, artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet. The ballet, which will premiere on Thursday, May 29, is Ratmansky’s second work for NYCB. His first, Russian Seasons, was created in 2006 for NYCB’s Diamond Project, and will also be performed this spring.

The season will include 11 ballets by George Balanchine and will feature three all-Balanchine programs, including the three-part masterpiece Jewels. Peter Martins will be represented by four works, including River of Light set to music by Charles Wourinen. Christopher Wheeldon will be represented by his latest work for the Company, Rococo Variations, a premiere from the 2008 winter season, as well as An American in Paris. The season will also include Mauro Bigonzetti’s Oltremare, which also premiered during the 2008 winter season.

Finally, in a nod to Jerome Robbins’ Broadway career, Double Feature, by Tony Award-winning choreographer and director Susan Stroman, will return to the repertory for five performances only. Set to the music of Irving Berlin and Walter Donaldson, this full-evening work, which premiered in 2004, is an homage to the silent-film era.

Damian Woetzel Farewell Performance

On Wednesday, June 18 at 7:30 p.m., Damian Woetzel will retire from New York City Ballet with a special one-time-only farewell performance. The program for the evening will be announced at a later date.

In making his announcement to retire from NYCB, Woetzel said, “It seems the perfect time for me to leave the stage while still enjoying every moment, though it is not without regret that I say goodbye to what has been a career beyond my dreams. The fact that this coming spring season honors Jerome Robbins has definitely influenced my decision – his presence was the reason I joined NYCB, so it seems appropriate to finish during his celebration.”

Originally from Boston, Massachusetts, Woetzel joined New York City Ballet in 1985 and was promoted to principal dancer in 1989. During his career he has danced a huge range of ballets in the Company’s repertory and has originated roles in ballets by Jerome Robbins, Eliot Feld, Peter Martins, Susan Stroman, Twyla Tharp, and Christopher Wheeldon, among others. Woetzel has performed as a guest artist with many of the world’s great ballet companies, including American Ballet Theatre and the Kirov Ballet. He has also choreographed ballets for NYCB and the New York City Opera, among other companies.

In addition to his work with NYCB, Woetzel is the artistic director of the Vail International Dance Festival, and is the 2008 Harman/Eisner Artist-in-Residence of the Aspen Institute. Woetzel earned a master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University in 2007, and he currently serves on the Harvard Task Force for the Arts. Woetzel intends to pursue active roles in arts leadership, policy, and education, as well as in politics and business.

Ticket Purchases

Spring season subscription series are on sale through the NYCB website, by mail, by phone, and from the NYCB subscription office at 800-580-8730.

Single-ticket orders for the spring repertory season will be accepted by mail and through the NYCB website beginning March 17. Single tickets will also be available beginning April 14 at the New York State Theater box office and through Center Charge at 212-721-6500. Single tickets range in cost from $20 to $98.

All seats in the theater’s fourth ring, rows C through O, will once again be priced at only $20 as part of NYCB’s ongoing commitment to make ballet affordable for all audiences. This opportunity to discover New York City Ballet is sponsored by CIT.

The New York State Theater is located on the Lincoln Center Plaza at Columbus Ave. and 63rd St. The mailing address for the NYCB Box Office is New York City Ballet, New York State Theater, 20 Lincoln Center, New York, NY 10023. For general information on tickets for any New York City Ballet performance, call 212-870-5570, or visit nycballet.com.

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Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I trust the moderators will move, if need be.

They're making a special offer to Subscribers who renew early. From the website:

"Note to Renewing Subscribers: Renew by February 15 and receive a complimentary pair of tickets for your friends and family. Let NYCB help you share your love of our dynamic dancers and thrilling performances. If you renew by February 15, you'll recieve a voucher redeemable for a complimentary pair of tickets to our spring season.* These complimentary tickets are our way of encouraging you to share the drama, beauty, and romance of NYCB with more of your friends and family. There's no better time to introduce someone to the excitement and allure of NYCB than with the spring's Jerome Robbins Celebration. Hurry, this offer expires February 15, so renew today! *Valid for one pair (2 tickets) in the same area of the house as your subscription . Seats next to your existing subscription location(s) cannot be guaranteed. Offer subject to availability, is non--transferable, and has no cash value. Once ordered, tickets cannot be exchanged. Offer valid for 2008 Spring Season only."

I think this is an incredible offer, considering the bonus pair are in the same area of the house as your subscription. I have 2nd ring subs, which means this is a $150 offer for me. I hope the effort works, and it doesn't take away from sales! I definitely plan on bring my neph and sis (along with me and husband) to a perf., and I wouldn't have otherwise.

-amanda

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Guest Artists

...

Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg of London’s Royal Ballet will perform Other Dances on Friday, June 6...

Alina Cojocaru sustained a significant injury ten days ago:

Alina Cojocaru, has had to pull out of five performances of Chroma, the contemporary ballet by Wayne McGregor, because of a neck injury.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml...8/nopera128.xml

However, the June 6 performance is still listed on Mr. Kobborg's site.

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The role requires a certain Zen-ish quality missing in other in-house candidates for the role.
I wonder whether, before he actually did it, anyone (besides Robbins) suspected that Villella could convey this. Of course, Robbins isn't here to draw it out, if need be, from some new dancer.

This will make it worth seeing.
:pinch:
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Guest Artists

...

Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg of London’s Royal Ballet will perform Other Dances on Friday, June 6...

Alina Cojocaru sustained a significant injury ten days ago:

Alina Cojocaru, has had to pull out of five performances of Chroma, the contemporary ballet by Wayne McGregor, because of a neck injury.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml...8/nopera128.xml

However, the June 6 performance is still listed on Mr. Kobborg's site.

Not to minimize any injuries Cojocaru and Kobborg might have, but June 6 is a long time from now. I think it's too soon to eliminate hopes that Cojocaru will perform as scheduled.

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Guest Artists

...

Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg of London’s Royal Ballet will perform Other Dances on Friday, June 6...

Alina Cojocaru sustained a significant injury ten days ago:

Alina Cojocaru, has had to pull out of five performances of Chroma, the contemporary ballet by Wayne McGregor, because of a neck injury.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml...8/nopera128.xml

However, the June 6 performance is still listed on Mr. Kobborg's site.

Not to minimize any injuries Cojocaru and Kobborg might have, but June 6 is a long time from now. I think it's too soon to eliminate hopes that Cojocaru will perform as scheduled.

Cojocaru's neck injury was some time ago, late last season. It kept her out for quite a while.. I suspect she pulled out of Chroma because of the particularly contorted positions that role required which might have been too much of a risk to it. She has been dancing other roles recently.

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