ABT's Young People's Ballet Workshop

[Dale]

A press release:

AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE’S YOUNG PEOPLE’S BALLET WORKSHOP

PRESENTS FIVE NEW WORKS ON FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 2009, 11:00 AM AT METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE

ABT Dancers Choreograph Works to Winning Poems of

ABT’s Page to Stage Poetry Contest

Five new works will be presented at American Ballet Theatre’s Young People’s Ballet Workshop at 11:00 AM on Friday, June 5, 2009, at the Metropolitan Opera House. The works were created by ABT dancers on the five winning poems from ABT’s Page to Stage Poetry Contest.

Winning poems were chosen from over 200 submissions to the contest in April 2009. Works created through ABT’s Page to Stage Poetry Contest are part of Voices and Visions: The Altria/ABT Women’s Choreography Project. Under the guidance of Stephen Pier, a faculty member and choreographic mentor at The Juilliard School, each Altria/ABT choreographer chose a poem that was inspirational to them.

The Altria/ABT choreographers participating in the Workshop are as follows:

· Xiomara Reyes, Principal Dancer

· Misty Copeland, Soloist

· Gemma Bond, Corps de ballet

· Nicole Graniero, Corps de ballet

· Elizabeth Mertz, Corps de ballet

The winners of ABT’s Page to Stage Poetry Contest and their poems can be found online at http://www.abt.org/education/pagetostage.asp. The works will be added to the repertory for future children’s programming.

ABT’s Young People’s Ballet Workshop (YPBW) is a free performance presented each year at the Metropolitan Opera House for students in the New York metropolitan area. YPBW includes excerpts of ABT repertory with narration by ABT’s artistic staff, as well as work by students participating in ABT’s J.P. Morgan Make a Ballet program. YPBW and J.P. Morgan Make a Ballet offers students the opportunity to design, choreograph, construct, produce, and perform their own original performance piece.

With generous support from Altria Group, Inc., American Ballet Theatre created The Altria/ABT Women’s Choreography Project in an effort to identify and nurture female choreographers.

For more information on ABT’s Young People’s Ballet Workshop or other Education outreach programs, please visit www.abt.org/education/

< http://www.abt.org/education/ > .