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ABT 2018 Fall season


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WORLD PREMIERES BY MICHELLE DORRANCE AND JESSICA LANG TO HIGHLIGHT AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE’S FALL SEASON AT THE DAVID H. KOCH THEATER, OCTOBER 17-28, 2018

PERFORMANCES OF FANCY FREE TO COMMEMORATE CENTENNIALS OF JEROME ROBBINS AND LEONARD BERNSTEIN

BOX OFFICE TO OPEN JULY 23

Programming for American Ballet Theatre’s 2018 Fall season, October 17-28 at the David H. Koch Theater, was announced today by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie. The season will feature World Premieres by Michelle Dorrance and Jessica Lang, as well as centennial tribute performances of Jerome Robbins’s and Leonard Bernstein’s Fancy Free.

Principal Dancers for the 2018 Fall season include Stella Abrera, Isabella Boylston, Misty Copeland, Herman Cornejo, Sarah Lane, Alban Lendorf, Gillian Murphy, Hee Seo, Christine Shevchenko, Cory Stearns, Devon Teuscher and James Whiteside.

Fall Gala and World Premieres

American Ballet Theatre’s Fall season will open with a Gala performance on Wednesday, October 17 at 6:30pm. As part of the ABT Women’s Movement initiative, the Fall Gala performance will be devoted to works by female choreographers. The evening will feature a World Premiere by tap dancer and choreographer Michelle Dorrance, co-commissioned with the Vail Dance Festival, Le Jeune, choreographed by Lauren Lovette and performed by the ABT Studio Company, and Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room.

A new work by Jessica Lang will receive its World Premiere on Friday, October 19. Lang’s new work, her third for ABT, will feature scenery and costumes by American artist Sarah Crowner and lighting by Nicole Pearce. The ballet will be given six performances during ABT’s Fall season.

Revival and Returning Repertory

The 2018 Fall season at the Koch Theater will include a revival of George Balanchine’s Symphonie Concertante. Last performed by ABT in 2007, Symphonie Concertante is set to music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Sinfonia Concertante in E flat Major for Violin and Viola K. 364) with costumes by Theoni V. Aldredge and lighting by David K. H. Elliott. Symphonie Concertante received its World Premiere by Ballet Society at the City Center Theater in New York on November 12, 1947, with Maria Tallchief, Tanaquil LeClerq and Todd Bolender in the principal roles. The ballet received its American Ballet Theatre Company Premiere at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on January 19, 1983, danced by Cynthia Gregory, Martine van Hamel and Patrick Bissell. Staged for ABT by Susan Jones, Symphonie Concertante will be given five performances beginning Thursday, October 18.

American Ballet Theatre’s Fall season will present Jerome Robbins’s Fancy Free and Other Dances in tribute to the choreographer’s centennial. Performances of Fancy Free, which will also commemorate the centennial of composer Leonard Bernstein, begin Thursday evening, October 18. The ballet features scenery by Oliver Smith, costumes by Kermit Love and lighting by Jennifer Tipton, after Nananne Porcher. Fancy Free 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.

Other Dances returns to the repertory on Saturday evening, October 20. Set to a waltz and four mazurkas by Frédéric Chopin, Other Dances features costumes by Santo Loquasto and original lighting by Nananne Porcher. The plotless, classical character pas de deux was created by Robbins for a Gala evening for the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center at the Metropolitan Opera House on May 9, 1976, performed by Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Staged for American Ballet Theatre by Isabelle Guérin, Other Dances will receive three performances during the season.

Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room will be given five performances beginning Wednesday evening, October 17. Last performed by ABT in 2012, In the Upper Room is set to music by Philip Glass with costumes by Norma Kamali and lighting by Jennifer Tipton. A ballet in nine parts, In the Upper Room was given its World Premiere by Twyla Tharp Dance on August 28, 1986. In the Upper Room received its American Ballet Theatre Company Premiere on December 10, 1988 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, California. The ballet will be staged for ABT by Richard Colton and Shelley Washington.

Wayne McGregor’s AFTERITE returns this Fall for four performances beginning Wednesday evening, October 24. In his first work for ABT, McGregor created a new scenario set to Igor

Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. The ballet features sets and costumes by Vicki Mortimer, with video designs by Ravi Deepres and lighting by Lucy Carter. A co-commission with The Royal Danish Ballet, AFTERITE received its World Premiere on Monday, May 21, 2018 at the Metropolitan Opera House.

Alexei Ratmansky’s Songs of Bukovina, set to Bukovinian Songs (24 Preludes for Piano) by Leonid Desyatnikov, will be given four performances during the Fall season beginning Friday evening, October 19. A work for 12 dancers, the ballet has costumes by Moritz Junge and lighting by Brad Fields. Songs of Bukovina received its World Premiere on October 18, 2017 at the David H. Koch Theater in New York.

Family Friendly Matinee

A special matinee on Saturday, October 27 will feature family-friendly programming including the ABT Studio Company in Lauren Lovette’s Le Jeune, a classical pas de deux and Jerome Robbins’ Fancy Free. Children (ages 6-18) receive a 50% discount off tickets with the purchase of a full-priced adult ticket.

Tickets for American Ballet Theatre’s 2018 Fall season at the David H. Koch Theater go on sale beginning July 23, 2018 at 10:00am. Tickets priced from $25 are available online, at the Koch Theatre box office or by phone at 212-496-0600. Performance-only tickets for the Opening Night Gala begin at $25. The David H. Koch Theater is located at Lincoln Center, Broadway and 63rd Street in New York City. For more information, please visit ABT’s website at www.abt.org.

The World Premiere by Michelle Dorrance has been generously supported by Denise Littlefield Sobel, the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation and through an endowed gift from the Toni and Martin Sosnoff New Works Fund.

The World Premiere by Jessica Lang has been generously supported by Denise Littlefield Sobel, the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation and through an endowed gift from the Toni and Martin Sosnoff New Works Fund.

Symphonie Concertante has been generously supported through an endowed gift from the Toni and Martin Sosnoff New Works Fund.

Fancy Free is generously underwritten by an endowed gift by Avery and Andrew F. Barth, in honor of Laima and Rudolf Barth.

Leadership support for The Ratmansky Project has been provided by Avery and Andrew F. Barth, the Blavatnik Family Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton E. James, and The Ted and Mary Jo Shen Charitable Gift Fund. Additional support has been provided by Dr. Joan Taub Ades, Linda Allard, Sarah Arison, Steven Backes, Lisa and Dick Cashin, Mark Casey and Carrie Gasier Casey, The Susan and Leonard Feinstein Foundation, Linda and Martin Fell, Vicki Netter Fitzgerald, William J. Gillespie, Brian J. Heidtke, The Marjorie S. Isaac/Irving H. Isaac Fund, Howard S. Paley, Pearl T. Maxim Trust, Lloyd E. Rigler, Lawrence E. Deutsch Foundation, Bernard L. Schwartz,

John Leland Sills and Elizabeth Papadopoulos-Sills, Melissa A. Smith, The H. Russell Smith Foundation/Stewart R. Smith and Robin A. Ferracone, Martin and Toni Sosnoff Foundation, Sutton Stracke, and Sedgwick Ward.

Leadership support for AFTERITE has been provided by The Leila and Mickey Straus Family Foundation. Additional support is provided through an endowed gift from The Toni and Martin Sosnoff New Works Fund.

Le Jeune was commissioned with leadership support from the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. Additional support provided by Denise Littlefield Sobel.

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.

 

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17 minutes ago, ABT Fan said:

Happy Other Dances will be performed. But, Fancy Free? I realize it's a centennial celebration, but, it needs to be given a long rest.

I feel that way about In the Upper Room.  I know I am probably in the minority, but it's been overdone.  And another Lang work?  Depressing fall.

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So Symphonie Concertante  is getting 5 ABT performances during ABT season, plus 2 at the Balanchine 75 celebration over at City Center.  That's a whole lot  of that ballet. 

 

Edited by abatt
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I'm always excited to see IN THE UPPER ROOM, but I can see most of the other ballets danced to perfection across the plaza.  I haven't found ABT fall seasons very exciting in a number of years, and this year doesn't appear to be any better.  And the last thing I want to see is Afterite.  

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1 hour ago, abatt said:

So Symphonie Concertante  is getting 5 ABT performances during ABT season, plus 2 at the Balanchine 75 celebration over at City Center.  That's a whole lot  of that ballet. 

 

Well, it doesn't get performed so very often, so I guess they're making up for that lack with a flush of shows now.

The Doris Duke people just announced their 2018 winners -- Michelle Dorrance and Okwui Okpokwasili were the two dance recipients.

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51 minutes ago, NinaFan said:

I can't find it anywhere.  I had looked at their "Master Calendar" but October was blank except for one unrelated event.

Who announces a season and doesn't have a schedule available? Especially with the box office opening in a month. Sheesh. It's not like this is a press alert, with full details to follow.

Edited by fondoffouettes
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Nothing by Antony Tudor unless the "classical pas" scheduled for the Family Friendly matinee is a pas from Romeo & Juliet or The Leaves Are Fading, which would seem unlikely. Dark Elegies couldn't possibly be more timely but apparently not to the management at ABT.

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1 hour ago, fondoffouettes said:

I’d love to see what some of the current principals and soloists could do with Pillar of Fire. It’s definitely a revival that’s more overdue, IMHO, than Fancy Free. I’m not a Copeland fan, but I could imagine Hagar being a great role for her. 

I've thought of this as well--of course everyone at ABT would need proper coaching for Tudor especially now when they dance it so rarely. (I used to wonder about a Cornejo/Copeland Shadowplay...)

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4 hours ago, Drew said:

I've thought of this as well--of course everyone at ABT would need proper coaching for Tudor especially now when they dance it so rarely. (I used to wonder about a Cornejo/Copeland Shadowplay...)

Just for the record, Colorado Ballet performed Pillar of Fire this spring. It was staged by Amanda McKerrow and John Gardner, repetiteurs for the Tudor Trust and former principal dancers at ABT. They received a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to stage it. They also staged Tudor's Echoing of Trumpets several years ago for CB. Here's a clip of an interview with them:

 

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My first thought when @Drew mentioned coaching was McKerrow and Gardner.  Another resource might be Diana Byer at New York Theatre Ballet, for whom Sallie Wilson did staging and coaching for their Tudor rep.  And Juilliard.

I so wanted (especially) Pillar of Fire and Jardin for Carrie Imler and Rachel Foster (out here) and a revival of Dark Elegies, but no ponies for me.

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The Osipova Hallberg performances at City Center are Apr 4-7.
 
Added:  I hadn't noticed this before, but Hallberg is not participating in ABT's fall season at the Koch.  Off to more interesting gigs, once again.  ABT is not a priority for him.
Edited by abatt
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2 hours ago, abatt said:
The Osipova Hallberg performances at City Center are Apr 4-7.
 
Added:  I hadn't noticed this before, but Hallberg is not participating in ABT's fall season at the Koch.  Off to more interesting gigs, once again.  ABT is not a priority for him.

Can you blame him?

7 minutes ago, vipa said:

Interesting that there are 8 principal women to 4 principal men. Simkin won't be around. No one program attracts me, but maybe casting will help. I wouldn't mind seeing a Lane/Cornejo Other Dances. 

Which tells me that McKenzie needs to hire or resort back to guest artists, maybe not for the fall, but definitely for the Met. 

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29 minutes ago, vipa said:

Interesting that there are 8 principal women to 4 principal men. Simkin won't be around. No one program attracts me, but maybe casting will help. I wouldn't mind seeing a Lane/Cornejo Other Dances. 

I'm not holding my breath that Lendorf will return for the Fall. He just had knee surgery, per his Instagram, and has been absent for months already. I hope he has recovered by then, but not knowing the details of his injury/recovering time, four months to get back on stage may be pushing it so I wouldn't be surprised if we only have 3 male principals to perform in October. That said, it's not like they're doing full-lengths so that will probably work out fine. I would like to see Forster given more opportunities. I've never seen Symphonie Concertante so I don't know what kind of dancers (male and female) it requires, and I've found no video of it on YouTube (not surprising). Though I wish they weren't doing Fancy Free, he'd be great in this so I hope he's given a debut. Bell would also be charming as the shy sailor. I'm sure Shayer/Royal will reprise their leads in Bukovina w/ Boylston/Shevchenko (I didn't care for that piece - it was ho hum). Someone will have to take Ferri's and the Cirio/Simkin role in AfterRite, but even though I didn't see that piece I don't gather that those roles are a "big deal"; maybe I'm wrong. I also want to see a Lane/Cornejo Other Dances and Upper Room, but I'm not exactly giddy with anticipation over this schedule.

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Ironically, NYCB will be doing both Fancy Free and Other Dances one week before the ABT fall season.  I anticipate that DeLuz (a former ABT dancer) will be dancing one or both of those ballets during his Farewell on Oct 14. Every balletomane in NYCB will be at DeLuz's farewell. I would much rather see NYCB in these ballets than ABT.   This is poor planning on ABT's part. The NYCB fall schedule has been out since April. 

 

Edited by abatt
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