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ABT 2018 Fall season


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I'd love to see In the Upper Room and Symphonie Concertante, and I'm curious about the new Dorrance piece, but unfortunately, studying the casting and programming (since there is a dancer I absolutely must avoid), leaves me with not a single program to see. Sad!

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CASTING ANNOUNCED FOR AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE’S 2018 FALL SEASON AT DAVID H. KOCH THEATER

ALESSANDRA FERRI TO APPEAR AS GUEST ARTIST

Casting for American Ballet Theatre’s 2018 Fall Season at the David H. Koch Theater was announced today by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie.

Principal Dancers for the 2018 Fall season include Stella Abrera, Isabella Boylston, Misty Copeland, Herman Cornejo, Sarah Lane, Gillian Murphy, Hee Seo, Christine Shevchenko, Cory Stearns, Devon Teuscher and James Whiteside. Alessandra Ferri returns to ABT for the Fall season as a Guest Artist.

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 Le Jeune, choreographed by Lauren Lovette and performed by the ABT Studio Company, and a World Premiere by tap dancer and choreographer Michelle Dorrance, co-commissioned with the Vail Dance Festival. Rounding out the Gala performance will be Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room, led by Cassandra Trenary, Devon Teuscher, Gillian Murphy, Herman Cornejo, Roman Zhurbin, Blaine Hoven, Isabella Boylston and Joseph Gorak. Skylar Brandt, Alexandra Basmagy, Catherine Hurlin, Cory Stearns, Calvin Royal III, Duncan Lyle, Misty Copeland and Thomas Forster will dance these roles on Friday, October 19.

Last performed by American Ballet Theatre 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 ABT 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 Shelley Washington and Richard Colton.

American Ballet Theatre will give the season’s first performance of George Balanchine’sSymphonie Concertante on Thursday evening, October 18 with Hee Seo, Isabella Boylston and Blaine Hoven debuting in the leading roles. Stella Abrera, Gillian Murphy and Alexandre Hammoudi will lead the cast at the matinee on Saturday, October 20, with Hammoudi making his debut in the ballet. Christine Shevchenko, Devon Teuscher and Thomas Forster will dance these roles for the first time at the matinee on Sunday, October 21. 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. 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. Symphonie Concertante is staged for ABT by Susan Jones.

The 2018 Fall season will present Jerome Robbins’s Fancy Free and Other Dances in tribute to the choreographer’s centennial. Performances of Fancy Free, which also commemorate the centennial of composer Leonard Bernstein, begin Thursday evening, October 18, danced by Herman Cornejo, Cory Stearns, James Whiteside, Stella Abrera and Gillian Murphy. At the matinee on Saturday, October 20, Arron Scott will dance the role of the first sailor for the first time in New York, while Thomas Forster and Calvin Royal III will make their debuts as the second and third sailors, respectively. Staged for ABT by Jean-Pierre Frohlich, 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.

The season’s first performance of Other Dances will take place on Saturday evening, October 20, danced by Hee Seo and Cory Stearns. Sarah Lane and Herman Cornejo will make their New York debuts in the ballet at the matinee on Sunday, October 28. 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. Other Dances is staged for American Ballet Theatre by Isabelle Guérin.

The first of four performances of Alexei Ratmansky’s Songs of Bukovina will take place on Friday, October 19, led by Isabella Boylston and Blaine Hoven, in his debut in the role. Set toBukovinian Songs (24 Preludes for Piano) by Leonid Desyatnikov, the ballet features 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 danced by Christine Shevchenko and Calvin Royal III.

Tickets for American Ballet Theatre’s 2018 Fall season at the David H. Koch Theater, priced from $25, are available online, at the Koch Theater box office or by phone at 212-496-0600. Performance-only tickets for the Opening Night Gala begin at $30. 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, Caroline and Edward Hyman, The Marjorie S. Isaac/Irving H. Isaac Fund, Robin Chemers Neustein, 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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On September 8, 2018 at 10:44 AM, ABT Fan said:

The Oct 27 TBA pas de deux is now the Nutcracker pas with Copeland and Bell.

How unimaginative.  But it will certainly sell tickets, especially with the release of "The Nutcracker and the Four Realms" shortly thereafter.  They will capitalize on it, I am sure.

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4 hours ago, its the mom said:

How unimaginative.  But it will certainly sell tickets, especially with the release of "The Nutcracker and the Four Realms" shortly thereafter.  They will capitalize on it, I am sure.

This was exactly my thought, as well. I'm glad Bell is getting more partnering experience, but I wish they would have chosen something more interesting, like the Leaves are Fading PDD or that fabulous snippet of the Tudor Romeo and Juliet they performed several years ago. Oh well. I'm skipping this whole season anyway. It's very undersold at the moment, especially in comparison to NYCB programs that precede and follow the ABT season.

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15 minutes ago, abatt said:

I just got an email from ABT  announcing the casting for the Family Matinee on Oct 27. Clearly they are trying to stimulate ticket purchases for that performance.

Ticket sales overall seem to be dismal for the fall season at ABT. 

Here's the link to anyone interested (children's tickets are half off):

https://us12.campaign-archive.com/?u=32c2129bb597be5dbecb76364&id=362e991671&e=137cd89e12

Clearly they are milking the Copeland casting for all it's worth, even if she'll be onstage for all of 10 minutes.

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That makes sense:  many people will avoid matinee and early evening Nutcracker performances, story ballet matinees, and family matinees because they know there will be a lot of kids in the audience.  

I remember back in the '80's when NYCB did them, and at least one included a bit of narration, a mini-barre and -center class, an explanation of different dance styles, etc.  People who aren't interested in that kind of programming will avoid them as well.

 

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The dismal ticket sales reflect the dismal programming. There is nothing I want to see. I would have gone to the Lane/Cornejo Other Dances but it's paired with two other ballets that I do not want to see. It's a shame. ABT could have used all the turmoil across the plaza to their advantage for those balletgoers that are reticent to give money to NYCB right now. Instead they have a season of lackluster ballets and boring casting. 

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12 minutes ago, Fleurfairy said:

The dismal ticket sales reflect the dismal programming. There is nothing I want to see. I would have gone to the Lane/Cornejo Other Dances but it's paired with two other ballets that I do not want to see. It's a shame. ABT could have used all the turmoil across the plaza to their advantage for those balletgoers that are reticent to give money to NYCB right now. Instead they have a season of lackluster ballets and boring casting. 

I completely agree. I've been pretty unexcited about ABT's fall seasons for a number of years now (with certain individual pieces as important exceptions), but this one really hits a new low. Every ballet I want to see is on a program with one or more I really don't want to see. As a result, I'm not going at all. I'll see Symphonie Concertante at City Center and leave it at that. As messed up as NYCB may be, they have many more appealing programs this fall, and a substantially higher standard of performance. TG for them.

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46 minutes ago, nanushka said:

I completely agree. I've been pretty unexcited about ABT's fall seasons for a number of years now (with certain individual pieces as important exceptions), but this one really hits a new low. Every ballet I want to see is on a program with one or more I really don't want to see. 

That is my issue too. I also want to see the Lane/Cornejo Other Dances, but am not excited about the rest of the program. Also want to see Upper Room, but same problem. It's hard to fork over money when you're only excited to see one out of the three pieces and have no desire to see a couple of dancers. I'm going to wait for the rest of the casting to come out, and then I'll decide. 

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4 hours ago, nanushka said:

I completely agree. I've been pretty unexcited about ABT's fall seasons for a number of years now (with certain individual pieces as important exceptions), but this one really hits a new low. Every ballet I want to see is on a program with one or more I really don't want to see. As a result, I'm not going at all. I'll see Symphonie Concertante at City Center and leave it at that. As messed up as NYCB may be, they have many more appealing programs this fall, and a substantially higher standard of performance. TG for them.

Ditto.  I've been trying to figure out how to squeeze in one decent performance, but it doesn't seem to be working for me either.  This is the most lackluster programming I've ever seen.   As you say, TG for NYCB. 

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Notably, when NYCB programs Other Dances, it always pairs up that ballet with one more short ballet to fill out the program.  In contrast, ABT programs short works like Other Dances and Duo Concertante (a few years ago) as though they can comprise one third of a full rep program even though they are very  short ballets.

 

 

 

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Since Other Dances was created for ABT, does anyone remember whether ABT every paired Other Dances with another work on a mixed bill?

However short, I wouldn't want to see Duo Concertante paired with anything else: I think it needs space.  Other Dances never impressed me as having the same gravitas. 

PNB has a company premiere of Other Dances on Program A of the Robbins Festival, PNB's opening program (in a few weeks).   On the website, the ballets are listed as: In the Night, West Side Story Suite, Afternoon of a Faun, Other Dances, and Circus Polka.  I doubt that this is the program order -- in the past, Circus Polka has been an opener, using the kids early in the evening -- but I can't imagine they wouldn't be grouping two shorter works, with West Side Story Suite as a stand-alone.  

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On ‎9‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 12:20 PM, fondoffouettes said:

I wish they would have chosen something more interesting, like the Leaves are Fading PDD or that fabulous snippet of the Tudor Romeo and Juliet they performed several years ago..

It's depressing to think that we'll likely never see the full Tudor Romeo and Juliet again. Maybe Ratmansky can take it on as one of his historical reconstruction projects! (Kidding . . . but kind of not.)

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19 hours ago, miliosr said:

It's depressing to think that we'll likely never see the full Tudor Romeo and Juliet again. Maybe Ratmansky can take it on as one of his historical reconstruction projects! (Kidding . . . but kind of not.)

There are a handful of people still alive who worked with Tudor on "Romeo and Juliet".  Last time it was revived it was with Makarova  and Bujones in 1976.  Supposedly the big expense is recreating the legendarily beautiful Renaissance costumes and scenery by Eugene Berman.  This is an excerpt from a Joan Acoccella New Yorker piece on Tudor:

"One’s first thought on looking at this duet is: Why can’t A.B.T. revive the whole ballet? When I put that question to Kevin McKenzie, the company’s artistic director, he answered that he would love to. Not long after he took over the company, in 1992, he said, he hired someone to research the possibility of remounting the ballet. The report he got was that, while most of the choreography was recoverable (there is a lot of early film, and also notation, of the ballet), the cost of re-creating Berman’s opulent sets and costumes would be prohibitive—well over two million dollars today."  https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/11/17/tudor-reign

Frankly, a lot of money has been wasted by ABT on things like "The Pied Piper" and other monstrosities (though some of these were shared or borrowed from other companies), that I cannot fathom why something like the Doris Duke Foundation or whatever can't come up with some money for a new production of the Tudor R&J - supposedly the cost would be in the millions.  The ballet is just on the cusp on being lost though there is a Antony Tudor Trust that should have preserved it - but if it isn't performed then how can it survive?  

Edited by FauxPas
New Yorker article
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23 hours ago, Helene said:

Since Other Dances was created for ABT, does anyone remember whether ABT every paired Other Dances with another work on a mixed bill?

However short, I wouldn't want to see Duo Concertante paired with anything else: I think it needs space.  Other Dances never impressed me as having the same gravitas. 

I don't have the memory to answer that question. But I looked up the review by Clive Barnes of the premiere at the NYPL gala in 1976. It sounds as though, immediately after the dance, an award was presented to Robbins:

But what was really unusual was that the gala unveiled a masterpiece — it had some great performances as well. All galas have great performances—they are like cream in coffee — but this gala had a piece d'occaxion by Jerome Robbins that transcended the simple and tasteful needs of such events. It was a piece of genius. After it, Mayor Beame presented to Mr. Robbins the C ty's Handel Medallion for outstanding cultural achievement throughout his lifetime. He deserved it just simply for this lovely duet called “Cofher Dances,” performed by Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov.

I can't tell from the review what came before or after the award presentation.

https://www.nytimes.com/1976/05/11/archives/stars-shine-for-benefit-of-library.html

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4 hours ago, FauxPas said:

There are a handful of people still alive who worked with Tudor on "Romeo and Juliet".

The hour is growing late for Tudor's Romeo and Juliet. From the 70s casts, Carla Fracci, Natalia Makarova and John Prinz are still with us. But Fernando Bujones and Ivan Nagy are now gone.

4 hours ago, FauxPas said:

Frankly, a lot of money has been wasted by ABT on things like "The Pied Piper" and other monstrosities

And it's not just big budget bombs like The Pied Piper. Since ABT last revived Tudor's Romeo and Juliet in 1976, the company has blown through four productions of Sleeping Beauty across three directorships.

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2 hours ago, miliosr said:

The hour is growing late for Tudor's Romeo and Juliet. From the 70s casts, Carla Fracci, Natalia Makarova and John Prinz are still with us. But Fernando Bujones and Ivan Nagy are now gone.

And it's not just big budget bombs like The Pied Piper. Since ABT last revived Tudor's Romeo and Juliet in 1976, the company has blown through four productions of Sleeping Beauty across three directorships.

Right now, rightly or wrongly, the company seems to be able to raise money for whatever Ratmansky wants to do. Results are very mixed IMO.  Golden Cockerel, Tempest being the biggest failures. Personally I hated Sleeping Beauty, and will never go see it again, but I understand others admire it. In any event donor money flows to Ratmansky not to resurrecting pieces from ABT's past. 

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On 9/13/2018 at 2:53 PM, FauxPas said:

"One’s first thought on looking at this duet is: Why can’t A.B.T. revive the whole ballet? When I put that question to Kevin McKenzie, the company’s artistic director, he answered that he would love to. Not long after he took over the company, in 1992, he said, he hired someone to research the possibility of remounting the ballet. The report he got was that, while most of the choreography was recoverable (there is a lot of early film, and also notation, of the ballet), the cost of re-creating Berman’s opulent sets and costumes would be prohibitive—well over two million dollars today."  https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/11/17/tudor-reign

Frankly, a lot of money has been wasted by ABT on things like "The Pied Piper" and other monstrosities (though some of these were shared or borrowed from other companies), that I cannot fathom why something like the Doris Duke Foundation or whatever can't come up with some money for a new production of the Tudor R&J - supposedly the cost would be in the millions.  The ballet is just on the cusp on being lost though there is a Antony Tudor Trust that should have preserved it - but if it isn't performed then how can it survive?  

3

Would the company be obligated to reproduce the Berman sets? Would the Tudor trust insist upon it? I really don't buy McKenzie's explanation, to be honest. I think the real reason is that ABT has a full-length Romeo and Juliet whose title recognition results in good ticket sales at the Met, so why would they bother to revive a one-act version?

I remember thinking the excerpt performed in 2008 was incredibly beautiful and moving.

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From the company:

TRICK-OR-TREAT WITH AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE

AT THE FAMILY FRIENDLY MATINEE,
DAVID H. KOCH THEATER,
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2018, 2:00 P.M.

DISCOUNTED TICKETS FOR CHILDREN AGES 4 AND UP ON SALE
A special matinee on Saturday, October 27 at the David H. Koch Theater will feature

family friendly programming from American Ballet Theatre’s 2018 Fall Season, Halloween-
themed activities and discounted pricing for children.

The matinee performance will include Lauren Lovette’s Le Jeune danced by the
ABT Studio Company, the pas de deux from Alexei Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker performed by
Misty Copeland and Aran Bell, and Jerome Robbins’s Fancy Free with Arron Scott,
Thomas Forster, Calvin Royal III, Luciana Paris and Isabella Boylston.
Families are invited to wear their favorite costumes and Trick-or-Treat with ABT at
1:15 P.M. prior to the performance and during intermission. A variety of activities designed for
children to learn about the art of ballet will be stationed on the Promenade of the Koch Theater.
Families can meet an ABT dancer, explore different styles of dance shoes at the “Dance Shoe
Petting Zoo,” pose for photos on ABT’s “Costume Catwalk” and enter a contest for
“Best Ballet-Inspired Costume.”
Children (ages 4-18) receive a 50% discount off tickets with the purchase of a full-priced
adult ticket. Family discount tickets are available only by phone at 212-496-0600 or at the Koch
Theater box office. The David H. Koch Theater is located at Lincoln Center, Broadway and 63rd
Street in New York City.

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