3,500 NYC Public School Children To Attend American Ballet Theatre's Young People's Ballet Workshop

On Tuesday, June 6, over 3,500 New York City Public School children will attend American Ballet Theatre's Young People's Ballet Workshop at the Metropolitan Opera House at 11:00A.M. Hosted by ABT Studio Company Artistic Director Kate Lydon, the program will include original pieces by students participating in ABT's Make a Ballet program, as well as excerpts from ABT's Spring Season repertoire performed by Company dancers.

Thirty-five schools will attend the workshop from all five boroughs. The Make a Ballet schools to perform include Waterside School (Stamford, CT), PS 1 (Chinatown), PS 20 (Lower East Side) and Frank Sinatra School of the Arts (Astoria).

The hour-long program will include performances by the dancers of American Ballet Theatre in excerpts from Le Corsaire, The Sleeping Beauty and ABT's all-new production of Whipped Cream. Principal Dancer Misty Copeland and Soloist Alexandre Hammoudi will also perform a mime demonstration from the opening section of Act II of Swan Lake.

Make a Ballet offers students the opportunity to design, choreograph, construct, produce and perform their own original dance. Students work throughout the school year under the tutelage of ABT teaching artists and school faculty. In addition to exposing students to classical dance, Make a Ballet emphasizes career opportunities in the arts, onstage and backstage. In 1999, the Make a Ballet program was awarded a prestigious Governor's Arts Award by New York State.

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.