American Ballet Theatre News

New York Theatre Ballet will perform two works at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in the Doris Duke Theatre from August 3- 7, 2016. Jacob's Pillow, a National Historic Landmark, National Medal of Arts recipient, and home to America's longest-running dance festival, is located in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts at 358 George Carter Road in Becket.

Alessandra Ferri, a former Principal Dancer with American Ballet Theatre, will return as a Guest Artist to dance the role of Juliet in the Company's production of ROMEO AND JULIET at the Metropolitan Opera House, it was announced today by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie.

The world premiere of Unexpected Joy, opening July 21 at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, will be directed by Lynne Taylor Corbett. Musical Direction is by Gillian Berkowitz. This world premiere by Bill Russell and Janet Hood is produced in association with Jim Kierstead, Linda & Craig Wielkotz, and Gabby Hanna & Marcy Feller. Casting is by Stephen DeAngelis. Unexpected Joy opens July 21, running Wednesdays-Mondays through August 20.

Due to a scheduling conflict, this engagement on August 7, 2016 has been cancelled.

Set inside the sensationalized female murderess craze that swept 1920s Chicago, CHICAGO draws its audience into a world of crime and glitz against the vivid backdrop of the jazz age. A first time production for Pittsburgh CLO, CHICAGO is sure to be 'all that jazz' and more!

Segerstrom Center for the Arts begins its 30th Anniversary celebration with another one-night-only star-studded evening of dance: Tour de Force III. The performance will be the first event to represent the array and diversity of the Center's artistic programming, in this case, 30 years of presenting the greatest ballet companies and the world's most celebrated dancers. Tour de Force III will be on Saturday, August 27 in Segerstrom Hall. Produced in collaboration with Ardani Artists, the program will include four Center premieres: Clay by Vladimir Varnava, Zeitgeist by Alastair Marriott, Tristesse by Marcelo Gomes and Le Divertissement du Roi by Maxim Petrov. The international cast includes Diana Vishneva, Joaquin de Luz, Marcelo Gomes, Denis Matvienko, Marcelino Sambe?, Friedemann Vogel and Edward Watson, as well as members of the The Royal Ballet, Mariinsky Ballet and the National Ballet of Canada.

Times are hard for choreographers, which is why Elisa Monte, Jennifer Muller, Molissa Fenley, and Margo Sappington have banded together to present their full-length works at New York Live Arts. What one might not be able to afford, four are more than capable of shouldering. While a solid business idea, the results as seen on Wednesday June 15th, 2016 were decidedly uneven. It's not that the works were too different in tone, it's that the quality was rarely of top caliber.

A month ago while Jessica Lang was in Utah working with Ballet West, I rang her to interview her about her incredible year of ongoing success. Years ago I took class with Robert Battle and struck up a dance friendship with his company dancers including Jessica's husband Kanji Segawa. But I have never met Jessica herself. Of course she is the 'It Woman' of dance so I know a bit about her. With her embarrassment of accolades one would have to have their head buried in the sand not to. Besides the rapturous praise she has received for her work, she has also secured numerous commissions (American Ballet Theatre, Birmingham Royal Ballet, The National Ballet of Japan at the New National Theatre Tokyo, Joffrey Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Colorado Ballet, Ballet San Jose, Richmond Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Ailey II, ABT II, Hubbard Street 2, and New York City Ballet's Choreographic Institute, among many others), received many high profile awards (New York City Center Fellow for 2015, 2014 Bessie Award, 2013 Manchester Theatre Award, grants from Jerome Robbins Foundation, the NEA, the Choo San Goh Foundation, and a 2010 Joyce Theater Artist Residency supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation), is opening her own dance center in Long Island City, and is celebrating her company's 5th Anniversary Season at the Joyce. But how did she come to all of this?

Jessica Lang Dance, under the artistic direction of choreographer Jessica Lang, will celebrate its 5th Anniversary season with a week-long engagement at The Joyce Theater on June 14 – 19, 2016, featuring five pieces, including three New York premieres. There will be a post-performance Curtain Chat discussion with Lang and dancers from the company following the performance on June 15.

The Board of Governing Trustees of American Ballet Theatre has elected Andrew F. Barth Chairman and Brian J. Heidtke President.  The elections, which become effective immediately, were announced today by Kara Medoff Barnett, ABT Executive Director.  Barth succeeds Donald Kramer who has held the position as Chairman since 2011. Heidtke succeeds Sharon Patrick who has served as President since 2009.

We all know that Eliot Feld – who might be New York City's most accomplished man in dance – has a love for calisthenics, vernacular twists and grooves, and folklore. But since closing his ballet company in 2003, his work has been primarily with students who cannot understand the dry wit inherent to his choreography. The effect is decidedly discombobulating. One wishes that Mr. Feld would either up the ante in his work – there were no pirouettes or turns, though there was plenty of batterie, which tends to be more difficult – or further develop the artistry of his charges.

The School Of American Ballet (SAB) is one of the most famous classical ballet schools in the world and is the school of George Balanchine's New York City Ballet, a leading international ballet company based at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. The school trains students from the age of six, with professional vocational ballet training for students aged 11-18.

The Royal Swedish Ballet, one of Europe's first and most revered ballet companies, returns to Segerstrom Center for the Arts today, June 10 through June 12 with the West Coast debut of Juliet and Romeo by choreographer Mats Ek.

Hudson River Park, one of the nation's longest waterfront parks and an urban oasis for New Yorkers and visitors from every corner of the world, will be the stunning natural setting for the second annual Hudson River Dance Festival, presented at Pier 63 in Hudson River Park. This free celebration of NYC's premier dance culture is a rare and unique opportunity for diverse audiences to experience some of the most talented and acclaimed dancers and ground-breaking dance compositions and performances in the world. The Festival takes place on Wednesday, June 15th, and Thursday, June 16th at 6:30 p.m.  The same program will be featured each evening.

Set inside the sensationalized female murderess craze that swept 1920s Chicago, CHICAGO draws its audience into a world of crime and glitz against the vivid backdrop of the jazz age. A first time production for Pittsburgh CLO, CHICAGO is sure to be 'all that jazz' and more!

Casting for the seventh and eighth weeks of American Ballet Theatre's 2016 Spring Season at the Metropolitan Opera House was announced today by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie.

In honor of the 400th Anniversary of William Shakespeare's death, Jessica Lang Dance will present the NY premiere of Sweet Silent Thought, inspired by five of the Master's sonnets.  The work  features readings of Sonnets 30, 40, 64, 71 and 105, by actors Chris Myers (Obie Award, Octoroon),  Chukwudi Iwuji (Shakespeare Festival's King Lear) and Nilanjana Bose-Ciupinska,  as part of the company's week-long season at The Joyce, running June 14 – 19, 2016.

No other film saga is as inspiring and treasured by multiple generations as Rocky which, 40 years later, remains the indisputable champ in the hearts of millions. Now, fans have the opportunity to share a LIVE evening with Sylvester Stallone himself, the creator and star of it all on Sunday, August 7 at Segerstrom Center for the Arts. Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the original Rocky film, Sly himself will take to the stage in this exciting live show to share stories you've never heard before, giving an inside glimpse behind the classic scenes, from the most heartbreaking to the most triumphant.

Orange County, Calif.—June 1, 2016—Cynthia Ellis designed “The Inextinguishable Project” as an opportunity for concert listeners to discover some of the masterful music written in spite of the conflict and oppression of World War II. Ellis, Pacific Symphony's flute and piccolo player, and a resident of Brea, won one of four “Musician Innovation Grants” awarded by the Symphony's board of directors in the 2015-16 season for her project's creativity and potential for creating deeper interest in classical music. Her concert explores the music of two composers who overcame political and geographical circumstances to bring their music into the world. Theo Smit Sibinga walked out of prison camp carrying a suitcase in one hand and the broken remains of his cello in the other. Bohuslav Martinu, blacklisted by the Nazis, fled Paris, sleeping on train platforms while trying to get to America. Both survived to write beautiful music—music that has become “inextinguishable.”

At its best, classical ballet has the ability to utterly transfix, bending the boundaries of what we as human beings think is possible. With every gravity-defying grand jete and blossoming developpe, dancers transform into otherworldly beings, physicalizing that which can't be believed. At the 2016 Spring Season premiere of American Ballet Theatre's Le Corsaire, the company did just this, mesmerizing the audience and showcasing their ability to create a unique world of beauty, unto its own.