Mikhail Baryshnikov News

Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) has announced a $100,000 matching gift from philanthropist Diana DiMenna and hedge-fund manager Joe DiMenna, in support of BAC's campaign to establish the Cage Cunningham Fund for artist fellowships, named after legendary artistic partners John Cage and Merce Cunningham.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, beloved as one of the world's most popular dance companies, will return to Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts with four different programs for a 15-performance engagement at the David H. Koch Theater June 11 - 22, 2014.

Today, June 3rd, Metropolitan Ballet Academy will begin its annual master class series, The Bridge. The series gives intermediate and advanced level students the opportunity to study with some of the region's most celebrated professional teachers and dancers. This year's series features ballet instruction led by three acclaimed dance artists and teachers: Abi Stafford, Olga Kostritzky, and John Selya.

The National Ballet of Canada opens its summer season with a mixed programme of twentieth century works.

This year's Jacob's Pillow Dance Award, a coveted honor carrying a $25,000 cash prize, will be presented to choreographer John Heginbotham in recognition of his talent and outstanding contributions to the dance field. Heginbotham, an alumnus of The School at Jacob's Pillow, has garnered critical and popular acclaim for his contemporary works, eclectic and rich with “movement that exhibits sharpness, energy, formality and, yes, oddity” (Alastair Macaulay, The New York Times). His company, Dance Heginbotham, will perform the evening-length world premiere of Chalk and Soot in the Doris Duke Theatre July 30-August 3. In Chalk and Soot, Heginbotham joins forces with composer Colin Jacobsen to create a work featuring imaginative, theatrical choreography, live music performed by superstar string quartet Brooklyn Rider, the vocal stylings of Shara Worden (lead singer of My Brightest Diamond), and singer/songwriter Gabriel Kahane on harmonium.

Beverlix Jean-Baptiste's Top Theatre Picks in Brooklyn! As we know New York City is chalk full of opportunities to see great theatre. But if your a Brooklyn native or looking to catch a play, here are a few of the borough's offerings.

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, one of the world's premier dance organizations, together with event chair Richard L. Rodesand Meg Siegler Callahan, chair of Hubbard Street's board of directors, hosted the Season 36 Spotlight Ball on Monday, May 19 at theFairmont Chicago Millennium Park.

On Tuesday, June 3rd, Metropolitan Ballet Academy will begin its annual master class series, The Bridge. The series gives intermediate and advanced level students the opportunity to study with some of the region's most celebrated professional teachers and dancers. This year's series features ballet instruction led by three acclaimed dance artists and teachers: Abi Stafford, Olga Kostritzky, and John Selya.

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, one of the world's premier dance organizations, together with event chair Richard L. Rodes and Meg Siegler Callahan, chair of Hubbard Street's board of directors, hosted the Season 36 Spotlight Ball on Monday, May 19 at the Fairmont Chicago Millennium Park. Scroll down for photos from the event!

Veteran actors Courtney B. Vance and Rene Auberjonois have joined the season two cast of the acclaimed SHOWTIME drama series MASTERS OF SEX. Vance will recur in the guest starring role of Dr. Hendricks, the head of an African-American hospital in St. Louis whose goal is to racially integrate his hospital, and Auberjonois will be guest starring as Dr. Papanikolaou, a former professor of Dr. DePaul (guest star Julianne Nicholson), who she and Johnson hope will endorse their screening program that uses the test named after him: the Pap smear. Production on season two is currently underway in Los Angeles. Season two returns on Sunday, July 13th.

The All Robbins program offered this spring season by New York City Ballet is a testament to the range and depth of the choreographer's genius. 'Glass Pieces', the 1983 work to the driving rhythms of music by Philip Glass, is an ideal opener with its masterful blend of postmodern and classical movement styles that call to mind the pulsating urgency of urban life.

Oscar-nominated actor and founding Wooster Group member Willem Dafoe and legendary performer Mikhail Baryshnikov are a dapperly dressed odd couple, forced to deal with the most inconsiderate of corpses in this surreal melding of absurdism, pitch- black comedy, and vaudeville from iconic director Robert Wilson, THE OLD WOMAN.

Hilda Morales was born in N.Y. City, and grew up in Puerto Rico. Her early training was with Ana Garcia of the Ballet San Juan. At 14 years of age, Ms. Morales received a Ford Foundation Scholarship to study at George Balanchine's School of American Ballet. She danced as a principal dancer with the Pennsylvania Ballet, soloist with American Ballet Theatre, artist-in-residence with the Colorado Ballet and guest appearances with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Albuquerque Ballet and Jacksonville Ballet. During her dancing career, Ms. Morales performed in full-length classic ballets as well as works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Agnes de Mille, Antony Tudor, John Butler, Alvin Ailey, and Jose Limon. Ms. Morales was featured in the movie The Turning Point, in the role of Sandra, directed by Herbert Ross. She guest teaches and is on the faculty of the Central Pennsylvania summer programs, and joined The Hartt School faculty in 1998.

Fresh off its recent Tchaikovsky production at BAM Fisher, the Ensemble of the Romantic Century (ERC) presents another fully staged theatrical concert interweaving drama and music about one of the most famous trials of the 19th century. Delivered by a top-caliber cast in an intimate setting, The Trial of Oscar Wilde focuses on the tragic shackling, public scrutiny, and subsequent imprisonment of the homosexual playwright/writer Oscar Wilde (1854-1900). A script based on Wilde's correspondence, plays, and short stories (performed by Broadway's Michael Halling as Oscar Wilde and esteemed Robert Ian Mackenzie as Lord Queensbury) provides a dramatic backdrop for chamber music by French and English composers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries including Chausson's masterful Concerto for violin, piano and string quartet, and works by Satie, Elgar, Faure and Franck in performances by the dynamic Amphion String Quartet, violinist Susie Park, pianist Max Barros and a romping barbershop quartet.

The National YoungArts Foundation (YoungArts) congratulates the 50th class of U.S. Presidential Scholars, announced today by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. The 20 Scholars in the Arts, all 2014 YoungArts Winners, were nominated to The White House Commission on Presidential Scholars by YoungArts, and selected based on academic, civic and artistic achievement. The award, presented on behalf of the President of the United States, is the highest honor that can be bestowed upon an artistically talented graduating high school senior. Each year, up to 141 high school seniors are recognized as U.S. Presidential Scholars for their accomplishments.

Principal Pops Conductor Jack Everly will lead the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) and an incredible cast of singers and dancers in a production of works by the award-winning, four-decade songwriting duo John Kander and Fred Ebb on Thursday, May 15 at 8 p.m. at The Music Center at Strathmore, Friday, May 16 at 8 p.m., Saturday, May 17 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, May 18 at 3 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. The evening will include a series of showstoppers, from Cabaret, Chicago, New York, New York, Kiss of the Spider Woman and more.

Guest conductor Jack Everly joins the Utah Symphony this weekend, May 2-3 for a trip down memory lane at Abravanel Hall. This special concert, celebrating the Baby Boom generation, highlights songs and television shows from the 1960s. The program features music by the Beach Boys, Frankie Valli, and the Beatles, and guest vocalists Roy Chicas, Jim Hogan, Marissa McGowan, N'Kenge, Kristine Reese and Max Quinlan.