Second Company News

Boston Ballet Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen and Executive Director Meredith (Max) Hodges announce the success of the 2015-2016 season, which enjoyed the highest attendance in more than a decade and the most ticket revenue in Boston Ballet's 53-year history. At $13.8 million net, it is the best box office year by a margin of $1.4 million. With fuller houses, the organization also hit a best-ever milestone in capacity sold at 75 percent and a record number of 33 sold out shows (35 percent of this season's performances). An especially mission-critical achievement, the two mixed repertory programs, entitled Kaleidoscope and Mirrors, saw record-breaking revenue and high attendance. Both programs finished in the top five for attendance of mixed repertory programs. Mirrors is the highest-grossing mixed repertory program in Boston Ballet's history.

Hubbard Street 2, the young second company of the world-renowned Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, will present Mariko's Magical Mix: A Dance Adventure for their Jacob's Pillow debut, in the Doris Duke Theatre, July 13-17.

?The Peterborough Players Professional Theatre Company is proud to open its 2016 Summer Season with the play that won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy. The play is a warm-hearted, humorous and affecting study of the unlikely relationship between an aging, crotchety white Southern lady, and a proud, soft-spoken black man. In its initial run, Driving Miss Daisy was an Off-Broadway success and became an Academy Award-winning film.

'ARIADNE ON NAXOS' balances wondrously between classic beauty and parody.

?Metropolitan Ballet Academy & Company (MBA/MBC), recognized by Pointe magazine as one of “seven local studios in America cultivating top talent” (Oct/Nov 2011), will celebrate its 20th Anniversary year with a Gala Performance on Saturday, June 4, 2016 at 4:00 pm. Alumni from Metropolitan's two decades of training will return from their professional engagements with dance companies across America to perform in the Gala, which also features pre-professional Metropolitan Ballet Company dancers in classical and contemporary works. The Gala Performance will be held at the Josephine Muller Auditorium of Abington Friends School, 575 Washington Lane, Jenkintown, PA 19046. Tickets are $50 each and available at 215-663-1665 or online at www.metropolitanballetcompany.org.

May 26, 2016 (BOSTON, MA)—Mikko Nissinen, Artistic Director of Boston Ballet, has announced six promotions from within the company for the 2016–2017 season. Soloists Anaïs Chalendard and Seo Hye Han have been promoted to the rank of Principal Dancer, Second Soloist Junxiong Zhao to Soloist, and Corina Gill to Second Soloist. Samivel Evans and Desean Taber, two dancers from Boston Ballet II—Boston Ballet's second company—will join the Company as Corps de Ballet dancers. All promotions are effective August 15, 2016. The full 2016–2017 roster of dancers will be announced at a later date.

Choreographer Wayne McGregor. Obsidian Tear, inspired by renowned Finnish composer Esa-Pekka Salonen's orchestral work Nyx, features an all-male cast. Salonen, who was recently named Composer in Residence with the New York Philharmonic, will make his Royal Ballet debut conducting the world premiere. The work will see its world premiere in London May 28, 2016, and its U.S. premiere in Boston Ballet's 2017–2018 season in Boston. In addition to the groundbreaking work Chroma—performed by Boston Ballet in 2013 and 2015 to critical acclaim with repeated standing ovations—Obsidian Tearwill be the second work of McGregor's in Boston Ballet's repertoire. After Boston Ballet's debut performance in Chroma, Thea Singer of the Boston Globe stated: “The Boston Ballet dancers astonish with their master of the choreography, contorting this way and that with remarkable intensity.” McGregor will reveal additional plans for the world premiere and co-production at The Royal Opera House's Insights event on May 11, 2016, 2:15 pm EDT / 7:15 pm BST. The event will be live-streamed for viewers around the world to enjoy on The Royal Opera House YouTube Channel.

Mikko Nissinen, Artistic Director of Boston Ballet, has announced six promotions from within the company for the 2016–2017 season. Soloists Anaïs Chalendard and Seo Hye Han have been promoted to the rank of Principal Dancer, Second Soloist Junxiong Zhao to Soloist, and Corina Gill to Second Soloist. Samivel Evans and Desean Taber, two dancers from Boston Ballet II—Boston Ballet's second company—will join the Company as Corps de Ballet dancers. All promotions are effective August 15, 2016. The full 2016–2017 roster of dancers will be announced at a later date.

Ballet Hispánico raised more than $1 million in support of the company's artistic and educational work in New York City and around the country at their 2016 Galaon Monday, May 16, 2016.

KANSAS CITY, MO (April 15, 2016) — The 58th season of Kansas City Ballet closes with a mixed–repertory program of four bold and electrifying works in one performance: Viktor Plotnikov's WORLD PREMIERE, Vesna, featuring the music of Antonín Dvorák, Yuri Possokhov's Diving into the Lilacs including music by Boris Tchaikovsky, Helen Pickett's Petal with music of Thomas Newman and Philip Glass and closing the program with Adam Hougland's Rite of Spring with the brilliant masterpiece score by Igor Stravinsky. The production will be accompanied by Kansas City Symphony conducted by Kansas City Ballet Music Director Ramona Pansegrau and runs May 6 through 15 at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

May 4, 2016 (BOSTON, MA)—Boston Ballet Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen is honored to announce a five-year partnership with internationally-renowned choreographer William Forsythe. The Company will add one new William Forsythe work to its repertoire each year, in addition to also presenting reprised works from the Company's current repertoire. Nissinen and Forsythe will work together to select the programming for Boston Ballet, and the legendary choreographer and his assistants and stagers will work directly with the Company. This partnership will result in Boston Ballet having the richest collection of William Forsythe ballets in the United States.

The second company completing their residency is Blessed Unrest, presenting the world premiere of Body: Anatomies of Being, conceived and directed by Jessica Burr, written by Matt Opatrny, created and choreographed by the Blessed Unrest ensemble, running now through May 21, 2016. Warning: Bodies will appear in their natural state. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Choreographer Wayne McGregor. Obsidian Tear, inspired by renowned Finnish composer Esa-Pekka Salonen's orchestral work Nyx, features an all-male cast. Salonen, who was recently named Composer in Residence with the New York Philharmonic, will make his Royal Ballet debut conducting the world premiere. The work will see its world premiere in London May 28, 2016, and its U.S. premiere in Boston Ballet's 2017–2018 season in Boston. In addition to the groundbreaking work Chroma—performed by Boston Ballet in 2013 and 2015 to critical acclaim with repeated standing ovations—Obsidian Tearwill be the second work of McGregor's in Boston Ballet's repertoire. After Boston Ballet's debut performance in Chroma, Thea Singer of the Boston Globe stated: “The Boston Ballet dancers astonish with their master of the choreography, contorting this way and that with remarkable intensity.” McGregor will reveal additional plans for the world premiere and co-production at The Royal Opera House's Insights event on May 11, 2016, 2:15 pm EDT / 7:15 pm BST. The event will be live-streamed for viewers around the world to enjoy on The Royal Opera House YouTube Channel.

The second company completing their residency is Blessed Unrest, presenting the world premiere of Body: Anatomies of Being, conceived and directed by Jessica Burr, written by Matt Opatrny, created and choreographed by the Blessed Unrest ensemble, running April 30 - May 21, 2016.

Nashville Ballet and company principal/choreographer Christopher Stuart have been awarded a Fellowship Initiative grant from the New York Choreographic Institute, an affiliate of New York City Ballet, to support the development of new choreography in a studio setting.

Nashville Ballet has been awarded a Fellowship Initiative grant from the New York Choreographic Institute, an affiliate of New York City Ballet, to support the development of new choreography in a studio setting. The choreographer will be Christopher Stuart.

Boston Ballet's spring season kicks off with Mikko Nissinen's Swan Lake, back by popular demand after a record-breaking world premiere in October 2014.

Boston Ballet presents Mirrors: a diverse selection of thought-provoking works that reflect the many facets of contemporary ballet, featuring two eagerly anticipated world premieres by Karole Armitage and Yury Yanowsky.

On Monday, May 16, 2016, Ballet Hispánico proudly honors Richard E. Feldman with the Civic Inspiration Award and Linda Celeste Sims with the Nuestra Inspiración Award at its annual Gala in The Plaza Hotel's Grand Ballroom, 768 Fifth Avenue, NYC.

The Dallas Black Dance Theatre returns to New York for its fifth season of self-produced performances beginning today, April 22 and continuing tomorrow, April 23, 2016 at the Ailey Citigroup Theater, located at 405 West 55th Street, New York, NY 10019. The Masterworks Redefined - New York series will showcase the energetic dance artistry of the repertory dance company that is turning 40 in its 2016-2017 season. The National Endowment for the Arts designated Dallas Black Dance Theatre as an 'American Masterpiece Touring Artist.'