Northrop Dance Closes The Suzanne Farrell Ballet, 3/13

Northrop Dance at the University of Minnesota brings the classic beauty of George Balanchine performed by The Suzanne Farrell Ballet, one of the world's most pioneering ballerinas and Balanchine's famous muse. With two different performance programs, Farrell and her company are bringing to the stage many unseen or rarely seen works, alongside well-known pieces.

Classic Balanchine (Friday, March 12, 8:00 pm)
An evening of classic and rare, full-company works including their latest piece from The Balanchine Preservation Initiative, the newly reconstructed and rarely performed Haieff Divertimento. A mixed repertory features short ballets or sections of longer ballets together in one program. This program includes parts of three ballets choreographed by Balanchine-the pas d'action from Divertimento No. 15, Contrapuntal Blues pas de deux from Clarinade, and Agon, a ballet that revolutionized dance forever. Also on the program is the scène d'amour from Romeo and Juliet by French choreographer Maurice Béjart.

Haieff Divertimento (1944): Music by Alexei Haieff. This work was composed in five sections: "Prelude," "Aria," "Scherzo," "Lullaby," and a "Finale." The ballet is choreographed for a leading couple and four supporting couples dressed in simple costumes. Haieff Divertimento features a blues pas de deux and combines popular American dance idioms and modern concert dance with classic ballet.

Pas d'Action from Divertimento No. 15 (1956): Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Divertimento No. 15 was choreographed for eight principal dancers, five women and three men, with an ensemble of eight women. The ballet omits the second minuet and the andante from the sixth movement; a new cadenza for violin and viola by John Colman was added in the late 1960's. Balanchine's variations and pas de deux seamlessly follow the spirit of Mozart's fragile score-a divertimento written to "divert" and amuse audiences at social occasions in the 1700s. Fun fact: The tutus for this ballet have metal hoops in them for support (a homage to court clothes of the time)-making them heavier and less flexible than regular tutus and having to work harder against gravity. The stage is never empty as dancers overlap their entrances and exits to and from the stage; each solo and pas de deux differs from one another in style and spirit; and the eight dancers come together at the end.

Contrapuntal Blues Pas de deux from Clarinade (1964): Music by Glenn Gould. To jazz music, a young couple explores a world inspired by the marathon dance crazes of the 1930s. In this pas de deux, Balanchine introduced more modern styles of movement to ballet choreography with jazzy movements such as thrusting hips, rocking back on one's heels, and drooping postures.

Béjart: Scène d'Amour from Romeo and Juliet (1966): Music by Hector Berlioz. French choreographer Maurice Béjart is particularly well-known for his innovative and theatrical choreography. Suzanne Farrell worked closely with him from 1970 to 1974. Rather than simply retell the story of Shakespeare's play, Béjart uses movement to explore the play's themes. In the love scene (scène d'amour), Romeo and Juliet express their young love in a pas de deux that also reveals the tension between their families and foreshadows the tragedy that awaits them. A contrast exists between love and hatred, the white costumes signifying youth and innocence, and the choreography suggests combat between the families.

Agon (1957): Music by Igor Stravinsky. Together, Balanchine and Stravinsky designed the structure of the ballet during the creation of the music. The outline for the score specifies in detail, with exact timings, the basic movements for twelve dancers clad in simple black and white costumes. Loosely themed on the idea of "struggle" or "contest" (the meaning of the Greek word agon), this very athletic and energetic ballet features different groupings of twelve dancers. The work broke new ground by combining Igor Stravinsky's complex meter changes with Balanchine's vision of 17th-century court dance. Notice how the ballet begins and ends the same way. Notice the simple and body-hugging practice clothes-these signature Balanchine costumes reveal each movement for its own pure athleticism.

The Balanchine Couple (Saturday, March 13, 2 pm)
A unique program of nine classic Balanchine duets with live, onstage narration by Suzanne Farrell. In each of these selections, the focus is on the couple, dancing together in pas de deux. The program is presented in loose chronology, reflecting Balanchine's evolving career as an American choreographer. From the French, meaning literally, 'step for two,' it is designed to show the virtuosity of the ballerina and her partner. The key to the pas de deux is the interactions between the partners. Whether telling a story through mime, or creating purely architectural shapes, the dancers are working together to communicate the choreographer's vision. Sometimes, they are formal and distant, other times, in intimate unison.

Apollo (1928): Music by Igor Stravinsky. The ballet depicts Apollo, the young god of music, who is visited and instructed by three Muses, who were also children of Zeus and thus his half-sisters: Calliope, Muse of poetry, whose symbol is a tablet; Polyhymnia, Muse of mime, whose symbol is a mask that represents the power of gesture; and Terpsichore, Muse of dance and song, whose symbol is a lyre. Stravinsky, who possessed a strong interest in Greek mythology, conceived of and composed the score as a ballet. It was with this work, his second ballet set to the music of Stravinsky, that Balanchine, at age 24, achieved international recognition and began his lifelong partnership with the composer. Notice Apollo's interplay with Terpsichore, the muse of rhythm and dance.

La Sonnambula (1946): Music by Vittorio Rieti. Set in a darkly mysterious masked ball, the one-act La Sonnambula, originally called Night Shadow, tells the story of a Poet who pays suit to a Coquette, who is escorted by the Host. After a series of exotic divertissements, the elegantly attired guests go in to supper, leaving the Poet to himself. In a moment, an apparition in white enters. She is a beautiful Sleepwalker. Entranced, the Poet tries repeatedly to wake her, but she eludes him. The jealous Coquette informs the Host of the Poet's advances to her; enraged, he stabs the Poet. The Sleepwalker reappears to bear the Poet's lifeless body away.

The Unanswered Question from Ivesiana (1954): Music by Charles Ives. Balanchine choreographed Ivesiana to a series of unrelated Ives orchestral pieces shortly after the composer's death in 1954. The ballet is notable for an intense theatricality created through the juxtaposition of sections that contrast starkly in mood, movement, and lighting, each presenting a dramatic situation in the manner of a tone poem. The mechanics allow the ballerina to never touch the floor. Supported and manipulated by her bearers, she dives and floats, nearly, but not quite, touching her partner.

La Valse (1951): Music by Maurice Ravel. "We are dancing on The Edge of a volcano," Ravel wrote in his notes on La Valse, quoting the Comte de Salvandy. His words are an apt description of both his music and Balanchine's neo-romantic choreography: couples waltzing in a cavernous ballroom where a woman in white is at once horrified and fascinated by the uninvited figure of death who ultimately claims her life. The waltz steps imply the formal dance, and the shadowy figure of Death, appears late in the pas de deux.

Agon (1957): Music by Igor Stravinsky. Together, Balanchine and Stravinsky designed the structure of the ballet during the creation of the music. The outline for the score specifies in detail, with exact timings, the basic movements for twelve dancers clad in simple black and white costumes. This is pure Balanchine technique, especially the angular shapes and movements, and the ways the relationship between the dancers keeps changing. The man's white T-shirt over black tights is a signature Balanchine costume that debuted in this work.

Meditation (1963): Music by Igor Stravinsky. On a darkened stage, a solitary, troubled young man enters and kneels. He is approached by a young woman who seeks to comfort him. They dance together and embrace; in the end she departs, and he is alone again. Presented in its entirety, this ballet was first created on Suzanne Farrell. The ballet explores ideas of longing and loss.

Pas de Mauresque from Don Quixote (1965): Music by Nicolas Nabokov. This Balanchine-Nabokov full-length production is an original work without reference to nineteenth-century Russian versions. The ballet depicts episodes in the hero's search for perfection, and for his ideal woman, Dulcinea, who appears as a housemaid, shepardess, the Virgin Mary, and in other guises. Balanchine performed the role of Don Quixote on several occasions. The piece includes exotic, Arabic-influenced flourishes, and highly stylized contrasts-turned-in as well as turned-out steps, and balances en pointe paired with flat-footed steps.

Chaconne (1976): Music by Christoph Willibald Gluck. A chaconne is a dance, built on a short phrase in the bass often used by composers of the 17th and 18th centuries to end an opera in a festive mood. Though having roots in earlier opera productions, Chaconne is pure dance. The opening pas de deux and following ensemble are lyrical and flowing. The second part has the spirit of a court entertainment, with formal divertissements, bravura roles for the principal dancers, and, of course, a concluding chaconne. The dancers exit the stage at the end of the performance in a heavenly way the, as if swimming through clouds.

Grand Pas de Deux from Stars and Stripes (1958): Music by John Philip Sousa. For all its exuberant patriotic touches, Stars and Stripes contains as much pure dancing as many full-length classical ballets. The work is divided into five "campaigns," each of which uses different Sousa themes. The fourth campaign is a pas de deux, variations, and coda set to the "Liberty Bell" and "El Capitan" marches. Notice the distinctly patriotic themes, and the lively footwork and gestures drawn from parades, like salutes and high stepping.

About the Company
In just over a decade, The Suzanne Farrell Ballet has evolved from an educational program of the Kennedy Center to a highly lauded ballet company, hailed by the New York Times' Chief Dance Critic in 2007 as "one of the most courageous projects in ballet today."

In 1994, the Education Department of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts began a series of ballet master classes for students from the metropolitan Washington region with the legendary Suzanne Farrell. This series provided intermediate to advanced-level ballet students the opportunity to study with one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century. Due to overwhelming interest, the Kennedy Center expanded the program to a national scale in 1995 creating a three week summer intensive titled Exploring Ballet with Suzanne Farrell. Since 2003, the program has included international students from countries including Mexico, Japan, China, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, UK, and Switzerland. Exploring Ballet with Suzanne Farrell remains a prestigious and well-known program for talented young dancers.

In the fall of 1999, Farrell took cues from the masters of ballet with whom she studied to direct the Kennedy Center's production of, Suzanne Farrell Stages the Masters of 20th Century Ballet.

The following fall of 2000, The Suzanne Farrell Ballet, now a full-fledged ballet company produced by the Kennedy Center, made its debut during the Kennedy Center's Balanchine Celebration. After earning rave reviews, the company again performed in early 2001 at Seven Days of Opening Nights at Florida State University, where Farrell is a tenured Eppes Scholar professor in the Dance Department.

Since 2001, The Suzanne Farrell Ballet has performed annually at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and has toured both nationally and internationally. Notably, the company accepted an invitation to perform as a tribute to Farrell, a 2005 Honoree, as part of the nationally televised Kennedy Center Honors gala. To date the company has over thirty-five ballets in its repertoire including works by Farrell's mentors George Balanchine, Maurice Béjart, and Jerome Robbins.

In June 2005, the company collaborated with The National Ballet of Canada to restage Balanchine's Don Quixote, a ballet that had not been performed in nearly 25 years. The evening-length ballet was originally created in 1965 by Balanchine specifically for Farrell and is unique to The Suzanne Farrell Ballet. The company traveled to the Edinburgh International Arts Festival in 2006 to present this landmark revival.

Committed to carrying forth the legacy of Balanchine through performances of his classic ballets, The Suzanne Farrell Ballet announced the formal creation of the Balanchine Preservation Initiative in February 2007. This initiative serves to introduce rarely seen or "lost" Balanchine works to audiences around the world. Many of these works have not been performed in nearly forty years. The Initiative is produced with the knowledge and cooperation of The George Balanchine Trust. To date, the company's repertoire includes nine Balanchine Preservation Initiative Ballets including Ragtime (Balanchine/Stravinsky), Divertimento Brillante (Balanchine/Glinka), and Pithoprakta (Balanchine/Xenakis). In 2008, the company participated in the prestigious Fall for Dance festival at New York City Center, sharing Pithoprakta with the New York audience for the first time in 40 years.

In November 2007, the company launched an Artistic Partnership outreach program. Showcasing her teaching gifts, Farrell brought together her company and Cincinnati Ballet, a nationally recognized company from her hometown, to present Chaconne. Featuring dancers from both companies, the ensemble performed in both Cincinnati and Washington, DC in November 2007. The mission of this initiative is to salute, support, and galvanize ballet companies throughout the United States. The Farrell Ballet repeated this program with Ballet Austin during the 2008/2009 season, this time performing Balanchine's Episodes in both Austin, TX and Washington, DC.

The company celebrates its 10th Anniversary during the 2010/2011 season as well as an annual Kennedy Center engagement March 2010.

Suzanne Farrell | Artistic Director
Throughout the nearly three decades of her performing career, Farrell was the most influential American ballerina of the late 20th century. After retiring from the stage in 1989, she emerged as one of the world's most inspiring ballet teachers and directors.

She was one of Balanchine's most celebrated muses, and today is a repetiteur for the George Balanchine Trust, the independent organization founded after the choreographer's death by the heirs to his ballets to oversee their worldwide licensing and production. Since 1988 she has staged Balanchine's works for a range of companies, including the Berlin Opera Ballet, the Vienna State Opera Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet, the Mariinsky Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet, as well as American companies throughout the United States. Since the fall of 2000, Farrell has been a full-time professor in the dance department at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida.

Farrell was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and received her early training at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music before moving to New York City at the age of 15 to pursue a career as a ballet dancer. Balanchine handpicked Farrell for his company when she was only 16, after she spent a year as a Ford Foundation scholarship student at the School of American Ballet. Her unique combination of musical, physical, and dramatic gifts quickly ignited Balanchine's imagination. Balanchine went on to invent new ballets for her including Diamonds, Chaconne and Mozartiana, in which the limits of ballerina technique were expanded to a degree not seen before or since. For a generation, she danced and redefined the standards of everything from one of the earliest Balanchine ballets, Apollo, to his very last creation, Variations for Orchestra.

From 1970 to 1975 Farrell performed with Maurice Béjart's Ballet du XXe Siècle in Brussels, Belgium before returning to New York City Ballet where she performed for the remainder of her performing career. By the time she retired from the stage in 1989, Farrell had achieved a career that is without precedent or parallel in the history of ballet. During her 28 years on the stage, she danced a repertory of more than one hundred ballets, nearly a third of which were composed expressly for her by Balanchine and other choreographers, including Jerome Robbins and Maurice Béjart. Her numerous performances with Balanchine's company (more than two thousand), her world tours, and her appearances in television and movies have made her one of the most recognizable and highly esteemed artists of her generation. She is also the recipient of numerous artistic and academic accolades.

Farrell began her association with The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1993, working with the Education Department. In 2001, she created the Kennedy Center's own ballet company, The Suzanne Farrell Ballet, and serves as Artistic Director.

In addition to her work for the Balanchine Trust, she is active in a variety of cultural and philanthropic organizations such as the New York State Council on the Arts, the Arthritis Foundation, the Professional Children's School, and the Princess Grace Foundation. Summit Books published her autobiography, Holding On to the Air in 1990 and Suzanne Farrell - Elusive Muse (directed by Anne Belle and Deborah Dickson) was an Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Film in 1997.

George Balanchine | Choreographer
No choreographer is more deserving of the title "the father of American ballet" than the great master, George Balanchine. In late 1933 an invitation from Lincoln Kirstein brought Balanchine to the United States after a career as a dancer, ballet master and choreographer that took him from Russia throughout Europe. Kirstein had been impressed by Balanchine's company, Les Ballets, in Paris and proposed that Balanchine come to the U.S. to help him establish an American ballet company equivalent to the European ones.

The first result of the Balanchine-Kirstein collaboration was the School of American Ballet, founded in early 1934; an institution that still exists today. Students of the school performed Balanchine's first ballet in the U.S. as a workshop. Set to music by Tchaikovsky, Serenade premiered outdoors on a friend's estate near White Plains, New York.

In 1945 Kirstein and Balanchine set up a touring company of dancers from the school called The American Ballet. The same year brought an invitation from the Metropolitan Opera for The American Ballet to become its resident ballet and for Balanchine to become the Met's ballet master. Tight funding, however, permitted Balanchine to stage only two completely dance-oriented works for the Met, a dance-drama version of Gluck's Orfeo and Eurydicee and a Stravinsky program featuring a revival of one of Balanchine's first ballets, Apollo, plus two new works, Le Baiser de la Fee and Card Game.

Although Balanchine enjoyed much success critically and popularly with the Met, he left in early 1938 to teach at the school and to work in musical theater and in film. He and Kirstein assembled the American Ballet Caravan, which made a goodwill tour of Latin American countries featuring such new Balanchine ballets as Concerto Barocco and Ballet Imperial. From 1944 to 1946 Balanchine helped revitalize The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo by becoming artistic director. For them, he creatEd Raymonda and La Sonnambula.

Balanchine collaborated again with Kirstein in 1946 to form Ballet Society, a company which introduced New York subscription-only audiences over the next two years to such new Balanchine works as The Four Temperaments, Stravinsky's Renard, and Orpheus.

In October of 1948 Morton Baum, the chairman of the City Center finance committee, was so impressed by a Ballet Society performance that he negotiated to have the company join the City Center municipal complex (home to the New York City Drama Company and the New York City Opera) as the New York City Ballet. Balanchine's work now had a permanent home.