American Ballet Theatre News

Tywla Tharp is this year's recipient of the 2010 Drama Desk Award for Best Choreography.

As part of the 2009-2010 season of Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center, the world premiere of the reconstructed Roaratorio by Merce Cunningham will be presented at Walt Disney Concert Hall as part of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company's Legacy Tour, a final two-year celebration of the choreographer's lifetime of artistic achievement

ABTKids, an hour-long program designed for children and families, will present a performance of highlights from the Company's 2010 Spring Season on Saturday, June 5 at 11:30 AM at the Metropolitan Opera House (Broadway and 65th Street). Tickets are $25 and are available at the Metropolitan Opera House box office or by calling 212-362-6000. The Metropolitan Opera House is located at Broadway and 65th Street in New York City. For more information visit www.abt.org.

American Ballet Theatre Principal Dancer David Hallberg has taken the 2010 Benois de la Danse Prize. The awards were announced at the Benois de la Danse ceremony and Charity Gala held on May 18 and 19 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.

Casting for the third and fourth weeks of American Ballet Theatre's 2010 Spring Season at the Metropolitan Opera House was announced today by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie. The full details of the casting is included below. Tickets for American Ballet Theatre's 2010 Metropolitan Opera House season, priced $20-$111, are available online, at the Met box office or by phone at 212-362-6000. The Metropolitan Opera House is located on Broadway between 64th and 65th streets in New York City. For more information, visit ABT's website at www.abt.org.

Previews will begin today at Virginia's Signature Theatre for the world premiere musical Sycamore Trees written by Ricky Ian Gordon, the award-winning composer of the opera The Grapes of Wrath and the musicals Dream True and My Life with Albertine. A starry Broadway cast portrays Gordon's own family story - complete with a tough Bronx-born father and former 'Borscht Belt' singer/comedian mother - in a tale of two generations' struggles and triumphs in the decades from World War II through the 1990s.

Signature Theatre, the current recipient of the Tony Award® for Regional Theatre, presents the world premiere musical Sycamore Trees by Ricky Ian Gordon, composer of the acclaimed opera The Grapes of Wrath and the OBIE Award-winning Orpheus and Euridice, as well as the musicals My Life with Albertine and Dream True.

The 2010/11 season at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts features six distinct performance series that highlight amazing artists and extraordinary experiences. This season showcases a world-class roster of performers including international theatre companies, jazz and world music greats, superstar dance companies and Philadelphia's most edgy and innovative artists.

American Ballet Theatre will celebrate its 70th Anniversary Season with an Opening Night Gala on Monday, May 17 at 6:30 P.M. Mrs. Michelle Obama will serve as Honorary Chairman, along with Caroline Kennedy and Blaine Trump. The Spring Gala will honor David H. Koch for 25 years of service to ABT and its Board of Governing Trustees.

American Ballet Theatre's 2010 Spring Season at the Metropolitan Opera House, May 17-July 10, will celebrate the Company's 70th Anniversary with a tribute to legendary ballerina Alicia Alonso and the 30th Anniversary of Natalia Makarova's production of La Bayadère. The season will also feature the Company Premiere of John Neumeier's Lady of the Camellias. Tickets for ABT's Spring Season at the Metropolitan Opera House go on sale at the box office on March 28.

Director Julie Taymor recently announced plans for an adaptation of Thomas Mann's 'Transposed Heads.' The film will feature a script by SPIDER-MAN book writer Glenn Berger and a score by Elliot Goldenthal, who worked with Taymor on 'Across the Universe.'

As part of the 2009-2010 season of Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center, the world premiere of the reconstructed Roaratorio by Merce Cunningham will be presented at Walt Disney Concert Hall as part of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company's Legacy Tour, a final two-year celebration of the choreographer's lifetime of artistic achievement

Disney's Beauty and the Beast, the award-winning worldwide smash hit Broadway musical, is coming to Nashville as a special of the HCA/TriStar Broadway at TPAC series and presented by Miller and Martin PLLC.

Jeremy McQueen, a professional dancer and choreographer currently on tour with Wicked, will be conducting several youth workshops in schools and community centers around Louisville as a part of his residency at The Kentucky Center this month.

Parsons Dance presents two short evenings as part of the company's 10th annual Summer Intensive Workshop for professional and pre-professional dancers. The performances are produced in collaboration with the company's education partners, Marymount Manhattan College and Manhattan Movement and Arts Center, and will feature performances of the acclaimed works: Wolfgang (2005), Hand Dance (2003), Caught (1981), Swing Shift (2003) and Ebben, an excerpt from the dance/rock opera Remember Me (2009).

Minnesota Dance Theatre concluded the 2009-'10 season at the Lab Theater with its usual trademark of multifaceted repertory. The season offered three world premieres by Caroline Beach, Mariusz Olszewski and company member Justin Leaf, as well as treasured gems created for Minnesota Dance Theatre by choreographers Danny Buraczeski and Wynn Fricke, and work by New York dance icons George Balanchine and Eliot Feld.

Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center announces the eighth season of this international dance series. Seven companies representing the United States, Spain, Brazil, the Netherlands, and Cuba, will participate in 32 performances at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and Ahmanson Theatre, in a season that is the largest and most culturally diverse in the history of the series.

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (HSDC), one of the world's premiere contemporary dance companies, will present the final series in its 2009-2010 season, which will include a World Premiere by eminent choreographer Aszure Barton; the Theatrical Premiere of resident choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo's Deep Down Dos, which received its symphonic debut in April with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; and a revival of Bardo by Japanese choreographer Toru Shimazaki

The 2009-2010 season of Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center presents the world premiere of the revival of Merce Cunningham's Roaratorio as part of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company's Legacy Tour, a final two-year celebration of Cunningham's lifetime of artistic achievement.

Tony Award-winner Julie Taymor and Oscar-winner Elliot Goldenthal will be honored with the Samuel H. Scripps Award at Theatre for a New Audience's 30th Anniversary Gala Celebrating Shakespeare's 446th Birthday. The celebration, Monday, May 10, will be held at The Powerhouse at the American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street.