American Ballet Theatre News

The Rrazz Room at Hotel Nikko Announces June 2010 Concerts

Jacob's Pillow Dance, National Historic Landmark and home of America's longest-running international dance festival, kicks off Festival 2010 with the prima ballerina Nina Ananiashvili. The Festival runs Wednesday, June 23 through Saturday, June 26 at 8pm; Saturday, June 26 and Sunday, June 27 at 2pm. Tickets range from $10-63. $10 Friday evening and Saturday/Sunday matinee youth tickets available. Tickets on sale now online jacobspillow.org, via phone at 413.243.0745 or in person at Jacob's Pillow. Jacob's Pillow is located at 358 George Carter Road in Becket, MA, 01223 (10 minutes east on Route 20 from Mass Pike Exit 2).

Jacob's Pillow Dance, home of America's longest-running international dance festival, has enjoyed a long history with Dance Theatre of Harlem. Founded to create opportunities for minority dancers at a time when they were not welcome in established classical companies, Dance Theatre of Harlem made its first professional appearances at the Pillow in 1970, the same year the company was launched.

Disney's Beauty and the Beast, the award-winning worldwide smash hit Broadway musical, presented locally by Omaha Performing Arts and Broadway Across America, is coming to Omaha. Produced by NETworks Presentations, this elaborate theatrical production will come to life on stage at the Orpheum Theater, Tuesday, June 22 through Sunday, June 27, 2010.

Alicia Alonso, legendary ballerina and director of National Ballet of Cuba, will celebrate her 90th birthday with American Ballet Theatre on Thursday, June 3 at 7:30 P.M. at the Metropolitan Opera House, it was announced today by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie.

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.

Casting for the first two weeks of American Ballet Theatre's 2010 Spring Season at the Metropolitan Opera House was announced today by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie.

American Ballet Theatre announces its second Memorial Day 'Kids Go For Free' matinee performance on Monday, May 31, 2010, 2:00 P.M. at the Metropolitan Opera House. For each full-price adult ticket purchased for the May 31 matinee performance, a child, ages 5-17, may attend for free.

Director/choreographer Twyla Tharp will be presented with the 2010 I.A.L. Diamond Award for Achievement in the Arts from Columbia University on May 1. Ms. Tharp, who recently opened her new critically acclaimed musical, Come Fly Away, at Broadway's Marquis Theatre, is a 1963 graduate of Columbia's Barnard College.

The New York Choral Society closes its 51st season with a performance of Mozart's Requiem, Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, and James DeMars' Tito's Say, on May 1, 2010 at Carnegie Hall, 8:00 PM. The esteemed chorus performs with the Brooklyn Philharmonic under the baton of NYCS Music Director John Daly Goodwin, alongside soloists Joyce El Khoury, soprano, Elizabeth Batton, mezzo-soprano, Michele Angelini, tenor, and Daniel Mobbs, bass-baritone.

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 Soloist Simone Messmer has been awarded a 2010 Leonore Annenberg Arts Fellowship. The two-year fellowship recognizes young artists of extraordinary talent with the goal of providing them with additional resources in order to realize their full potential.

Today it was announced that top pops conductor Jack Everly will conduct the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) for the 2010 National Memorial Day Concert and A Capitol Fourth, two of PBS' highest-rated programs which air live in HD from the West Lawn of the United States Capitol.

New York City Center will celebrate Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winner Stephen Sondheim on the occasion of his 80th birthday on Monday, April 26 with a gala celebration featuring stars who have shone in Sondheim musicals including Michael Cerveris, Barbara Cook, Raúl Esparza, Victor Garber, Joanna Gleason, Angela Lansbury, Patti LuPone, Donna Murphy and Bernadette Peters. Directed by Tony Award-winner John Doyle, the evening will highlight shows for which Mr. Sondheim has written both music and lyrics, and will feature a full orchestra conducted by Encores! Music Director Rob Berman. The Benefit will help fund New York City Center's artistic and education programs. In addition, a portion of the evening's proceeds will go to Young Playwrights Inc, a charity of great importance to Mr. Sondheim.

ABT II will present four performances in New York City as part of the 1.2.3. Festival at The Joyce Theater, April 13-25, 2010. The Festival's opening night performance, which includes works by Ailey II and Taylor 2, will be highlighted by ABT II's World Premiere of Ballo Per Sei, choreographed by Edwaard Liang.

Legendary costume designer ALBERT WOLSKY and world renowned scenic designer MING CHO LEE are among the 2010 TDF/Irene Sharaff Awards recipients. The awards will be presented at a ceremony on Friday, April 23 at 6:30pm at the Hudson Theatre (145 West 44th Street). Two-time Academy Award-winner Albert Wolsky will receive the 2010 TDF/Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award for costume design, and Tony Award-winning scenic designer and educator Ming Cho Lee will receive the TDF/Irene Sharaff Robert L.B. Tobin Award for Sustained Excellence in Theatrical Design.

Usdan Center For the Performing Arts, the nationally renowned summer arts day camp which has introduced the arts to more than 50,000 young people, announces that Maurice Brandon Curry, a director/choreographer/educator, and former Director of the Joffrey Ballet School, will become Chairperson of the Usdan Center Dance Department beginning in the summer of 2010.

Big band sound transforms the Lincoln Theatre into a Duke Ellington jazz club as Arena Stage presents Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Ladies, choreographed by and starring Maurice Hines (Broadway's Sophisticated Ladies and Uptown... It's Hot!) with direction by Charles Randolph-Wright (Arena's Guys and Dolls and Blue).

Legendary costume designer ALBERT WOLSKY and world renowned scenic designer MING CHO LEE are among the 2010 TDF/Irene Sharaff Awards recipients. The awards will be presented at a ceremony on Friday, April 23 at 6:30pm at the Hudson Theatre (145 West 44th Street). Two-time Academy Award-winner Albert Wolsky will receive the 2010 TDF/Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award for costume design, and Tony Award-winning scenic designer and educator Ming Cho Lee will receive the TDF/Irene Sharaff Robert L.B. Tobin Award for Sustained Excellence in Theatrical Design.

Disney's Beauty and the Beast, the award-winning worldwide smash hit Broadway musical, presented locally by Omaha Performing Arts and Broadway Across America, is coming to Omaha. Produced by NETworks Presentations, this elaborate theatrical production will come to life on stage at the Orpheum Theater, Tuesday, June 22 through Sunday, June 27, 2010.