Frederick Ashton News

De Valois, Balanchine & Robbins, The Sarasota Ballet's final program of the Season, will open at the Sarasota Opera House on April 28 and features four works by three of the great masters of the dance world. These performances mark the Company premieres of George Balanchine's Valse-Fantaisie and Jerome Robbin's Fancy Free and is the first time The Sarasota Ballet will perform a ballet by Jerome Robbins. The program will be accompanied with live music by the Sarasota Orchestra, conducted by Ormsby Wilkins-Music Director of American Ballet Theatre.

The Washington Ballet (TWB) presents the world premiere of Ethan Stiefel's Frontier next month, a ballet inspired by President Kennedy and his space travel aspirations for America.

With 12 titles, the Royal Opera House Cinema Season 2017/18 is set to thrill audiences in more than 1500 cinemas in over 40 countries. Including some of The Royal Opera and The Royal Ballet's much-loved classical repertory, the world's top ballet and opera stars, and four brand new productions, over 50 cinemas throughout the United States will show the recorded performances from Covent Garden on dates to be announced from October 2017 through July 2018.

Details of The Royal Ballet's 2017/18 Season have been announced. The full production list is as follows:

If Matthew Bourne had set out to produce a dance show to express the sentiments of Brexit, he couldn't have done it more effectively than this. The fact that Early Adventures is a mixed bag of pieces he made almost 30 years ago is by the by: two thirds of the evening is a fond and gently satirical examination of British ideas of what it means to be British; the other third is about the British notion of foreign-ness, specifically that alien species just across the Channel. To be sure, the original intention was far from political, but the resonance these pieces have acquired, post-Article 50, is striking. 

Boston Ballet presents the coming-of-age fairytale The Sleeping Beauty by Marius Petipa with additional choreography by Sir Frederick Ashton. Hailed as one of the Company's trademark works, this quintessential production features soaring music by Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky and sumptuous sets and costumes by Emmy Award-winning designer David Walker. 

The Joyce Theater Foundation, Inc. (Linda Shelton, Executive Director) is pleased to present the New York debut of Scotland's national dance company, Scottish Ballet, from April 11 – 16, featuring a mixed bill including the U.S. premieres of Motion of Displacement and Ten Poems. Tickets range from $10-$56 and can be purchased at www.Joyce.org, or by calling JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800. Please note: ticket prices are subject to change. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street. For more information, please visit www.Joyce.org.

Happy Friday, BWW Dance! Here are the top dance stories from around the BroadwayWorld you might have missed this week! Sarasota Ballet, The McCallum and More!

Stunning Tribute to Sir Frederick Ashton By Sarasota Ballet

The Sarasota Ballet is pleased to annouce that star of American Ballet Theatre (ABT), Marcelo Gomes, will be joing the Company as a guest artist for this production. Mr. Gomes will be performing the role of the Young Man in Ashton's The Two Pigeons for the Friday and Saturday evening performances. He is considered one of classical ballet's most sought-after male dancers, and has performed all over the world as a Principal dancer with ABT and as a guest dancer with companies such as the Bolshoi Ballet, the Mariinsky Ballet, The Royal Ballet, Dutch National Ballet and Matthew Bourne's New Adventures. He has been described by Alastair Macauley in The New York Times as 'Ballet Theater's central artist, the most natural dance-actor, the greatest of all partners,' and by Pia Catton in The Wall Street Journal  as a dancer whose 'jump explodes up with the boom of a bass drum-yet floats down with the grace of a violin note.'

At the inviting New York Live Arts Theater, New York Theatre Ballet presented their Uptown/Downtown/Dance series on March 3, 2017.  Now in their 38th Season, the company stands apart within the larger ballet community for its grasp on classical technique that mingles with undercurrents of modern dance vocabulary. But the program's pacing left something to be desired, as the excitement and delight peaked before intermission.

New York Theatre Ballet (NYTB) returns to New York Live Arts with its new Uptown/Downtown/Dance series from March 1-4, 2017 at 7:30pm with an additional 2pm matinee on Saturday.

Following the announcement earlier this year of the inaugural season of the IJ Summer Ballet Intensive, founders Irina Paradnaya and Jared G. Lillyhave announced additional instructors - repetiteurs - rounding out what is sure to be an extraordinary opportunity for advanced students and aspiring professionals to learn and perform roles from the classical ballet repertory of the Bolshoi Ballet, the world's most acclaimed ballet company. 

Artistic Director Julie Kent is pleased to announce participation in The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts JFK Centennial Week.

On February 10th and 11th the ABT Studio Company (formerly ABT ll), under the artistic direction of Kate Lydon, and graduate students of London's RBS met at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts to give three performances of classical and new classical repertory. The shared performances are part of a unique exchange, which began in 2003, between the ABT Studio Company and The Royal Ballet School. On alternate years, they perform in NYC, while on alternate years, they perform in London. I attended the opening night performance, February 10, 2017.

New York Theatre Ballet (NYTB) returns to New York Live Arts with its new Uptown/Downtown/Dance series from March 1-4, 2017 at 7:30pm with an additional 2pm matinee on Saturday.

NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts will present ABT Studio Company (formerly ABT II) and graduate students of The Royal Ballet School (RBS), in a shared bill of classical and new classical repertory, showcasing the talent of the next generation of ballet's professionals, on February 10 and 11 at 7 pm at NYU Skirball Center.

NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts will present ABT Studio Company (formerly ABT II) and graduate students of The Royal Ballet School (RBS), in a shared bill of classical and new classical repertory, showcasing the talent of the next generation of ballet's professionals, on February 10 and 11 at 7 pm at NYU Skirball Center.

New York Theatre Ballet (NYTB) returns to New York Live Arts with its new Uptown/Downtown/Dance series from March 1-4, 2017 at 7:30pm with an additional 2pm matinee on Saturday. This year's program features a revival of Nijinsky's L'Apres-Midi d'un Faune staged by the 98-year-old Ann Hutchinson Guest, a new and as-of-yet untitled pas de trois by Pam Tanowitz, Frederick Ashton's La Chatte métamorphoses en femme, and Antonia Franceschi's She Holds Out Her Hand which premiered at Danspace in Fall 2016. All pieces will be performed to live music. A post-show celebration with wine, hors d'oeuvres, and music will be held after the opening night performance for which tickets are $75. Tickets for the performances are $30 ($15 for Students & Seniors) and can be purchased at http://newyorklivearts.org/event/spring-concerts/.

Boston Ballet Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen announces the programming for the 2017-2018 season at the Boston Opera House, to begin in November. The 54th season will open with the North American premiere of Wayne McGregor's "forcefully resonant" Obsidian Tear (Roslyn Sulcas, The New York Times), a co-production with The Royal Ballet.