Frederick Ashton News

'La Fille mal gardee', Frederick Ashton has given us folksy innocence, clever games, and sunny smiles. That smile was perfectly embodied by soloist Jeffrey Cirio, making a splendid debut as Colas in the opening performance of this life affirming ballet. He is more than ably assisted by a cast of tremendous artists who give of themselves completely to making these simple country characters sparkle. And what characters! With an opening danced by five chickens -- four hens and one manic rooster -- how could it be otherwise?

Beginning today, May 26 through June 5, 2016, Houston Ballet offers up its Spring Mixed Repertory Program.

On the evening of May 16th 2016 at the Metropolitan Opera House in Lincoln Center, the beloved troupe that was recognized as 'America's National Ballet Company' in 2006 by the United States Congress proved once again that the American Ballet Theatre is indeed a treasure. Dancegoers in dazzling formal attire were treated to a Spring Gala that eschewed traditional staples and showcased instead an appetite-whetting smorgasbord of excerpts from the spring season as well as a world premiere and the one-act Firebird.

Titled LIFE IN MOTION: AN UNLIKELY BALLERINA, the project is based on Copeland's biography of the same name. REMEMBER THE TITAN's Gregory Allen Howard will pen the film's script.

Casting for the third and fourth weeks of American Ballet Theatre's 2016 Spring Season at the Metropolitan Opera House was announced today by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie.

New York City Ballet, home to George Balanchine's vision of dance in America, is well known for commissioning new work. This devotion to innovation can result in work that runs the gamut from zestful to appalling. Case in point, the '21st Century Choreographers II' program on May 7th, 2016, which presented a hodgepodge of brilliant, ill conceived, entertaining, and 'not suited to house style'.

From May 26 - June 5, 2016, Houston Ballet offers up its Spring Mixed Repertory Program.

Clinton Luckett, Ballet Master and former dancer at American Ballet Theatre, has been appointed Assistant Artistic Director of the Company.

Casting for the first two weeks of American Ballet Theatre's 2016 Spring Season at the Metropolitan Opera House was announced today by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie.

The World Premiere of a new work by Artist in Residence Alexei Ratmansky will highlight American Ballet Theatre's 2016 Spring Gala benefit on Monday, May 16 at 6:30 P.M. at the Metropolitan Opera House.

?More than three decades after she left regional Queensland as a teenager to pursue her dreams on the international stage, one of Australia's most accomplished dancers, Leanne Benjamin, will return home to be appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).

American Ballet Theatre's 2016 Spring season will be highlighted by a World Premiere work by Alexei Ratmansky, the American Premiere of Ratmansky's The Golden Cockerel and a revival of Frederick Ashton's La Fille mal gardee. Tickets for ABT's Spring Season at the Metropolitan Opera House go on sale at the box office on Sunday, March 20 at 12 Noon.

?More than three decades after she left regional Queensland as a teenager to pursue her dreams on the international stage, one of Australia's most accomplished dancers, Leanne Benjamin, will return home to be appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).

WASHINGTON, D.C. - This afternoon The Washington Ballet Board of Directors selected Julie Kent, retired Principal Dancer with American Ballet Theatre (ABT) and artistic director of the ABT Summer Intensive program, as Artistic Director of The Washington Ballet (TWB) effective, July 1, 2016. 

More than three decades after she left regional Queensland as a teenager to pursue her dreams on the international stage, one of Australia's most accomplished dancers, Leanne Benjamin, will return home to be appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).

More than three decades after she left regional Queensland as a teenager to pursue her dreams on the international stage, one of Australia's most accomplished dancers, Leanne Benjamin, will return home to be appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).

DON QUIXOTE is a fantastic Los Angeles Ballet production, filled with the dreams of the Don (Adam Luders), the love of Kitri and Basilio (technically perfect and emotionally evocative dancers Julie Cinquemani and Kenta Shimizu) and the adventures that follow them during this epic tale. There is something for everyone: humor, love, adventure and lots of beauty performed by a lively cast of characters from village folk to gypsies to flamenco dancers who will enthrall audiences of all ages.

Boston Ballet Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen announces the programming for the 2016-2017 season at the Boston Opera House, to begin in October. The 53rd season will launch with Le Corsaire, a historically significant work in the world of ballet that originally premiered in Paris in 1856, followed by Mikko Nissinen's "dazzling, dreamy" The Nutcracker (Karen Campbell, The Boston Globe). The season continues with the North American Company premiere of William Forsythe's ARTIFACT, "a work that definitely shows this choreographer as the most influential practitioner of the art form since Balanchine" (Roslyn Sulcas, The New York Times). In April 2017, Marius Petipa's quintessential The Sleeping Beauty will return with soaring music by Tchaikovsky. The season will also include two mixed repertory programs with works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Ji?i Kylian, and Alexander Ekman, as well as a world premiere by Resident Choreographer Jorma Elo. Additionally, Le Corsaire, The Nutcracker, and The Sleeping Beauty will offer Boston Ballet School students the unique opportunity to appear in Company productions.

The timeless drama and storytelling of Shakespeare's plays have inspired generations of theatregoers across the globe for hundreds of years. In 2016, Birmingham Royal Ballet commemorates 400 years since the death of arguably the world's most prolific playwright with a rare and exceptional season of seven works including a brand-new one-act ballet from Jessica Lang, a world premiere by David Bintley plus two pieces new to the Company inspired by Shakespeare's stories, characters and prose.