George Balanchine News

Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre (PBT) Artistic Director Terrence S. Orr has signed four more dancers to the company roster for the 2018-2019 Season, which opens Oct. 26-28, with "Mozart in Motion" with the PBT Orchestra.

New York City Center is sure to be a singular sensation this fall!

Balanchine famously said in reference to 'Jewels,' his full-length 1967 jewel-themed ballet: 'I have always liked jewels. After all, I am an Oriental, from Georgia and the Caucasus, and a Russian. I would cover myself with jewels...The ballet had nothing to do with jewels. The dancers are just dressed like jewels.'

If you don't know who Chita is, all you have to do is click here: http:www.playbill.comarticlewarren-beatty-kenny-leon-chita-rivera-uma-thurman-receive-actors-funds-medal-of-honor, and that should get you up to speed, somewhat. As I write this, she is being honored tonight, May 14th, 2018 by the Actor's Fund as one of their Medal of Honor recipients.

The Bolshoi Ballet LE CORSAIRE will be at the National Centre for the Performing Arts on May 18 through May 20. This production is choreographed by Marius Petipa and will be presented in three acts. 

On Friday, May 11, PBS will present an encore broadcast of their enormously successful Great Performances special Chita Rivera: A Lot of Livin' to Do, a career retrospective of the legendary theatrical icon. The program features interviews, archival performance footage and songs from Rivera's concert repertoire including such numbers as "A Boy Like That," "America," "A Lot of Livin' to Do," "All That Jazz," and "Nowadays."  The encore broadcast will air in the New York area on THIRTEEN/WNET Friday, May 11 at 10:00 PM ET. (Check local listings in your area). 

The Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University (CBA), the first international institute devoted to the creation and academic study of ballet, today announced the 27 artists and scholars who will serve as CBA Fellows in the 2018-19 academic year. The group - which represents The Center's largest and most far-reaching cohort yet - features distinguished individuals in a range of disciplines, including scholar Cecile Feza Bushidi, lighting designer Brandon Stirling Baker, choreographer Chase Brock, choreographer, filmmaker, and dancer Pontus Lidberg, and scholar Janice Ross, among others.

On Monday, May 7th The League of Professional Theatre Women (Kelli Lynn Harrison & Lisa Rothe, Co-Presidents), an organization which has been leading the gender parity conversation and championing women in the professional theatre for over 35 years, presented the final Oral History event of their 2017-18 season with two-time Tony Award winner Chita Rivera in the Bruno Walter Auditorium at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (111 Amsterdam Avenue at 65th Street). Ms. Rivera talked about her life and illustrious career with Broadway World's lead correspondent, Richard Ridge, host of Backstage with Richard Ridge. 

Pennsylvania Ballet has announced the promotion of 10 dancers for the 2018-2019 season. Corps de Ballet members Aleksey Babayev, Albert Gordon, Yuka Iseda, Zecheng Liang, Nayara Lopes, and Jack Thomas have been promoted to Soloists. Apprentices Sydney Dolan, Federico D'Ortenzi, and Erin O'Dea have been promoted to Corps de Ballet. From Pennsylvania Ballet II, Flavia Morante joins the Company as an Apprentice.

Choreographer Lydia Johnson will present her LYDIA JOHNSON DANCE  in a program of new and repertory works to music that ranges from Philip Glass to the trio sonatas of Handel.  The season's premiere will be Undercurrent, a group work for the Company's eight resident dancers joined by four apprentices, and set to music by one of the choreographer's favorite composers, Henryk Gorecki.  Special guest for the season will be STEPHEN HANNA, former principal dancer with New York City Ballet.  DEBORAH WINGERT, former 15-year member of New York City Ballet, returns as company ballet mistress.

The legendary Broadway icon has just added another honor to her vast array. On Friday, May 4, Chita Rivera was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degree by the University of Florida, Gainesville, before thousands of graduating students and their families at the Class of 2018 Spring commencement. Rivera also presented a master class workshop to UF School of Theatre + Dance students and faculty following the graduation ceremony.

This spring, the French Institute Alliance Francaise (FIAF), New York's premiere French cultural center, and the American Friends of the Paris Opera & Ballet are thrilled to announce a new series presenting HD screenings of opera and ballet performances from the Paris Opera & Ballet for the first time in New York City.

Diablo Ballet presents the final program of its 2017-18 Season with Celebrated Masters, May 4-5th at the Del Valle Theatre in Walnut Creek. 

Emerging talents of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School (PBT School) will take the stage for two May productions in downtown Pittsburgh, showcasing student dancers from the beginning of their training journey to the cusp of their professional stage careers.

Southern California audiences will experience some of the most captivating and entertaining dance performances during The Music Center's upcoming dance season, with choreography that expresses deep emotions and movement that showcases the dimensions of both classical and contemporary dance.  Featuring a wide range of popular and groundbreaking dance companies, including The Music Center premiere of Company Wayne McGregor and the return of The Royal Ballet to The Music Center's stages after a 20-year absence, along with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, L.A.'s own Diavolo/Architecture in Motion and George Balanchine's The Nutcracker by Miami City Ballet, the upcoming Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center (Dance at The Music Center) season is the most fearless and dynamic to date.  Center Dance Arts is the founding supporter of Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center.

The 2018-2019 season includes six Broadway shows, headlined by the Tony and Grammy Award-winning Blockbuster Beautiful - The Carole King Musical. Also coming as part of the Haverland Carter Broadway in New Mexico series are Finding Neverland, The Sound of Music, Kinky Boots, and the newly-restaged Cats. RENT 20TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR will also tour to Popejoy as a Broadway Extra.

The Tony Awards has just announced that this year's Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre will go to industry icons Andrew Lloyd Webber and Chita Rivera.

Houston Ballet will hit the road, traveling just north of their home venue to perform an exciting mixed repertory program at The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands, TX on Friday, May 4, 2018. The evening will include four enthrallingly diverse ballets that will highlight the company's extraordinary range, artistic depth, and technical excellence. Lawn and mezzanine seating are free for the performance and reserved orchestra seats are available for $20. The event is generously sponsored by The Humphreys Foundation.