Mark Ryden News

Casting for American Ballet Theatre's The Nutcracker, co-presented by Segerstrom Center for the Arts and ABT, was announced today by Kevin McKenzie, ABT Artistic Director and Terry Dwyer, Segerstrom Center President. Choreographed by ABT Artist in Residence Alexei Ratmansky, The Nutcracker will be given 13 performances at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, December 7-17, 2017. Misty Copeland and Daniil Simkin will lead the opening night cast on December 7 dancing the roles of Clara, the Princess and Nutcracker, the Prince, respectively. Subsequent casts include Sarah Lane and Herman Cornejo, Gillian Murphy and James Whiteside, Stella Abrera and Alexandre Hammoudi, and Hee Seo and Cory Stearns in the leading roles.

Casting for American Ballet Theatre's The Nutcracker, co-presented by Segerstrom Center for the Arts and ABT, was announced today by Kevin McKenzie, ABT Artistic Director and Terry Dwyer, Segerstrom Center President. Choreographed by ABT Artist in Residence Alexei Ratmansky, The Nutcracker will be given 13 performances at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, December 7-17, 2017. Misty Copeland and Daniil Simkin will lead the opening night cast on December 7 dancing the roles of Clara, the Princess and Nutcracker, the Prince, respectively. Subsequent casts include Sarah Lane and Herman Cornejo, Gillian Murphy and James Whiteside, Stella Abrera and Alexandre Hammoudi, and Hee Seo and Cory Stearns in the leading roles.

The NY Dance and Performance Awards, The Bessies, New York City's premier dance awards honoring outstanding creative work in the field, today announced the nominees for the 2016?17 season at the Bessies press conference. The nominees were selected by the Bessie Awards Selection Committee, an independent committee of 38 dance industry professionals. Bessie Award categories include Outstanding Production, Outstanding Revived Work, Outstanding Performer, Outstanding Music Composition or Sound Design, and Outstanding Visual Design. The list of nominations follows. 

A few years ago I bought a recording of Schlagobers, which had been written by the venerable Richard Strauss for the Vienna State Opera Ballet in 1924. I had a difficult time listening to the music-it didn't gel, nor did it leave any imprint on my mind. I suppose there was a reason for it not having many recordings-compare this with Rosenkavalier. I remember doing some research on this project: Strauss was serving as co-director of the Vienna State Opera with Franz Schalk and wanted to raise the prestige of the ballet wing after it had been decimated in the First World War. As a devoted admirer of Diaghilev company, for which he had once written Josephslegende, Strauss went about composing and writing his own libretto for what was to become Schlagobers, choreographed by Heinrich Kröller, who devised a mass spectacle that required 287 costumes at a cost of four billion kronnen, becoming known as the 'billionaire's ballet.' And at a time when inflation was climbing minute by minute.

Casting for the seventh and eighth weeks of American Ballet Theatre's 2017 Spring Season at the Metropolitan Opera House was announced today by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie.

On Saturday morning, May 20, 2017, ABT gave an hour length performance designed to introduce children to the ballet, as they do every year. The Metropolitan Opera House was full of excited young ones. I had a running commentary from a boy of about 4 years old, sitting next to me on his father's lap. It is a performance composed of excerpts from several ballets.

Former Circa! and La Clique performer Jess Love brings her Circus Australia Award winning debut solo show to London's Southbank for six performances, filling a macabre playground replete with hopscotch, blood spatter, rollerskates and broken glass in this visually enchanting, funny and surreal show about the mixing the innocent and the sinister.

On Saturday morning, May 20, 2017, ABT gave an hour length performance designed to introduce children to the ballet, as they do every year. The Metropolitan Opera House was full of excited young ones. I had a running commentary from a boy of about 4 years old, sitting next to me on his father's lap. It is a performance composed of excerpts from several ballets.

Happy Friday, BWW Dance! Here are the top dance stories from around the BroadwayWorld you might have missed this week!

An overview on the NYC Metropolitan Opera web site of choreographer Alexei Ratmansky's newest work, “Whipped Cream”, calls the ballet a “dollop of delightful whimsy”. Yet the full-length production by ABT's Artist in Residence, with a run at the opera house from May 23rd to July 1st 2017, is in fact a heaping serving of horror-infused revelry complete with drunken characters and an illness caused by overindulgence in sweets.

Guests arrived at the Metropolitan Opera House in Lincoln Center for American Ballet Theatre's Spring Gala on a rainy Monday evening.

American Ballet Theatre presents Mark Ryden: The Art of Whipped Cream, an exhibition of work by pop-surrealist Mark Ryden, on view in the Arnold and Marie Schwartz Gallery Met at the Metropolitan Opera House, May 19-July 8, 2017. The exhibition, organized by the Paul Kasmin Gallery, features drawings, sketches and paintings created for American Ballet Theatre's new production of Whipped Cream.

Casting for the first two weeks of American Ballet Theatre's 2017 Spring Season at the Metropolitan Opera House was announced today by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie.

Global Scenic Services, Inc. (GSS), an internationally respected scenery fabrication company, based in Bridgeport, Connecticut, turns the fantastical and dramatic visions of leading scenic designers of opera, ballet and drama productions into multi-dimensional realities.

Happy Friday, BWW Dance! Here are the top dance stories from around the BroadwayWorld you might have missed this week!

American Ballet Theatre's 2017 Spring season at the Metropolitan Opera House, May 15-July 8, will feature the New York Premiere of Alexei Ratmansky's Whipped Cream and the Company Premiere of Ratmansky's Souvenir d'un lieu cher. Tickets for ABT's Spring Season at the Metropolitan Opera House go on sale at the box office on Sunday, March 26 at 12 Noon.

Henry Segerstrom, philanthropist and visionary developer of California's South Coast Plaza was celebrated at Carnegie Hall by a VIP gathering of philanthropists, cultural dignitaries, filmmakers, performing artists, and leaders of global fashion brands. Scroll down for photos from the event!

American Ballet Theatre presented the World Premiere of an all-new production of Whipped Cream, a two-act ballet choreographed by Artist in Residence Alexei Ratmansky, with sets and costumes by artist Mark Ryden. It opened on March 15, 2017 at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California.

On Sunday and Monday, April 30 and May 1, 2017 at 7:30pm, Works & Process at the Guggenheim presents performance highlights and discussion on American Ballet Theatre's newest production, Whipped Cream by Artist in Residence Alexei Ratmansky in collaboration with pop surrealist Mark Ryden.  Ratmansky and moderator John Meehan will discuss the new work and ABT dancers will perform excerpts prior to the New York premiere.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts will present the World Premiere of American Ballet Theatre's new production of Whipped Cream, choreographed by ABT Artist in Residence Alexei Ratmansky, with sets and costumes by pop-surrealist Mark Ryden. ABT will give seven performances of the full-length work March 15-19, 2017 in Segerstrom Hall.