ABT SEASON SHOWS OFF STARS IN STORY BALLETS.NEW YORK CITY--Murderers, maidens, pirates, and pashas converge at the Metropolitan Opera House when American Ballet Theatre American Ballet Theatre, one of the foremost international dance companies of the 20th cent. It was founded in 1937 as the Mordkin Ballet and reorganized as the Ballet Theatre in 1940 under the direction of Lucia Chase and Rich Pleasant. presents its spring season April 26 to June 19. The company performs seven evening-length ballets and two mixed bills, in repertory that showcases elaborate sets and costumes as well as a roster of international superstars. Opening night at the Met features a multicast Don Quixote that spotlights the diversity of ABT's principal dancers. Paloma Herrera and Angel Corella dance in Act I, Susan Jaffe and Jose Manuel Carreno in Act II, and Nina Ananiashvili and Julio Bocca in Act III--each couple offering a different combination of bravura technique and stately grace. ABT artistic director Kevin McKenzie says he chose Anastasia, a company premiere choreographed by Sir Kenneth MacMillan, because "it was time to throw a little light on the women." In addition to Viviana Durante, a principal with the Royal Ballet, ABT's Alessandra Ferri, Julie Kent, and Jaffe will perform the title role, which involves dancing on roller skates. Set to a score by Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky and Bohuslav Martinu, Anastasia tells the story of a woman who believes she is the daughter of Czar Nicholas II. Bob Crowley created the set design in 1996. MacMillan would have turned seventy this December, and ABT pays homage to the renowned British choreographer by performing three of his ballets this season. In addition to Anastasia, Ferri and Bocca will portray the doomed lovers in MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet star-crossed lovers die as teenagers. [Br. Lit.: Romeo and Juliet] See : Death, Premature Romeo and Juliet archetypal star-crossed lovers. [Br. Lit. on May 7. The pas de deux pas de deux (French; “step for two”) Dance for two performers. A characteristic part of classical ballet, it includes an adagio, or slow dance, by the ballerina and her partner; solo variations by the male dancer and then the ballerina; and a coda, or from Manon, excerpted from the evening-length ballet, appears on a mixed bill, April 30 to May 3. Another season highlight is Konstantin Sergeyev's Le Corsaire, staged by Boston Ballet artistic director Anna-Marie Holmes, Natalia Dudinskaya, and Sergei Berjnoi. ABT's production, led by principals Kent and Ethan Stiefel, was performed and filmed in February at the Orange County Performing Arts Center The Orange County Performing Arts Center is a performing arts complex located in Costa Mesa, California. It is the home of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, Opera Pacific, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County and the Pacific Chorale. in Costa Mesa, California Costa Mesa is a suburban middle class city in Orange County, California, United States. The population was 108,724 at the 2000 census. Since its incorporation in 1953, the city has grown from a semi-rural farming community of 16,840 to a suburban city with an economy based on . Dance in America on PBS PBS in full Public Broadcasting Service Private, nonprofit U.S. corporation of public television stations. PBS provides its member stations, which are supported by public funds and private contributions rather than by commercials, with educational, cultural, will air its version in the 1999-2000 season. Met audiences can see the same cast live on May 5. Principal dancer Vladimir Malakhov stars in a documentary film, The True Prince: Vladimir Malakhov, which will be shown April 27 at the 92nd Street Y in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. . Onstage, the Russian-born dancer appears otherworldly--this film gives a glimpse of backstage moments. At the Met, Malakhov pairs up with Kent for Giselle on May 28, and Kent stars in Gaite Parisienne on the mixed bill beginning April 30. ABT's colorful 1988 production of Gaite Parisienne, with costumes designed by Christian Lacroix, was originally choreographed by Leonide Massine for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo Ballet company formed in Monte Carlo in 1932. The name derived from Sergey Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, which dissolved after his death in 1929. Under René Blum and Col. W. in 1938. In June Jiri Kylian's Stepping Stones appears on a bill with Twyla Tharp's Push Comes to Shove and Paul Taylor's Airs. |
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