Program I
DATES: October 21 - 25, 2009
VENUE: Academy of Music (Broad & Locust Streets)
TICKETS: $24 - $129; 215.893.1999 or paballet.org
THEME & VARIATIONS
Choreography: George Balanchine
Music: Peter Ilych Tschaikovsky
Costumes and Sets: Woodman Thompson
Running Time: 22 minutes
History:
Theme & Variations is a tribute to the Imperial Russian Ballet of George Balanchine’s youth. He created the work for American Ballet Theatre Principal Dancers Alicia Alonso and Igor Youskevitch, and it premiered on November 26, 1947 at New York City Center.
Set to the music of Tschaikovsky’s Suite No. 3 in G, Theme and Variations is an obvious homage to The Sleeping Beauty, replicating the classical pas de deux. Another aspect Balanchine explored in this ballet is the classic ballet training, focusing on preparatory movements that were developed to train and warm-up the dancer’s body. Taking these steps further, Balanchine produced some very challenging choreography.
Pennsylvania Ballet History:
Pennsylvania Ballet first performed Theme & Variations in 1986, and it was last performed in February 2006 on an all-Balanchine program.
RODEO
Choreography: Agnes de Mille
Music: Aaron Copland
Costumes: Santo Loquasto
Sets: Oliver Smith
Running Time: 34 minutes
History:
Rodeo was first presented on October 16, 1942 by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House. The cast was lead by Agnes de Mille herself as the Cowgirl, Frederic Franklin as the Champion Roper, and Casimir Kokitch as the Head Wrangler. The original scenery and costumes were designed by Oliver Smith and Kermit Love, respectively.
The production was revived in August 1950 by Ballet Theatre at Rhine-am-Main Air Force in Frankfort, Germany. The company, which had changed its name to its current title, American Ballet Theatre, revived it again in 1972 for a performance at New York’s City Center. Dance Magazine critic Nancy Mason wrote of that performance:
“America was ripe for Rodeo when performed by Ballet Russe in 1942. We were at war; national feeling was running high. Although Women’s Lib may now quibble about the theme (how to get a man), Rodeo isn’t dated because it deals with basic emotions.”
Pennsylvania Ballet History:
Pennsylvania Ballet gave the Company premiere of Rodeo in February 1997. Pennsylvania Ballet constructed entirely new sets and costumes for the production thanks to the generosity of The Independence Foundation and contributors to Pennsylvania Ballet’s Repertory Fund.
George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker
DATES: December 12 – 31, 2009
VENUE: Academy of Music (Broad & Locust Streets)
TICKETS: $24 - $129; 215.893.1999 or paballet.org
Choreography: George Balanchine
Music: Peter Ilych Tschaikovsky
Costumes: Judanna Lynn
Sets: Peter Horne
Lighting: John Hoey
Repititeur: Sandra Jennings
Running Time: Two acts in approximately two hours (with one intermission)
History:
The original version of The Nutcracker, with choreography and story by Lev Ivanov, was first presented at the Meryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, on December 17, 1892. A second version of The Nutcracker, with staging by Nicholas Sergeyev after the Ivanov, was first presented in Western Europe by the Sadler’s Wells Ballet at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London on January 30, 1934. This version was first presented in an abbreviated form in the United States by Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo at the Fifty-first Street Theatre in New York on October 17, 1940. A third version, with choreography by William Christensen, was first presented in complete form by San Francisco Ballet in 1944.
Based on the story by E.T.A. Hoffman, George Balanchine’s version of The Nutcracker was first presented by New York City Ballet on February 2, 1954, with Alberta Grant as Clara (Marie), Susan Kaufman as Fritz, Michael Arshansky as Herr Drosselmeyer, Paul Nickel as The Nutcracker, Maria Tallchief as the Sugarplum Fairy and Nicholas Magallanes as Cavalier. The scenery was by Horace Armistead and costumes were by Karinska.
Pennsylvania Ballet History:
Pennsylvania Ballet has been performing The Nutcracker every year since 1968, making this the 41st year of this holiday tradition. From 1968 through the late 1970s, the Company performed a version of Act I choreographed by Oswaldo Riofrancos, with the exception of the snow scene, which was choreographed by Robert Rodham; and the Balanchine version of Act II. From the late 1970s through 1986, Pennsylvania Ballet performed an Act I choreographed by former Artistic Director Benjamin Harkarvy, again with the exception of the snow scene by Rodham, and Balanchine’s Act II. The Company began performing Balanchine’s full-length version in 1987 with a production that cost $1 million. In 2007, Pennsylvania Ballet unveiled a brand new production of this holiday classic, with over 192 exquisite new costumes and all-new sets.
Pennsylvania Ballet will also perform George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts November 24-29, 2009.
Notable Facts:
About 40 gallons of flame-retardant paper confetti is used for the snow scene in each performance. Afterward, the stagehands sweep up the “snow” and it is reused.
The largest costume is Mother Ginger’s dress, measuring approximately 8 feet high and 12 feet wide; standing on stilts as eight children (Polychinelles) emerge from under his skirt.
Program II
DATES: March 4 - 13, 2010
VENUE: Academy of Music (Broad & Locust Streets)
TICKETS: $24 - $129; 215.893.1999 or paballet.org
THE FOUR TEMPERAMENTS
Choreography: George Balanchine
Music: Paul Hindemith
Lighting: John Hoey after Ronald Bates
Running Time: 30 minutes
History:*
The Four Temperaments was first presented by Ballet Society at the Central High School of Needle Trades in New York on November 20, 1946, with scenery and costumes by Kurt Seligmann and lighting by Jean Rosenthal. Tanaquil LeClercq, Mary Ellen Moylan, Todd Bolender, Lew Christensen, William Dollar, and Francisco Moncion were among the principal dancers.
The Four Temperaments is an expression in dance and music of the ancient notion that human beings are made up of four different humors or temperaments, and that the dominance of one of them creates the four physical and psychological types – melancholic, sanguinic, phlegmatic and choleric. This abstract ballet contains five movements that correspond to the divisions of Paul Hindemith’s score. Although the score is based on this idea of the four temperaments, neither the music nor the ballet itself makes specific interpretation of the idea. The idea merely served as a departing point for Balanchine and Hindemith.
Pennsylvania Ballet History:
Pennsylvania Ballet first presented The Four Temperaments in 1969, and it has remained a favorite in the repertory since. The Company last performed it in October 2001.
*Source: George Balanchine and Francis Mason; 101 Stories of the Great Ballets; 1954, 1968, 1975.
CARMINA BURANA
Choreography: Matthew Neenan
Music: Carl Orff
Costumes: Oana Botez-Ban
Sets: Mimi Lien
Running Time: 55 minutes
History:
Based on 13th century poems and songs, Carl Orff’s “secular cantata” was first performed in Frankfurt in 1937. Carmina Burana was first performed by the City Center Opera Company on September 24, 1959 at New York City Center. The cast included Carmen de Lavallade, Scott Douglass, Glen Tetley and Veronica Malakar in the principal roles.
The poems on which the music is based were composed by traveling minstrels who decide to abandon their sacred beliefs in favor of all the secular pleasures that life has to offer. The ballet, in five parts, is an abstract re-telling of their experiences. The prologue is a grand introduction of the “Wheel of Fortune” and its ability to govern the destiny of everything on earth; the first part celebrates the joys of life and nature; and the epilogue returns to the “Wheel of Fortune” with its power to control and undermine the fate of humanity.
In 2007, Matthew Neenan was commissioned to recreate and re-envision Carmina Burana for the Academy of Music stage. For the original score, Orff selected 25 songs and arranged them into three groups, creating an unforgettable musical experience. For his World Premiere, Neenan returned to this original version, ignoring most of the changes and edits that John Butler made for his ballet, and restoring the music to focus on organic manipulations of tempo and rhythm.
Neenan realized his vision with a simple, universal and sensual look for the production. Botez-Ban created minimalist costumes, highlighting the muscular silhouette of the dancers and allowing the fabric to move effortlessly with the body, while Lien’s sets were made with pliable and translucent fabric, allowing dancers to appear and disappear seamlessly.
Pennsylvania Ballet History:
Pennsylvania Ballet first presented John Butler’s Carmina Burana on November 14, 1966 at the Academy of Music, and was the first Company to perform the piece. An audience favorite and a signature work for the Company, Carmina Burana has been performed countless times in its 43-year history. The Company last performed Butler’s piece in February 2003. Neenan’s Carmina Burana made its New York premiere in November 2007 at New York City Center.
Program III
DATES: March 13 - 14, 2010
VENUE: Academy of Music (Broad & Locust Streets)
TICKETS: $24 - $129; 215.893.1999 or paballet.org
THE CROSSED LINE
Choreography: Matthew Neenan
Music: Frederic Chopin
Costumes: Martha Chamberlain
Lighting: John Hoey
Running Time: 32 minutes
History:
The piece began as an idea Neenan developed on three pairs of dancers while attending New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute in September 2003. (He was invited by Peter Martins to participate). That seed germinated into this piece, which includes six couples.
The Crossed Line is set to Chopin piano concertos that Neenan had transcribed for piano and violin and piano and cello. Although abstract, Neenan says the work is “about relationships, but it’s also broader, about other lines we cross.”
Pennsylvania Ballet History:
The Crossed Line had its world premiere in April 2004. This is only the second time the Company will be performing this work.
IN THE NIGHT
Choreography: Jerome Robbins
Music: Frederic Chopin (Nocturne Op. 27, No. 1; Nocturne Op. 55, No. 1 & 2; Nocturne Op. 9, No. 2)
Costume Design: Anthony Dowell
Lighting Design: Jennifer Tipton
Running Time: 21 minutes
History:
Jerome Robbins is world renowned for his work as a choreographer of ballets as well as his work as a director and choreographer in theater, film and television. From 1949 to 1998, he was associated with New York City Ballet, working as Associate Artistic Director with Balanchine and later as Ballet Master with Peter Martins. He created more than 60 ballets that are now in the repertories of the world’s greatest dance companies.
Set to a selection of Chopin nocturnes, In the Night explores three stages of the love relationship — tender young love, a mature and balanced love and fiery passion — in three extended pas de deux.
Robbins drew continual inspiration from the music of Chopin and choreographed four ballets to the composer’s piano works. The others are The Concert (1956), Dances at a Gathering (1969) and Other Dances (1976). During an interview given in conjunction with the premiere of In the Night, Robbins stated, "I'm still fascinated by the music of Chopin. It keeps opening up avenues for me, so there is more to come.”
Pennsylvania Ballet History:
The Company premiered In the Night in October 2006 on a triple-bill salute to Jerome Robbins that included The Concert and Fancy Free. In the Night was last performed by the Company in June 2008 at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as part of the Ballet Across America.
THE CONCERT
Choreography: Jerome Robbins
Music: Frederic Chopin, orchestrated by Hershy Kay
Set Design: Saul Steinberg
Costume Design: Irene Sharaff
Lighting Design: Jennifer Tipton
Running Time: 29 minutes
History:
The Concert is a comedic masterpiece in which Jerome Robbins pondered choreographically what people think about when listening to music. The “concertgoers” range from culture snobs to the cigar-chomping business man to women who noisily rummage through their purses and chew gum. As the concert ensues, they perform a series of hilarious vignettes that poke fun at people’s imaginations.
The ballet is set at a piano recital, and therefore, a piano is situated onstage. The pianist is more than just a musician – Robbins gave him haughty gestures and a bit of “shtick” in dusting the keys off at the beginning, sending clouds of dust flying.
For this work, Robbins enjoyed uniting serious music with absurd actions. For example, there is a group sequence where the choreography entangles the dancers in increasingly complicated formations and leaves one woman clasping a hand that is no longer attached to an arm or a person. This scene can be interpreted as both absurdist comedy and as a parody of some of the large-scale, grandiose choreography of the 30s and 40s.
The Concert had its world premiere by New York City Ballet at New York City Center on March 6, 1956.
Pennsylvania Ballet History:
The Concert was first performed by the Company in April 2005, and most recently in October 2006.
Program IV
DATES: May 5 - 9, 2010
VENUE: Merriam Theater at the University of the Arts
TICKETS: $21.50 - $124.50; 215.336.2000 or paballet.org
SQUARE DANCE
Choreography: George Balanchine
Music: Antonio Vivaldi and Arcangelo Corelli
Lighting: Mark Stanley
Running Time: 24 minutes
History:
Balanchine’s Square Dance had its premiere on November 21, 1957 by New York City Ballet at New York City Center. In Square Dance Balanchine marries classical ballet and American folk dances, appealing to the sensibilities of American arts patrons living in the idyllic fifties. In the original version, he sets the musicians onstage with a square dance caller to call out the steps. In 1976 Square Dance was revived, omitting these two elements from the original production, but adding a virtuosic solo for the principal male dancer.
Balanchine’s initial work used Concerto Grosso in B minor, Op. 3 no. 10; Concerto Grosso in E major, Op. 3, no. 12 (first movement) by Antonio Vivaldi. In 1976, the ballet grew to include Sarabanda, Badinerie e Giga (second and third movements) by Arcangelo Corelli.
Pennsylvania Ballet History:
This is the Company last performed George Balanchine’s Square Dance during the 1992-1993 Season.
AFTERNOON OF A FAUN
Choreography: Jerome Robbins
Music: Claude Debussy
Costumes: Irene Sharaff
Sets: Jean Rosenthal
Running Time: 11 minutes
History:
Robbins recreates the essence of the music and the themes in the Nijinsky original, L’Apres-Midi D’Un Faun, for contemporary audiences with this 1953 work that has been called “a miniature masterpiece.” The curtain rises on a ballet studio with a singular male dancer at work, captivated by his own appearance in the mirror. A girl slyly enters from the back of the studios, the two only matching glances in the glassy reflection. His instant attraction to her is sealed with a kiss after their dance, which distracts him from his work to the point where he falls asleep on the studio floor.
Vaslav Nijinsky made only four ballets, of which L’Apres-Midi D’Un Faun was the first, and the only one to survive in the classical repertoire. It is widely regarded as an innovative and extraordinary creation that disregards classical discipline in favor of a style of movement that attempts to mimic the two-dimensional effect of Greek vase paintings and bas reliefs.
Claude Debussy’s Prelude a l’Apres-midi d’un Faune may only be slightly less recognizable than his Clair de Lune, but his overall body of work defined “musical impressionism,” drawing influence from the paintings and literary works of his contemporaries.
Afternoon of a Faun had its premiere by New York City Ballet at New York City Center on May 14, 1954 with Tanaquil Le Clercq and Francisco Moncion in the leads.
Pennsylvania Ballet History:
This is the Company premiere of Afternoon of a Faun.
REQUIEM FOR A ROSE
Choreography: Annabelle Lopez Ochoa
Music: Franz Shubert
Costumes and Sets: Tatyana van Walsum
Lighting: John Hoey
Running Time: 18 minutes
History:
Belgian-born choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa was commissioned by Pennsylvania Ballet to create a piece for the Company’s Love & Longing program. After contemplating the theme of the program, Ochoa chose to use Shubert’s Quintet in C Major in creating an abstract ballet about love and the death of romance. She selected 12 dancers to represent a bouquet of a dozen red roses, the flower she considers to be the cliché of romance. Ochoa adheres to classical vocabulary, but creates a fluid work that features traditional pas de deux, ensemble sections, and a dynamic solo for the “rose girl.” This theatrical and symbolic “heartbeat” bookends the piece, letting audiences interpret the meaning of her presence. The soft and luscious costumes by Tatyana van Walsum create seamless transitions and evoke a sense of poetry in motion.
Pennsylvania Ballet History:
Pennsylvania Ballet first presented the world premiere of Requiem for a Rose in February 2009.
IN THE MIDDLE, SOMEWHAT ELEVATED
Choreography: William Forsythe
Music: Thom Willems
Running Time: Approximately 30 minutes
History:*
Created in 1987 for Sylvie Guillem and other stars of the Paris Opera Ballet, In The Middle, Somewhat Elevated is Forsythe at his fierce finest. This is an abstract, muscular piece, with banging, grunting music by Thom Willems. Dancers walk out, burst into movement and then suddenly quit, striding offstage. The one-act ballet begins that way and ends that way; nearly all the interest lies in the dancing and the dancers more than in any perceivable structure.
The ballet takes place on a barren stage with exposed wings, and the sole element of décor, unnoticeable to most audiences, is a small cluster of cherries, hung “in the middle, somewhat elevated.” Nothing remains constant - the dancers shift from downstage to upstage; groupings barely form before they dissolve; exits are both complete and partial, with dancers at times remaining onstage to watch the others; classical steps emerge and then morph into more asymmetrical forms. Bathed in sometimes obscuring lighting designed by Forsythe, the ballet’s nine dancers take an aggressive approach to classicism with an off-kilter edge.
*Source: San Francisco Ballet and The New York Times.
Pennsylvania Ballet History:
The Company Premiere of In The Middle, Somewhat Elevated was made possible by a grant from Dance Advance.
Program V
DATES: June 4 - 12, 2010
VENUE: Academy of Music (Broad & Locust Streets)
TICKETS: $24 - $129; 215.893.1999 or paballet.org
ROMEO AND JULIET
Choreography: John Cranko
Music: Sergei Prokofiev
Running Time: Three acts, approx. 2:35 including two 15-minute intermissions
History:
John Cranko first staged this for the ballet of La Scala, Milan at the Teatro Verde in Venice on July 26, 1958. The production was extensively revised and first presented by the Stuttgart Ballet at the Wuerttemberg State Theatre in Stuttgart on December 2, 1962. The Stuttgart Ballet production was first presented in the United States at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City on June 18, 1969, with Marcia Haydee as Juliet, Richard Cragun as Romeo, Jan Stripling as Tybalt, and Egon Madsen as Mercutio.
Romeo and Juliet follows the story of a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young "star-cross'd lovers" whose untimely deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with Hamlet, is one of his most frequently performed plays.
Pennsylvania Ballet History:
Pennsylvania Ballet first presented John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet in 1990. It was last presented in 2005.
Choreographers’ Biographies
George Balanchine
Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, George Balanchine (1904-1983) is regarded as the foremost contemporary choreographer in the world of ballet. He came to the United States in late 1933, at the age of 29, accepting the invitation of the young American arts patron Lincoln Kirstein (1907-96), whose great passions included the dream of creating a ballet company in America. At Balanchine's behest, Kirstein was also prepared to support the formation of an American academy of ballet that would eventually rival the long-established schools of Europe.
This was the School of American Ballet, founded in 1934, the first product of the Balanchine-Kirstein collaboration. Several ballet companies directed by the two were created and dissolved in the years that followed, while Balanchine found other outlets for his choreography. Eventually, with a performance on October 11, 1948, the New York City Ballet was born. Balanchine served as its ballet master and principal choreographer from 1948 until his death in 1983.
Balanchine's more than 400 dance works include Serenade (1934), Concerto Barocco (1941), Le Palais de Cristal, later renamed Symphony in C (1947), Orpheus (1948), The Nutcracker (1954), Agon (1957), Symphony in Three Movements (1972), Stravinsky Violin Concerto (1972), Vienna Waltzes (1977), Ballo della Regina (1978), and Mozartiana (1981). His final ballet, a new version of Stravinsky's Variations for Orchestra, was created in 1982.
He also choreographed for films, operas, revues, and musicals. Among his best-known dances for the stage is Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, originally created for Broadway's On Your Toes (1936). The musical was later made into a movie.
A major artistic figure of the twentieth century, Balanchine revolutionized the look of classical ballet. Taking classicism as his base, he heightened, quickened, expanded, streamlined, and even inverted the fundamentals of the 400-year-old language of academic dance. This had an inestimable influence on the growth of dance in America. Although at first his style seemed particularly suited to the energy and speed of American dancers, especially those he trained, his ballets are now performed by all the major classical ballet companies throughout the world.
Founded by Balanchine student Barbara Weisberger, Pennsylvania Ballet is a company steeped in Balanchine style and repertoire.
John Cranko
Choreographer John Cranko was born on August 15, 1927 in Rustenburg, South Africa. He received his dance education mainly at the University of Cape Town, where he also choreographed his first ballet to Stravinsky's Suite from The Soldier's Tale.
In 1946, he continued his studies at the Sadler's Wells School in London and shortly afterwards became a member of the Sadler's Wells Ballet (subsequently The Royal Ballet). In 1947, Cranko made a sensational choreography to Debussy's Children's Corner for the Sadler's Wells Ballet; from 1949 on he devoted himself exclusively to choreography, producing extremely successful ballets - mostly for the Sadler's Wells Ballet. In 1955, he choreographed La Belle Hélène for the Paris Opera Ballet and in 1957 he created his first full-length ballet, The Prince of the Pagodas, for The Royal Ballet.
In 1961, John Cranko was appointed ballet director in Stuttgart by Walter Erich Schaefer, the General Director of the Wuerttemberg State Theatre (today's Stuttgart State Theater). At the beginning of his time in Stuttgart, Cranko created short ballets and gathered together a group of dancers, among whom were Egon Madsen, Richard Cragun, Birgit Keil and, most importantly, a young Brazilian dancer named Marcia Haydée who was to become his prime muse and inspiration.
The breakthrough for Cranko came in December 1962 with the world premiere of Romeo and Juliet, which was highly praised by critics and audiences alike. In Stuttgart, Cranko created many small choreographic jewels such as Jeu de cartes and Opus I, as well as his symphonic ballet Initials R.B.M.E.; but it was with his dramatic story ballets such as Onegin, The Taming of the Shrew, Carmen, Poéme de l'Extase and Traces that secured his place in the pantheon of great choreographers.
In addition, he encouraged young dancers in his company — including Jiri Kylian and John Neumeier — to try their hand at choreography. Cranko's gift for nuanced story-telling, clear dramatic structure and his exquisite mastery of the art of the pas de deux conquered New York audiences during a triumphant season at the Metropolitan Opera in 1969. World wide acclaim soon followed, as Cranko and his young company toured the globe. John Cranko died unexpectedly at age 45 on June 26, 1973, on a return flight from a successful U.S. tour.
Agnes De Mille
Agnes de Mille was born in New York City in 1905. When she was very young, her father followed his brother, Cecil B. de Mille, to California to work in the new gold field of motion pictures.
Ms. De Mille attended the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), where she graduated cum laude at age 19. Shortly after this, she departed with her mother to London. Ms. De Mille taught and gave recitals at the Ballet Club at the Mercury Theatre. Other Ballet Club pupils at the same time included Frederick Ashton, Anthony Tudor, Hugh Laing and later Margot Fonteyn. During one of her returns to the United States, Ms. de Mille was engaged to choreograph the dances for the film, Romeo and Juliet, starring Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard.
In 1940, Ballet Theatre (now American Ballet Theatre) was formed and Ms. de Mille was a charter member, creating for the company her first ballet, Black Ritual (Creation du Monde-Milhaud). The following year Ms. de Mille created Three Virgins and a Devil. In 1942, she was asked by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo to create a ballet for that company and her world-famous Rodeo was the altogether sensational result. She herself danced the leading role at the Metropolitan Opera House on October 16, 1943, and received twenty-two curtain calls and standing ovations. This triumph, with its American setting, led Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein to select her to create the dances for their musical, Oklahoma!
In the fall of 1945, Ms. de Mille went to London for work on the film London Town. Brigadoon was her next achievement, and in that same year she began rehearsals of Allegro, acting as stage director as well as choreographer. After Allegro, her work was continual: The Rape of Lucretia (1948); Fall River Legend and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949); Out of This World (1950); Paint Your Wagon (1951); and The Harvest According (1952). Then in 1953, she choreographed the film Oklahoma!
Her reputation as a speaker also grew through the years and Ms. de Mille was appointed by President Kennedy to be a member of the National Advisory Committee on the Arts, the forerunner of the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1974, she personally inaugurated the Agnes de Mille Heritage Dance Theatre, founded at the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem.
She is the author of many books: Reprieve, Where the Wings Grow, America Dances, Dance to the Piper, Promenade Home, To a Young Dancer, The Book of Dance, Lizzie Borden: Dance of Death, Dance in America, Russian Journals and Speak to Me, Dance with Me. Her awards include New York City’s Handel Medallion -- the most distinguished honor the city can bestow upon its citizens. The nationally prestigious Kennedy Center Honor, seventeen honorary degrees from colleges and universities coast to coast, two American Theatre Wing “Tony” Awards, as well as many other awards, including the “Emmy” in 1987 for Agnes, the Indomitable de Mille.
The Other was Ms. de Mille’s last ballet for American Ballet Theatre. She died in New York City on October 7, 1993.
William Forsythe
Raised in New York and initially trained in Florida with Nolan Dingman and Christa Long, Forsythe danced with the Joffrey Ballet and later the Stuttgart Ballet, where he was appointed Resident Choreographer in 1976. Over the next seven years, he created new works for the Stuttgart ensemble and ballet companies in Munich, The Hague, London, Basel, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, Paris, New York, and San Francisco. In 1984, he began a 20-year tenure as director of the Ballet Frankfurt, where he created works such as Artifact (1984), Impressing the Czar (1988), Limb’s Theorem (1990), The Loss of Small Detail (1991, in collaboration with composer Thom Willems and designer Issey Miyake), A L I E / N A(C)TION (1992), Eidos:Telos (1995), Endless House (1999), Kammer/Kammer (2000), and Decreation (2003).
After the closure of the Ballet Frankfurt in 2004, Forsythe established a new, more independent ensemble. The Forsythe Company, founded with the support of the states of Saxony and Hesse, the cities of Dresden and Frankfurt am Main, and private sponsors, is based in Dresden and Frankfurt am Main and maintains an extensive international touring schedule. Works produced by the new ensemble include Three Atmospheric Studies (2005), You made me a monster (2005), Human Writes (2005), Heterotopia (2006), The Defenders (2007), Yes we can’t (2008), and I Don’t Believe in Outer Space (2008). Forsythe’s most recent works are developed and performed exclusively by The Forsythe Company, while his earlier pieces are prominently featured in the repertoire of virtually every major ballet company in the world, including The Kirov Ballet, The New York City Ballet, The San Francisco Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada, England’s Royal Ballet, and The Paris Opera Ballet.
Awards received by Forsythe and his ensembles include the New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award (1988, 1998, 2004, 2007) and London’s Laurence Olivier Award (1992, 1999, 2009). Forsythe has been conveyed the title of Commandeur des Arts et Lettres (1999) by the government of France and has received the German Distinguished Service Cross (1997) and the Wexner Prize (2002).
Forsythe has been commissioned to produce architectural and performance installations by architect-artist Daniel Libeskind, ARTANGEL (London), Creative Time (New York), and the City of Paris. His installation and film works have been presented in numerous museums and exhibitions, including the Whitney Biennial (New York), the Venice Biennale, the Louvre Museum, and 21_21 Design Sight in Tokyo. His performance, film, and installation works have been featured at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich and the Wexner Center in Ohio.
In collaboration with media specialists and educators, Forsythe has developed new approaches to dance documentation, research, and education. His 1994 computer application Improvisation Technologies: A Tool for the Analytical Dance Eye, developed with the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, is used as a teaching tool by professional companies, dance conservatories, universities, postgraduate architecture programs, and secondary schools worldwide. 2009 marks the launch of Synchronous Objects for One Flat Thing, reproduced, a digital online score developed with The Ohio State University that reveals the organizational principles of the choreography and demonstrates their possible application within other disciplines.
As an educator, Forsythe is regularly invited to lecture and give workshops at universities and cultural institutions. In 2002, Forsythe was chosen as one the founding Dance Mentor for The Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. He currently co-directs and teaches in the Dance Apprentice Network aCross Europe (D.A.N.C.E.) program, an interdisciplinary professional insertion program based at Dresden’s Palucca Schule. Forsythe is an Honorary Fellow at the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance in London and holds an honorary doctorate from the Juilliard School in New York.
Source: theforsythecompany.com
Annabelle Lopez Ochoa
The half-Colombian half-Belgian Annabelle Lopez Ochoa is a versatile choreographer who has been praised as having “a firm grip on her material, as well as in the composition as in the dramaturgic build up” (NRC handelsblad). She studied at the Royal Ballet Academy of Antwerp and went on to dance at the B.W.-gung Tanztheater Ulm and The Heidelberger Stadttheater in Germany and the modern-jazz dance group Djazzex in The Hague. In 1997 she joined the Scapino Ballet, where she was a soloist for seven years before she decided to focus solely on choreography.
Ms. Ochoa has created ballets for the Scapino Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Djazzex, Ballet du Grand Theatre de Genece, and the Royal Ballet of Flanders. She has also choreographed for film, theater, music theater, and opera. Her most critically acclaimed work to date is the 2002 Before After, created for the Dutch National Ballet. Like many of her ballets, it is the story of a relationship and was hailed as the “most moving, the most mysterious, the most heartily cheered,” piece of a particular evening during Fall for Dance at City Center in 2006 (The New York Times, 2006).
Other notable works include Lacrimosa, Solitaire, and Nocturne: all concept-driven works that explore the complexities of human interaction. Ms. Ochoa has won several choreography prizes including the 2001 Hannover choreography's Competition and the first prize and public's prize at the Bornem International Competition in 2002. Other projects include a duet called “one” for Drew Jacoby and Rubinald Pronk, which premiered at the Houston Dance Salad Festival in March 2008. In July 2008, Ms. Ochoa worked with BalletX.
Ms. Ochoa premiered her first piece for Pennsylvania Ballet, Requiem for a Rose, in February 2009.
Matthew Neenan
Matthew Neenan began his dance training at the Boston Ballet School and with noted teachers Nan C. Keating and Jacqueline Cronsberg. He later attended the LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts and the School of American Ballet in New York. From 1994-2007, Mr. Neenan danced with Pennsylvania Ballet where he has performed numerous principal roles in works by George Balanchine, John Cranko, Paul Taylor, Peter Martins, Val Caniparoli, Jorma Elo, Lila York, Meredith Rainey, Jeffrey Gribler, Christopher Wheeldon, and Jerome Robbins. In October 2007, Mr. Neenan was named Pennsylvania Ballet’s first Choreographer in Residence.
From 2000-2004, Mr. Neenan co-founded and co-directed Phrenic New Ballet, which toured extensively with his choreography to New York City, Artscape Festival in Baltimore, and the Jacob’s Pillow Festival in Becket, Massachusetts. In 2005, Mr. Neenan and fellow dancer Christine Cox co-founded BalletX, of which he is currently co-director. BalletX had its world premiere at the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival in September 2005 and is now the resident dance company at the prestigious Wilma Theater in Philadelphia. BalletX has toured and performed Mr. Neenan’s choreography at Symphony Space in New York City, Jacob’s Pillow Festival, Laguna Dance Festival in Laguna, CA, Columbia, and Seoul, Korea.
Mr. Neenan’s choreography has also been performed by The Russian Ballet Theatre, Washington Ballet, Brandywine Ballet, New York Theatre Ballet, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Ballet Pacifica, LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts, Indiana University, and the Juilliard School. His ballet 11:11, set to the music of Rufus Wainwright, was performed at City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival in New York in September 2006. He has received numerous awards and grants for his choreography from the National Endowment of the Arts, Dance Advance funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Choo San Goh Foundation, and the Independence Foundation. In 2006, Mr. Neenan received the New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute’s Fellowship Initiative Award. Mr. Neenan also received a 2008 fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. This marks his fourth time receiving the PCA fellowship.
In 2002, Mr. Neenan accepted an invitation to perform and teach at the Silesian International Dance Festival in Poland. He also participated in the Fall 2003 New York City Ballet Choreographic Institute under the direction of Peter Martins. In June 2004, Dance Theatre of Pennsylvania premiered his first full-length ballet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Pennsylvania Ballet premiered Mr. Neenan’s Carmina Burana in March 2007, which has been called “simply scintillating.” Mr. Neenan was recently named Best Dance Talent by editors of Philadelphia Magazine’s annual “Best Of Philly” list. His 12th commission for Pennsylvania Ballet, At the border, premiered in October 2009.
Jerome Robbins
Jerome Robbins received world renown as a choreographer of ballets created for the New York City Ballet, Ballets U.S.A., American Ballet Theatre and other international companies. He received equal kudos for his work in commercial theater. He was a director of musicals, plays, movies and television programs. This dual interest produced a staggering number of ballets and stagings of musical plays, notable for their diversity, brilliance, lyric beauty and humor. His work is characterized by the intensity and compactness of its expression, its wide variety of mood — whether it be rhapsodic, introspective, poignant or hilarious.
His career as a gifted ballet dancer developed with Ballet Theatre where he danced with special distinction the role of Petrouchka, and character roles in the works of Fokine, Tudor, Massine, Lichine and de Mille, and of course his first choreographic sensation, Fancy Free (1944). This ballet, followed by Interplay (1945) and Facsimile (1946), was performed by Ballet Theatre, after which he embarked on a prolific and enormously successful career as a choreographer and later as a director of Broadway musicals and plays. His first musical, “On the Town” (1945), was followed by “Billion Dollar Baby” (1946), “High Button Shoes” (1947), “Look, Ma, I'm Dancing” (which he co-directed with George Abbott in 1948), “Miss Liberty” (1949), “Call Me Madame” (1950), and the ballets “Small House of Uncle Thomas” in “The King and I” (1951). His work continued with “Two’s Company” (1952), “Pajama Game” (again co-directed with Mr. Abbott in 1954) and “Peter Pan” (1954), which he directed and choreographed. In the same year, he also directed the opera “The Tender Land” by Aaron Copland. Two years later, he directed and choreographed “Bells are Ringing” (1956), followed by the historic, operatic and balletic “West Side Story” (1957). He then performed the same tasks for “Gypsy” (1959) and “Fiddler on the Roof” (1964).
He was simultaneously creating ballets for the New York City Ballet, which he joined in 1949 as Associate Artistic Director with George Balanchine. Among his outstanding works were The Guests (1949), Age of Anxiety (1951), The Cage (1951), The Pied Piper (1951), Afternoon of a Faun (1953), Fanfare (1953) and The Concert (1956), the latter the most hilarious of all ballets. For his own company, Ballets U.S.A. (1958 - 1962), he created N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz (1958), Moves (1959) and Events (1961). The company performed to acclaim in the United States and Europe. He directed the Ford 50th Anniversary Show with Mary Martin and Ethel Merman for television in 1953, followed by a 1955 telecast of “Peter Pan” for which he received an Emmy Award. He co-directed and choreographed the movie “West Side Story” (1960), for which he received two Academy Awards.
After the triumph of “Fiddler on the Roof,” Mr. Robbins dedicated his energies to creating ballets for the New York City Ballet. In 1988 he took a leave of absence to stage “Jerome Robbins’ Broadway,” which opened in 1989 to resounding critical and popular acclaim, and in 1990 he resigned from the position of Ballet Master in Chief — which he shared with Peter Martins — to pursue other projects. A partial list of his 54 creations includes: Dances at a Gathering (1969); The Goldberg Variation (1971); Watermill (1972); Requiem Canticles (1972); The Dybbuk Variations (1974); In G Major (1975); Mother Goose (1975); The Four Seasons (1979); Opus 19: The Dreamer (1979); Piano Pieces (1981); Gershwin Concerto (1982); Glass Pieces (1983); I’m Old Fashioned (1983); Antique Epigraphs (1984); Brahms/Handel (with Twyla Tharp in 1984); In Memory Of… (1985); Quiet City (1986); Piccolo Balletto (1986); Ives, Songs (1988); 2 & 3 Part Inventions (1994) and West Side Story Suite (1995).
Mr. Robbins died at the height of his creative powers. Most importantly, he brought joy, emotional involvement and humorous pleasure to millions of people, not only in the United States, but throughout the entire world. His work will continue to exist and delight us.
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