Just Another Dancing Teen: November 2009

POINTE, CLICK & BID for BALLETABT LAUNCHES SECOND ANNUAL HOLIDAY AUCTION SITE
abt.cmarket.com to offer One-of-a-Kind ABT Experiences

11/19/2009 - American Ballet Theatre will launch its second holiday gift auction site enabling the public to bid on one-of-a-kind ABT experiences and unique gifts. Items offered for auction include exclusive dinners with ABT dancers in New York City, limited-edition photographs of ABT, and backstage opportunities ranging from a guest stage managing position to a curtain cavalier presenting flowers to the prima ballerina of the evening. Other items include signed pointe shoes from ABT Principal Dancers and studio rehearsal visits in New York. Offered this year is a Box Evening Celebration, which includes the exclusive use of a center parterre box for the winner and seven guests, a backstage tour and a post-performance champagne reception with dancers.

The auction, opening at 8:00A.M, Tuesday, December 1, 2009 and closing at 8:00P.M, Tuesday, December 15, 2009, offers users the option to bid on items (minimums apply) or to “buy now” at a posted price. Opening bids begin at $100.

Proceeds from POINTE, CLICK & BID for BALLET will benefit American Ballet Theatre. For bidding, please visit ABT’s auction website at abt.cmarket.com. For more information, please contact Wendy Fisher at 212-477-3030, ext. 3245.

ABT CELEBRATES 70TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON,MAY 17-JULY10, 2010 AT METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE, SEASON TO FEATURE COMPANY PREMIERE OF JOHN NEUMEIER’S LADY OF THE CAMELLIAS AND REPERTORY FESTIVAL INCLUDING ALL-ASHTON AND ALL-AMERICAN PROGRAMS

Special Tribute to Alicia Alonso’s 90th Birthday Planned

10/19/2009 - American Ballet Theatre’s 2010 Spring Season at the Metropolitan Opera House, May 17-July 10, will celebrate the Company’s 70th Anniversary and pay tribute to legendary ballerina, Alicia Alonso. The season was announced today by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie. The Company Premiere of John Neumeier’s Lady of the Camellias and a repertory festival will highlight the season.

Principal Dancers for the 2010 Metropolitan Opera season will include Maxim Beloserkovsky, Roberto Bolle, Jose Manuel Carreño, Angel Corella, Herman Cornejo, Irina Dvorovenko, Marcelo Gomes, David Hallberg, Paloma Herrera, Julie Kent, Gillian Murphy, Veronika Part, Xiomara Reyes, Ethan Stiefel, Diana Vishneva and Michele Wiles. Natalia Osipova, a leading soloist with the Bolshoi Ballet, will return for the Spring season as a guest artist.

Saks Fifth Avenue is the Leading Corporate Sponsor of the Costume Fund. J.P. Morgan is the Leading Corporate Sponsor of Make a Ballet. American Airlines is ABT’s Official Airline. Northern Trust is the Official Sponsor of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at American Ballet Theatre. LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton is the Official Sponsor of ABT II. The 2010 Metropolitan Opera House season is also made possible with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Recovery Act, the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

American Ballet Theatre’s 70th Anniversary season celebration will open with a Gala performance featuring ABT’s Principal Dancers on Monday, May 17 at 6:30 P.M. For information on ABT’s Spring Gala, please call the Special Events Office at 212-477-3030, ext. 3239. ABT’s Spring Gala in sponsored by NBC Universal and GRAFF.

Company Premiere

John Neumeier’s Lady of the Camellias will be given its Company Premiere by American Ballet Theatre on Tuesday evening, May 25 with Julie Kent as Marguerite and Roberto Bolle as Armand. Set to music by Frederic Chopin, Lady of the Camellias was choreographed by Neumeier after the novel of Alexandre Dumas. The ballet features scenery and costumes by Jürgen Rose with original lighting design by Neumeier, reconstructed by Rolf Merkel. Lady of the Camellias was given its World Premiere by the Stuttgart Ballet at the Weurttemberg Staatstheatre, Stuttgart, Germany on November 4, 1978, with Marcia Haydée and Egon Madsen. The ballet received its United States premiere by the Stuttgart Ballet at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C. on May 15, 1979, with the same cast. American Ballet Theatre will present eight performances of the full-length ballet, May 25 through May 27 and June 4 through June 7.

Repertory Festival

American Ballet Theatre will offer two weeks of repertory programs June 8 through June 12 and continuing on June 28 through July 3. The programs include an All-Ashton program featuring Sir Frederick Ashton’s Birthday Offering, The Dream and the Company Premieres of the Awakening pas de deux from Ashton’s The Sleeping Beauty and Thaïs pas de deux. The repertory festival also includes an All-American Program featuring the Revival Premiere of Twyla Tharp’s The Brahms-Haydn Variations, Paul Taylor’s Company B and Jerome Robbins’ Fancy Free. An All-Classic Masters Program presented on June 29, June 30 matinee and July 2 will include George Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante, pas de deux from Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon and Antony Tudor’s Romeo and Juliet, as well as ballets from the All-Ashton and All-American programs.

An All-ABT Premieres program on the evenings of June 9, June 11, June 28 and July 1 will feature Tharp’s The Brahms-Haydn Variations, along with Alexei Ratmansky’s On the Dneiper and Jerome Robbins’ Fancy Free.

A Celebration for Alicia Alonso

As part of American Ballet Theatre 70th Anniversary season, the Company will celebrate the life and career of legendary dancer and ballet director Alicia Alonso. Alonso joined Ballet Theatre in 1940 and was promoted to Principal Dancer in 1946. Famed for her interpretation of the title role in Giselle, Alonso also starred in the World Premieres of ABT’s most critically hailed works, including George Balanchine’s Theme and Variations, Antony Tudor’s Undertow and as The Accused in Agnes de Mille’s Fall River Legend; all roles that were created on her. Alonso’s 90th birthday will be marked by a special performance of Don Quixote on Thursday evening, June 3 featuring three Principal casts, each dancing the lead in one act of the three act classic.

Full-Length Ballets

In addition to the Company Premiere of Lady of the Camellias, American Ballet Theatre will perform five full-length ballets during the 2010 Spring season beginning with La Bayadère on Tuesday evening, May 18. Diana Vishneva (Nikiya), Marcelo Gomes (Solor), and Gillian Murphy (Gamzatti) will lead the season’s first performance of the three-act classic. The season’s eight performances of La Bayadère, May 18 through May 22, mark the 30th anniversary of the ballet. Natalia Makarova first staged The Kingdom of the Shades scene for ABT in 1974 and subsequently produced and choreographed the complete version (in three acts) for ABT in 1980. The World Premiere of Makarova’s production was given on May 21 of that year, danced by Makarova (Nikiya), Anthony Dowell (Solor), and Cynthia Harvey (Gamzatti). Set to music by Ludwig Minkus, arranged by John Lanchbery, La Bayadère was conceived and directed by Makarova. The ballet features scenery by PierLuigi Samaritani, costumes by Theoni V. Aldredge and lighting by Toshiro Ogawa. Dina Makarova serves as production coordinator for the current

production.

The season’s first performance of Don Quixote will be led by Paloma Herrera and Angel Corella on Friday evening, May 28. Staged by Kevin McKenzie and Susan Jones, with choreography after Marius Petipa and Alexander Gorsky, Don Quixote is set to music by Ludwig Minkus and features scenery and costumes by Santo Loquasto and lighting by Natasha Katz. The McKenzie/Jones staging of the current production was first performed by ABT in June 1995.

The Sleeping Beauty returns to the repertory for eight performances, June 14 through June 19. Set to a score by Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, The Sleeping Beauty, choreographed after Marius Petipa, has additional choreography and staging by Kevin McKenzie, Gelsey Kirkland and Michael Chernov. The production features scenery by Tony Walton, costumes by Willa Kim with additional costume designs by Holly Hynes, and lighting by Richard Pilbrow and Dawn Chiang. Gillian Murphy and Jose Manuel Carreño will lead the season’s first performance of The Sleeping Beauty on Monday evening, June 14. This production of The Sleeping Beauty received its World

Premiere at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York on June 1, 2007.

Eight performances of Swan Lake, choreographed by Kevin McKenzie after Marius Petipa, will be given beginning Monday, June 21 with Veronika Part and Roberto Bolle leading the opening night cast. Swan Lake is set to the score by Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky and features scenery and costumes by Zack Brown and lighting by Duane Schuler. This production of Swan Lake premiered on March 24, 2000 at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

The final week of American Ballet Theatre’s eight week season at the Metropolitan Opera House will feature eight performances of Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet beginning Monday evening, July 5 with Julie Kent and Marcelo Gomes in the title roles. Set to the music of Sergei Prokofiev, Romeo and Juliet features scenery and costumes by Nicholas Georgiadis and lighting by Thomas Skelton. The ballet received its World Premiere by The Royal Ballet in London on February 9, 1965 and was given its ABT Company Premiere at the Metropolitan Opera House on April 22, 1985.

ABTKids

ABTKids, American Ballet Theatre’s annual one-hour introduction to ballet, is scheduled for Saturday morning, June 5 at 11:30am. All tickets for ABTKids are $25. The ABTKids performance is generously supported through an endowed gift from Thomas and Lydia West, in loving memory of Vivian B. West.

ABTKids Workshop Series

ABTKids Workshop Series, activity-based programs led by ABT Teaching Artists, are available to ABTKids ticket holders only on Saturday, June 5 (9:30 am). On Saturday, June 19, ABT will hold a Sleeping Beauty Workshop at 11:00am. Saturday workshops will be held in the rehearsal studios of the Metropolitan Opera House. Tickets to the workshops are $20 per person. For tickets and more information on ABTKids Workshop series, please call 212-419-4321.

Subscriptions for American Ballet Theatre’s 2010 Spring Season at the Metropolitan Opera House are on sale now by phone at 212-362-6000, or online at ABT’s website www.abt.org.

Who is Clara?

Clara is the heroine of Tchaikovsky's famous ballet "The Nutcracker". She is called Marie in George Balanchine's version of the ballet, and Masha in some Russian versions of it. The entire story of the ballet is seen through her eyes, and a grown-up Clara is even the offscreen narrator of the film "Nutcracker: The Motion Picture". Clara receives the Nutcracker from her Uncle Drosselmeyer at a Christmas party. In most versions, she dreams that at midnight it comes to life and fights a duel with the Mouse King. With Clara's help, the Nutcracker kills the Mouse King and is then transformed into a handsome prince, with whom she falls in love. The Prince then takes Clara to the Kingdom of Sweets in gratitude. They celebrate in her honor, but at the end of the celebration she wakes up to find that it was all a dream and that the Nutcracker is still a nutcracker. In other versions, the magical events in the story are not a dream, and Clara lives happily ever after with the Prince.In Peter Wright's version for the Royal Ballet, the Nutcracker is not only really a prince, but also Drosselmeyer's nephew, as in E.T.A. Hoffmann's original story on which the ballet is based.

(http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0012247/bio)

Why do girls want to be Clara?

Besides the fact that they could be dancing her role in a few years she is relatable. The audiance can imagine how they would react to the things she is going through. Clara is also a role model in ruffles. She is a sweet optimistic little girl, yet determined and talented. Girls can aspire to be like her, onstage and off.

(from Dance Spitit "Meet Clara" December 2009)

How can I be Clara?

TAKING CLASS: Probably the most important step is that you must be taking ballet lessons! 1-2 classes a week will probably not earn you the role anytime soon, 3 classes a week might, and if you take 4-6 classes a week, you will have a much better opportunity.

LEVEL: You must be at an intermediate-advanced level, depending on the ballet studio you are with. Some studios are looking for a girl to play Clara that is 11-13 years old, while others want a more advanced dancer with pointe shoes to play Clara. Check with your ballet instructor to see what she is looking for in Clara/Marie.

AGE: I don't know of any ballet teachers that want someone younger than 10 to play Clara. Most girls younger than that are not at the level to play Clara and aren't mature enough yet to handle such a large role. But just because you aren't 10 yet doesn't mean you should audition; there are lots of other fun roles, such as Clara's Friend, Baby Mouse, Angel, and more!

EXPERIENCE: Most ballet instructors look for a girl to play Clara that has been dancing for many years and has been in other recitals/performances with the studio. You are more likely to have the role of Clara if you've been dancing for a long time and have been doing The Nutcracker or other performances for awhile. This is why it's not a good idea to not audition until you are old enough to play Clara/Marie.

MATURITY: Are you mature enough to play Clara/Marie? You should 1) pay attention in class, 2) follow your teacher's instructions, 3) be polite and respectful to your teacher and fellow students, 4) not socialize during class instead of dancing.
If you follow all of these steps, you will have a good opportunity of playing the role of Clara! But don't be discouraged if you never receive the role; that doesn't mean you aren't a good dancer. There are plenty of other roles that are just as fun!

****Some studios perfer a younger Clara so just because your 9 doesn't mean you wont get the part. Ask the studio owner/artistic director****

(http://www.wikihow.com/Get-the-Role-of-Clara-in-the-Nutcracker)