Pennsylvania Ballet Announces Spectacular Season Finale

This clever and entertaining ballet will appeal to children and adults alike with its rousing score, innovative costumes and spirited dancing. Set to the familiar Camille-Saint Saens score of the same name, this deliciously fun story concerns Oliver Percy, a young boy who inadvertently spends a night at a museum resembling the Museum of Natural History. His imagination gets the best of him as the animals in the dioramas take on personalities of the people he engages with in real life.

Tony and Emmy Award-winner John Lithgow, who wrote the narration for which the ballet was built for New York City Ballet in 2003, will appear in 3 performances as Mabel Buntz, a pert pachyderm who dances to the notable “Elephant Waltz.” Lithgow will join the Company on opening night, Friday, June 6 at 8 p.m., as well as the noon and 8 p.m. performances on Saturday, June 7. Paul Hope, a member of the Alley Theatre Company in Houston and a regular guest performer at the Houston Grand Opera, will take on the role for the remaining performances of this family-friendly production.

Also on the program is Jupiter Symphony, a new work by contemporary choreographer Peter Quanz. He is the first Canadian choreographer to have created a ballet for the legendary Kirov Ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia; and has also choreographed for American Ballet Theatre, the Royal Ballet Covent Garden (Linbury Theatre), American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, the Sacramento Ballet, the Chemnitz Ballet in Germany and the Banff Centre for the Arts. Quanz has also created experimental works for choreographic workshops with the Stuttgart Ballet, the National Ballet of Canada and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and has been invited twice to attend the New York Choreographic Institute, an affiliate of the New York City Ballet. The last of Mozart's symphonies, Jupiter Symphony was completed on August 10, 1788. The ballet features a cast of 20 performing classically based solos, pas de deux and ensemble pieces.

This spectacular season finale is completed by a new work from Choreographer in Residence Matthew Neenan featuring the music of celebrated Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera. Neenan's piece has an unusual format: two short, abstract ballets connected by a musical interlude. In Pampena No. 2 and Penumbra, Neenan says "he's trying to capture the human spirit, and to get the dancers to really feel the music." Named as Pennsylvania Ballet's first Choreographer in Residence following his retirement from the stage in October 2007, this is Neenan's ninth commission from the Company. In March 2007, Neenan's renvisioned Carmina Burana debuted to audience and critical acclaim. The Philadelphia Inquirer called it "simply scintillating; " sentiments echoed at its New York premiere at Manhattan's City Center last fall.

Pennsylvania Ballet would like to thank lead sponsor, Bank of America, The Philadelphia Inquirer, US Airways, and WRTI for their generous support for the Company premiere of Carnival of the Animals. Major funding for Carnival of the Animals and the Peter Quanz world premiere was provided by The William Penn Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and The Sylvan Foundation.

Performances of Carnival of the Animals are as follows:

Friday, June 6 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, June 7 at noon & 8 p.m.
Sunday, June 8 at 2 p.m.
Thursday, June 12 at 8 p.m.
Friday, June 13 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, June 14 at 2 p.m. -- www.paballet.org