New York City Ballet’s 2009 winter repertory season will open on Tuesday, January 6, with an all-Balanchine program consisting of Chaconne, The Four Temperaments, and Vienna Waltzes, and will continue for eight weeks, through Sunday, March 1, with performances of more than 40 different ballets from NYCB’s unparalleled repertory.
Eight-Week Repertory Season to Feature 12 Unique Programs Showcasing 41 Different Ballets Including World Premieres by Melissa Barak, Douglas Lee and Alexey Miroshnichenko
New Combinations Evening on January 22 to Introduce Rudolf Nureyev Fund for Emerging Choreographers Featuring Two of the Season’s World Premiere Ballets
The 75th Anniversary of the School of American Ballet To be Celebrated at a Special One-Time-Only Program on January 14
The Season Will Also Include 19 Works by George Balanchine Including his One-Act Swan Lake and Full-Length Coppelia, As Well As Works by Jerome Robbins, Peter Martins, Mauro Bigonzetti, Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Jorma Elo, Sean Lavery, Angelin Preljocaj, Alexei Ratmansky, Twyla Tharp, and Christopher Wheeldon
In addition, the Company will present its annual Opening Benefit on Tuesday, November 25 (program to be announced), followed by the annual holiday season of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, which will run for 45 performances from Friday, November 28 through Saturday, January 3. All performances will take place at the Company’s home, the soon-to-be christened David H. Koch Theater (formerly the New York State Theater) at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
Rudolf Nureyev Fund for Emerging Choreographers and World Premiere Ballets by Douglas Lee and Alexey Miroshnichenko
The first two world premieres of the season will take place on Thursday, January 22, as part of the Company’s annual New Combinations Evening. Inaugurated in 1997, the New Combinations Evening honors the anniversary of George Balanchine’s birth, January 22, 1904, with the creation of world premiere ballets.
This year the evening will also introduce the Rudolf Nureyev Fund for Emerging Choreographers, made possible through a generous $500,000 matching grant from the Rudolf Nureyev Dance Foundation, which will be used for the ongoing support of new choreography at NYCB. For this special evening NYCB will perform ballets created by choreographers from the three countries most closely associated with Nureyev and his extraordinary career – Russia, England and France.
The two world premieres will be by the British choreographer Douglas Lee and the Russian choreographer Alexey Miroshnichenko, who are both making their first works for NYCB. The evening will also feature the pas de deux from After the Rain, by the British-born choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, and Angelin Preljocaj’s La Stravaganza, created by the French-born choreographer in 1997 and last performed by NYCB in 2002.
Lee was born in England and graduated from the Royal Ballet School in 1996. He then went on to join the Stuttgart Ballet, where he is currently a Principal Dancer. He began choreographing in 1999 and has since created works for the Stuttgart Ballet, the Norwegian National Ballet and the Royal Ballet of Flanders.
Miroshnichenko was born in Ukraine and studied at the Vaganova Ballet Academy before joining the Kirov Ballet in 1992. He has choreographed for the Vaganova Ballet Academy, the Maryinsky Theater, and the Novosibirsk State Theater of Opera and Ballet.
Both Lee and Miroshnichenko have also participated in working sessions at the New York Choreographic Institute, an affiliate of New York City Ballet.
Born in Russia in 1938, Nureyev studied at the Vaganova Ballet Academy and joined the Kirov Ballet in 1959. In 1961, while on tour with the Kirov in Paris, Nureyev defected, becoming an international celebrity overnight, and eventually becoming one of the most iconic figures in the history of ballet. In 1962 Nureyev first appeared with the Royal Ballet, where he created a legendary partnership with the ballerina Margot Fonteyn, and in 1983 he was appointed Dance Director of the Paris Opera Ballet.
Nureyev was also a great admirer of George Balanchine and his work, and danced several of the choreographer’s ballets, including Prodigal Son, Apollo, and Theme and Variations during his career in the West. Nureyev worked with Balanchine in 1979 on a production of Les Bourgeois Gentilhomme for the New York City Opera, and in 1988 Nureyev was invited by Martins to dance with New York City Ballet as a guest artist in Balanchine’s Orpheus. Nureyev died in Paris in 1993.
World Premiere by Melissa Barak
The third World Premiere of the season will be created by former NYCB dancer Melissa Barak, and will debut on Tuesday, February 17, on a program that will also include Jorma Elo’s Slice to Sharp, Peter Martins’ Hallelujah Junction, and Christopher Wheeldon’s Mercurial Manoeuvres.
Born in Los Angeles, California, Barak began her ballet training at the Westside School of Ballet in Santa Monica, and in 1996 moved to New York to train at the School of American Ballet. She joined NYCB in 1998, where she danced until 2007.
In 2001 Barak choreographed Telemann Overture Suite in E Minor for SAB’s annual workshop performance, and the work later entered the NYCB repertory. She also created If by Chance for NYCB’s 2002 Diamond Project. In addition, Barak has participated in four working sessions at the New York Choreographic Institute, and was the recipient of the 2001 Choo-San Goh Award for Choreography. In 2007 Barak joined the Los Angeles Ballet.
George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker
Following the Opening Night Benefit on Tuesday, November 25, NYCB will begin its annual holiday season of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker on Friday, November 28, which will include 45 performances, and continue through Saturday, January 3.
One of New York City’s most beloved holiday traditions, the production premiered on February 2, 1954, and last season passed its 2000th performance mark. Set to Tschaikovsky’s glorious score, Balanchine’s staging of The Nutcracker, a ballet he knew from his childhood in Russia, established the ballet and its score as perennial favorites in the United States, and there are now countless version of the ballet performed across the country.
NYCB’s production is one of the most lavish, and features more than 150 dancers and musicians, as well as two alternating casts of 50 children from the School of American Ballet. The production, which also includes a one-ton Christmas tree that grows from 12 to 40 feet, an onstage snowstorm, and hundreds of elaborate costumes, features scenery by Rouben Ter-Arutunian, costumes by Karinska, and lighting by Mark Stanley, after the original design by Jean Rosenthal.
Repertory Highlights
Following the performances of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, the Company will open its eight-week winter repertory season on Tuesday, January 6. The season will include 12 distinct repertory programs featuring a total of 41 different ballets, including one full-length production, George Balanchine and Alexandra Danilova’s staging of Coppelia, which NYCB has not performed since 2004.
In addition to Coppelia, Balanchine will be represented by 18 works, including the return to the repertory of such ballets as Chaconne, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, Vienna Waltzes, and his one-act staging of Swan Lake.
Several ballets by Jerome Robbins presented as part of NYCB’s landmark Jerome Robbins Celebration, which took place during the 2008 spring season, will also return to the repertory, including Dances at a Gathering, Les Noces, West Side Story Suite, and Brahms/Handel, his 1984 collaboration with choreographer Twyla Tharp.
NYCB’s Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins will be represented by Hallelujah Junction, Stabat Mater and Papillons, created to a score by Robert Schumann and only performed on one previous occasion at a Dancers’ Emergency Fund Benefit in 1994.
The season will also include two new works from the 2008 season, Alexei Ratmansky’s Concerto DSCH and Mauro Bigonzetti’s Oltremare; as well as Christopher Wheeldon’s Mercurial Manoeuvres, last performed in 2003, Lynne Taylor-Corbett’s Chiaroscuro, Jorma Elo’s Slice to Sharp, and Sean Lavery’s Romeo and Juliet. A complete schedule with dates and times for all performances follows this release.
School of American Ballet 75th Anniversary Tribute
The 2009 winter season will also feature a special one-time-only program on Wednesday, January 14, celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the School of American Ballet. The program will consist of George Balanchine’s Serenade, The Four Temperaments and Vienna Waltzes. The evening will also feature a number of guest artists who trained at SAB and now dance with various ballet companies throughout the world.
Founded by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein, the School of American Ballet, now located in the Rose Building at Lincoln Center, opened its doors on January 2, 1934, at 637 Madison Avenue in New York City. The official school of New York City Ballet, SAB is considered one of the world’s most prestigious ballet academies.
In addition to the tribute performance, during the winter season an exhibit chronicling the relationship between SAB and NYCB will be on display throughout the public areas of the theater. -- www.nycballet.com
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