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2010 FALL FOR DANCE FESTIVAL ANNOUNCED
Released July 26, 2010 |
TICKET PRICES ONCE AGAIN $10 FOR ALL SEATS
WITH SUPPORT FROM NEW SPONSORS
BLOOMBERG and METLIFE FOUNDATION
Festival Debuts:
Companhia Urbana de Dança, Company Rafaela Carrasco,
Corella Ballet Castilla y León, Dresden Semperoper Ballett, Emanuel Gat Dance,
Gallim Dance,
Miami City Ballet, Russell Maliphant Company,
Shu-Yi & (Dancers) Company and Tero Saarinen Company
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Highlights include: |
- Merce Cunningham Dance Company performs NY premiere of XOVER
- World premiere of collaboration by Jason Samuels Smith and Mr. Wiggles
- World premiere from Madhavi Mudgal
- U.S. premiere of Emanuel Gat’s My Favorite Things
- U.S. premiere of Shu-Yi Chou’s award-winning [1875] Ravel and Bolero
- Tero Saarinen performs U.S. premiere of Carolyn Carlson’s Man in a Room
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September 28 – October 9, 2010 |
New York City Center’s seventh annual Fall for Dance Festival, running September 28 – October 9, will showcase 20 national and international companies and choreographers. With ticket prices remaining at $10 for all seats, a night of dance is more affordable than a night at the movies. The festival will include world and U.S. premieres, and will feature several companies making their first U.S. appearances. A wide range of dance styles and traditions, ranging from contemporary dance and classical ballet to Odissi, tap and hip hop, will be represented in five programs. (Each program will be repeated once.) Tickets will go on sale Sunday, September 12 at 11 a.m.
Ten companies will make their festival debuts: Companhia Urbana de Dança (Brazil), Company Rafaela Carrasco (Spain), Corella Ballet Castilla y León (Spain), Dresden Semperoper Ballett (Germany), Emanuel Gat Dance (France), Gallim Dance (New York), Miami City Ballet (Florida), Russell Maliphant Company (England), Shu-Yi & (Dancers) Company (Taiwan) and Tero Saarinen Company (Finland).
The festival welcomes back: American Ballet Theatre, Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company, Jason Samuels Smith & Friends, KEIGWIN + COMPANY with Juilliard Dance, Madhavi Mudgal, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, New York City Ballet, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Ronald K. Brown / Evidence, A Dance Company and San Francisco Ballet.
City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival has received national and international recognition for its quality, innovation and success in introducing new and younger audiences to the world of dance. Since its inception, the festival has presented 135 different dance companies to more than 130,000 dance enthusiasts for just $10 per ticket. Newcomers and ballet fans alike now look forward to the festival as both an introduction to new artists and a welcome return to familiar and beloved companies.
“We’re thrilled to be heading into our seventh season of Fall for Dance, and we’re especially excited to be able to continue offering tickets at the original $10 price,” said New York City Center President & CEO Arlene Shuler. “At a time when securing arts funding is more difficult than ever, we are fortunate to have two new sponsors, Bloomberg and MetLife Foundation, as well as new major individual donors. Thanks to their generous commitments, we can preserve our mission to provide an accessible way for new audiences to discover the joy of dance, while giving dance lovers an opportunity to experience new artists and genres.”
New York City Center gratefully acknowledges its new Leadership Sponsor, Bloomberg, and its new Principal Sponsor, MetLife Foundation. City Center is also delighted to announce the new support of Lead Presenting Partners Jody and John Arnhold, and Barbara and David Zalaznick.
Bloomberg is a leading financial information services, news and media company. Bloomberg provides real-time news, financial and market data, analytics, pricing, and trading and communications tools to customers around the world via the BLOOMBERG PROFESSIONAL® service and its media services.
“MetLife Foundation has a longstanding commitment to strengthening access to the arts for people of all ages and backgrounds,” said Dennis White, president and CEO, MetLife Foundation. “We are proud to support New York City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival, which continues to serve as an invaluable cultural resource and leader in creating opportunities for diverse audiences to experience world-class dance.”
New York City Center also recognizes the extraordinary leadership support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which inaugurated a $10 million endowment campaign to ensure the future stability of the annual Fall for Dance Festival. Additional generous funding for the Fall for Dance Festival endowment has been received from The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation and an anonymous donor. More than $5 million in commitments have been received to date.
TEN NIGHTS, FIVE UNIQUE PROGRAMS
Program One: Tuesday, September 28 and Wednesday, September 29
The festival opens with Merce Cunningham Dance Company, making its first New York stop on its two-year Legacy Tour. The company will present the New York premiere of Cunningham’s XOVER (2007),with music byJohn Cage and scenery by Robert Rauschenberg. Gallim Dance, making its festival debut, follows with Andrea Miller’s I Can See Myself in Your Pupil (2008), adapted for the festival. Indian Odissi dancer and choreographer Madhavi Mudgal returns to the festival to perform the world premiere of her new work, Vistaar, with a commissioned score by her brother, renowned musician Madhup Mudgal. The evening concludes with the festival debut of Miami City Ballet performing Twyla Tharp’s exhilarating The Golden Section (1983), featuring 13 dancers and music by David Byrne.
Program Two: Thursday, September 30 and Friday, October 1
Company Rafaela Carrasco from Spain makes its festival debut with Carrasco’s Three Movements (2008), adapted for Fall for Dance and performed to live music, followed by New York City Ballet performing Ulysses Dove’s Red Angels (1994), a work for four dancers set to a score for electric violin by Richard Einhorn. Next up, Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company presents Jones’ Duet (1995), an exploration of two people moving in perfect unison. The evening ends withthe U.S. debut of Companhia Urbana de Dança of Brazil, presenting ID:ENTIDADES (2010), a blend of hip hop and contemporary dance choreographed by Sonia Destri.
Program Three: Saturday, October 2 and Sunday, October 3 (matinee)
Shu-Yi & (Dancers) Company from Taiwan makes its U.S. debut with Shu-Yi Chou’s [1875] Ravel and Bolero (2007). Shu-Yi was the winner of Sadler’s Wells’ 2009 Global Dance Contest, in which choreographers from all over the world submitted their entries via YouTube. San Francisco Ballet returns to the festival with a pas de deux from Yuri Possokhov’s Diving into the Lilacs (2009), followed by the U.S. premiere of Emanuel Gat Dance’s My Favorite Things (2007), a solo danced to music by John Coltrane. City Center resident company Paul Taylor Dance Company wraps up the program with Taylor’s exuberant Company B (1991), set to popular tunes by The Andrews Sisters.
Program Four: Wednesday, October 6 and Thursday, October 7
Kicking off week two is KEIGWIN + COMPANY with Juilliard Dancein Larry Keigwin’s Megalopolis (2009), a hyper-kinetic work for 16 dancers performed to music by Steve Reich and M.I.A. Corella Ballet Castilla y León, which had its U.S. debut at City Center in March, makes its festival debut with María Pagés’ Soleá (2010), a duet created especially for Ángel Corella and his sister, Carmen Corella. Russell Maliphant Company presents the U.S. premiere of Maliphant’s AfterLight (Part 1) (2009), a solo work with music by Erik Satie that was nominated for the 2009 Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production. The evening ends with Peace of Mind: The Remix, a world premiere choreographed by tap master Jason Samuels Smith and hip-hop legend Mr. Wiggles, performed by Jason Samuels Smith & Friends.
Program Five: Friday, October 8 and Saturday, October 9
The final program begins with Tero Saarinen Company, featuring Finnish dancer/choreographer Tero Saarinen in the U.S. premiere of Man in a Room (2000), a solo work created by Carolyn Carlson and inspired by the life of abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko. Dresden Semperoper Ballett of Germany makes its festival debut with William Forsythe’s The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude (1996), followed byAmerican Ballet Theatre with the Thaïs Pas de Deux by Sir Frederick Ashton (1971).The festival concludes with Ronald K. Brown / Evidence, A Dance Company performing Brown’s signature work Grace (1999),a joyful ensemble piece with accents of hip hop and West African pop to a score by Duke Ellington.
Jed Wheeler and Wendy Perron serve as artistic advisors to the festival.
EDUCATION
The Fall for Dance Festival will present DanceTalk, a series of pre-performance discussions and demonstrations that explore aspects of the Fall for Dance programming. On October 1, City Center and the Barnard College Department of Dance will co-present Does Culture Influence Performance? with panelists Ronald K. Brown, Rafaela Carrasco, Sonia Destri and Shu-Yi Chou. On October 7, City Center and the Hunter College Department of Dance will co-present Movement and Image: How do Choreographers Use Visuals to Enhance Their Work? with panelists Nancy Dalva, Tero Saarinen, Janet Wong and others.
Panels will take place in City Center’s Studio 5 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Each event will be free and open to the public. Educational groups can make advanced reservations by contacting Chelsea Koenig in New York City Center’s Education Department at ckoenig@nycitycenter.org or 212.763.1265.
City Center is also proud to be working with the New York City Department of Education to present a Fall for Dance seminar for dance educators, Word and Movement: Creating Artistic Tension. Though not open to the public, dance teachers from public schools, private studios and other settings are welcome to register. Participants will take master classes focusing on two pieces of repertoire featured in the festival: Bill T. Jones’ Duet and Andrea Miller’s I Can See Myself in Your Pupil. City Center teaching artists will then facilitate a follow-up workshop centered on exploring dance techniques and applications to classroom practice. The seminar will take place in City Center’s studios from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, September 11.
FESTIVAL LOUNGE
For each Fall for Dance performance, the public atrium between 55th and 56th streets (immediately west of the theater’s main entrance) is transformed into Lounge FFD, a vibrant gathering place for audience members and artists. Featuring music by a rotating roster of NYC DJs, Lounge FFD offers festival attendees, performers and neighborhood friends a place to relax and mingle, share a cocktail and have a snack before and after the show as well as during intermission while video monitors throughout the lounge follow the action onstage. Lounge FFD is open to the general public as well as to festival artists and attendees. No tickets are required and everyone is welcome.
NEW YORK CITY CENTER (Arlene Shuler, President & CEO) has played a defining role in the cultural life of the city for more than 60 years. It was Manhattan’s first performing arts center, dedicated by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in 1943, with a mission to make the best in music, theater and dance accessible to all audiences. Today, City Center is home to many distinguished companies, including: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Paul Taylor Dance Company and Manhattan Theatre Club; a roster of renowned national and international visiting artists; and its own critically acclaimed and popular programs. The Tony-honored Encores! musical theater series has been hailed as “one of the very best reasons to be alive in New York.” In 2007, Encores! Summer Stars was introduced with Gypsy, starring Patti LuPone, which transferred to Broadway and garnered three Tony awards for its lead actors. Dance has been integral to the theater’s mission from the start, and dance programs, including the annual Fall for Dance Festival and a partnership with London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre, remain central to City Center’s identity.
The 2010 Fall for Dance Festival runs Tuesday, September 28 through Saturday, October 9 at New York City Center (West 55th Street between 6th and 7th avenues). All performances are at 8 p.m., except for the Sunday, October 3 performance, which is a 3 p.m. matinee. All tickets are $10 and go on sale on Sunday, September 12 at 11 a.m. Tickets can be purchased online, by calling CityTix at 212.581.1212, or at the City Center Box Office. |
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MATTHEW BOURNE'S SWAN LAKE RETURNS TO NEW YORK
Released June 3, 2010 |
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MATTHEW BOURNE’S SWAN LAKE, the triumphant modern re-interpretation of the legendary ballet,turned tradition upside down and took both the theater and dance worlds by storm when it arrived on Broadway in 1998 and went on to win three Tony Awards® and five Drama Desk Awards.
Produced by New York City Center, Sadler’s Wells Theater London and Back Row Productions, the groundbreaking and multi-award-winning international hit production will return to New York for a strictly limited run October 13 – November 7, 2010 at New York City Center (West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues).
Tickets for MATTHEW BOURNE’S SWAN LAKE go on sale on Monday, June 7th at the New York City Center Box Office, through CityTix at 212-581-1212, or online. Tickets are $110 (Orchestra and Grand Tier); $85 (Orchestra, Grand Tier and Mid-Mezzanine); $50 (Mid-Mezzanine and Rear Mezzanine) and $25 (Orchestra and Rear Mezzanine).
Matthew Bourne blends dance, humor and spectacle with extravagant, award-winning set and costume designs by Lez Brotherston and lighting design by Rick Fisher, to create a provocative and powerful Swan Lake for our times. Now firmly crowned as a modern-day classic, this iconic production is perhaps best known for replacing the traditional female corps de ballet with a menacing male ensemble.
Collecting over 30 international theater awards, MATTHEW BOURNE’S SWAN LAKE has been acclaimed as a landmark achievement on the international stage. It has become the longest running ballet in the West End and on Broadway and enjoyed four hugely successful tours in the UK and thrilled audiences all over the world.
Tony Award® winning creator and New Adventures artistic director Matthew Bourne said: "Can it really be over a decade ago that my production of Swan Lake was on Broadway? A memorable experience that culminated in our winning three Tony Awards®. An incredible journey for a piece that started out as a government subsidized project that was seen as, at best, a creative gamble and, at worst, an outrageous folly! Of course, this was before people had seen the power and the majesty of our now famous male swans. I am happy to say that that journey has since continued and Swan Lake has been seen all over the world, inspiring young (particularly male) dancers and creating an unprecedented new audience for dance.
I remember at the Tony Awards®, when I won my second award of the evening for Best Director of a Musical, looking down at the award and saying incredulously ‘Best Director of a Musical that isn't a musical?’ I was of course alluding to the fact that the show was deemed ineligible for Best Musical. What I forgot to say at the time was that although Swan Lake is probably not a musical, it is certainly musical theater, and this has been borne out over the years with its incredible cross-over popularity. I am particularly delighted to be returning to New York with my own New Adventures company, which features a cast of homegrown stars who have worked in many of my productions over the last decade.
I have never stopped working on Swan Lake. It has never become frozen as a show but has, I believe, gotten richer and more heartfelt. In fact, this current production features, in my opinion, the finest company that has ever performed the piece. I am thrilled to be co-presented at New York's famed City Center by my producers: Back Row Productions, who have produced Swan Lake all over the world since 2005; London’s legendary dance house, Sadler’s Wells; and New York City Center, one of New York’s leading presenters and producers of both dance and musical theater. I am truly excited at the prospect of Swan Lake’s return to New York and performing, once again, to the best audiences in the world."
MATTHEW BOURNE’S SWAN LAKE stars a mix of established New Adventures performers and newcomers. Richard Winsor and Jonathan Ollivier return to the coveted role of “The Swan” following their 2009 debuts.
Richard Winsor is one of New Adventures’ leading performers, having created the title roles in both Edward Scissorhands (2005) and Dorian Gray (2008). He was also in the original cast of Bourne’s Play Without Words (2002) and was seen as “Angelo” in The Car Man and the title role in Nutcracker!. He recently starred in his first major film, Street Dance, the first British movie to be shot in 3D.
After graduating from The Rambert School in 1996, Jonathan Ollivier joined The Cape Town City Ballet Company and became a principal before returning to England in 1999 to join Northern Ballet. Here he created many leading roles, most notably “Stanley Kowalski” in Didy Veldman’s contemporary ballet of A Streetcar Named Desire and “Heathcliffe” in David Nixon’s Wuthering Heights. Ollivier joined the Alberta Ballet Company as a principal dancer in 2007 and returned to the UK to pursue a freelance career in 2009.
The pivotal role of “The Prince” will be performed by Dominic North, a veteran New Adventures company member who has also played the title role in Edward Scissorhands for which he was nominated for Best Male Dancer at the 2010 National Dance Awards. Simon Williams will also return to the production to recreate the role. A Royal Ballet School graduate and former member of the English National Ballet, he has performed with New Adventures in Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker! and also appeared in Billy Elliot in the West End and as the leading male dancer in the Michael Clark Dance Company.
Returning to the role of “The Queen” will be American dancer and original Broadway cast member Nina Goldman, who has performed in various roles within the production, including “The Girlfriend.” Nina also performed in The Car Man and enjoyed great success as “Joyce Monroe” in Edward Scissorhands. Sharing the roles of both “The Queen” and “The Girlfriend” will be veteran New Adventures company member Madelaine Brennan, who studied with The Royal Ballet and has appeared in Trevor Nunn’s productions of Oklahoma! and My Fair Lady at The Royal National Theatre, and most recently performed in Cabaret on the West End.
“The Girlfriend” will also be played by New Adventures veteran Shelby Williams, who has appeared in the original 2005 cast of Edward Scissorhands, The Car Man, Highland Fling and Nutcracker!
The role of the “The Private Secretary” will be shared by New Adventures resident director Steve Kirkham and company member Ashley Bain. Kirkham returns to Swan Lake after being in the original cast as a “Cygnet.” He was in the original cast of the multi-award-winning Play Without Words, Edward Scissorhands and Nutcracker! Bain has appeared with New Adventures in Nutcracker!, the Swan Lake 10th Anniversary world tour and Dorian Gray, in which he created the role of “Edward Black.”
The complete company of MATTHEW BOURNE’S SWAN LAKE will be announced shortly.
NEW ADVENTURES Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures is the UK’s premier contemporary dance/theater touring company. Its repertory includes some of the most successful dance productions of the last two decades. The company was launched in 2002 to create and perform both large - and small-scale work by Matthew Bourne. Since its launch it has built an enviable repertoire of exciting new work (Play Without Words, Edward Scissorhands and Dorian Gray) and new productions of favorite works from the repertory of Matthew Bourne’s former company, Adventures In Motion Pictures (Nutcracker!, Swan Lake, Cinderella, Highland Fling and The Car Man). New Adventures is committed to reviving these popular works on a regular basis, along with the creation of new work. As well as being a resident company at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London, New Adventures is also a touring company. It has become Britains' biggest dance export with regular seasons throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and North America. Both at home and internationally, it annually gives more performances than any other UK dance company.
NEW YORK CITY CENTER has played a defining role in the cultural life of the city for more than 60 years. It was Manhattan’s first performing arts center, dedicated by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in 1943 with a mission to make the best in music, theater and dance accessible to all audiences. Today, City Center is home to many distinguished companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Paul Taylor Dance Company and Manhattan Theatre Club; a roster of renowned national and international visiting artists; and its own critically acclaimed and popular programs. The Tony-honored Encores! musical theater series has been hailed as “one of the very best reasons to be alive in New York.” Dance has been integral to the theater’s mission from the start, and dance programs, including the annual Fall for Dance festival and a partnership with London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre, remain central to City Center’s identity.
SADLER’S WELLS THEATRE LONDON is the UK’s leading venue for dance, presenting the widest forms of world-class international and UK dance to the widest possible audiences. A well established producing house under the artistic directorship of Alistair Spalding, the theater’s acclaimed program spans cutting edge contemporary works by artists such as William Forsythe, Hofesh Shechter and Wayne McGregor, sell-out runs from Matthew Bourne and his company New Adventures, hugely successful tango, street dance and flamenco shows, international companies including American Ballet Theater and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and award-winning Sadler’s Wells Productions on an international scale including Sylvie Guillem and Russell Maliphant’sPUSH and groundbreaking cross-art form collaborations such aszero degrees andSutra. An associate artist at Sadler’s Wells, Matthew Bourne’s iconicSwan Lake premiered at the theater 15 years ago. Since then he has presented a host of acclaimed works at Sadler’s Wells includingNutcracker!,The Car Man andEdward Scissorhands. His company, New Adventures, has been a Sadler’s Wells resident company since 2006.
BACK ROW PRODUCTIONS LTD. The Managing Directors of Back Row Productions are Liz Koops and Garry McQuinn. Back Row has successfully developed or presented innovative productions throughout the world including Tap Dogs (in 37 countries and over 320 cities), Slava’s Snowshow, Gumboots, Wadaiko Ichiro, Shaolin Monks, Bounce and Circus Oz. Back Row's international reputation was consolidated through booking and/or producing seasons of Jerry Seinfeld, An Inspector Calls, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Mum's The Word, Fosse, Cats, Chicago, Starlight Express, Grease, Miss Saigon, Disney's Beauty and the Beast and Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake. Back Row Productions is presently producing Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake internationally, Through A Glass Darkly with the prestigious Almeida Theatre, a reinvented production of Tap Dogs in London, Europe and Asia, and Priscilla Queen of the Desert the Musical, running at the Palace Theatre in London and opening in Toronto later this year and Broadway early in 2011. |
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NEW YORK CITY CENTER ANNOUNCES 18TH ENCORES! SEASON
Released May 4, 2010 |
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New York City Center’s 2010-2011 Encores! season will open with the 1956 Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green musical Bells Are Ringing, November 18 – 21, 2010. The season will continue with Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson’s Lost in the Stars, February 3 – 6, 2011, followed by Frank Loesser and George Abbott’s Where’s Charley?, March 17 – 20.
In Bells Are Ringing, with music by Jule Styne and book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, a lonely girl who runs an answering service falls for a client she has met only by voice, and typical 1950s mayhem ensues. The score, by turns brassy, sweet and romantic, includes “Just in Time,” “The Party’s Over,” “I Met a Girl,” “Long Before I Knew You” and a fistful of other great tunes from one of Broadway's greatest tunesmiths. The original production opened at the Shubert Theater on November 29, 1956, and played a total of 924 performances. Directed by Jerome Robbins and choreographed by Robbins and Bob Fosse, it won Tony awards for its stars Judy Holliday and Sydney Chaplin. Bells Are Ringing will run November 18–21, 2010.
Lost in the Stars has music by Kurt Weill and book and lyrics by Maxwell Anderson. Weill and Anderson set to work fashioning Alan Paton's novel Cry, the Beloved Country into a musical tragedy within weeks of its momentous publication. This story of life in South Africa under apartheid stirred generations to action, and was the basis for a beautiful, brooding, dramatic musical that produced not only the immortal title song, but an entire score that pulses with the life of a people. It opened at the Music Box Theater on October 30, 1949, and played 273 performances. Lost in the Stars will run February 3–6, 2011.
Where’s Charley?, Frank Loesser's first Broadway score, immediately demonstrated the master's easy command of wit and romance, sophistication and high jinks. George Abbott's adaptation of Brandon Thomas’ classic college farce Charley's Aunt delivered “Once in Love With Amy,” “My Darling, My Darling” and “The New Ashmolean Marching Song” to the hit parade, and launched Loesser into the songwriting stratosphere. The musical opened at the St. James Theater on October 11, 1948, and played 792 performances. It was directed by George Abbott, choreographed by George Balanchine and starred Ray Bolger, who won a Tony Award for his performance. Where’s Charley? will run March 17–20, 2011.
The 2010-11 Encores! season is made possible, in part, by the Stephanie and Fred Shuman Fund for Encores!
The Newman’s Own Foundation is a proud sponsor of Encores! The Newman’s Own Foundation is an independent, private foundation that derives its grant-making income from royalty payments received in conjunction with the sale of Newman’s Own food products. Since the inception of Newman’s Own in the early 1980s, more than $280 million has been donated to thousands of charities around the world.
New York City Center Encores! (Jack Viertel, Artistic Director; Rob Berman, Music Director) has, since 1994, celebrated the rarely heard works of America’s most important composers and lyricists. Conceived as
concert versions, each Encores! season gives three scores the chance to be heard as originally intended by their creators. Over the years, Encores! has presented the works of the Gershwins, Rodgers and Hart,
Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Kurt Weill, Bock and Harnick, Stephen Sondheim, Burt Bacharach, Kander and Ebb, Comden and Green, and many others. The program is the recipient of a special 2000 Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre, as well as an Outer Critics Circle Award, Lucille Lortel Award and Jujamcyn Theaters Award.
New York City Center (Arlene Shuler, President and CEO) has played a defining role in the cultural life of the city for more than 60 years. It was Manhattan’s first performing arts center, dedicated by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in 1943 with a mission to make the best in music, theater and dance accessible to all audiences. Today, City Center is home to many distinguished companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Paul Taylor Dance Company and Manhattan Theatre Club; a roster of renowned national and international visiting artists; and its own critically acclaimed and popular programs. The Tony-honored Encores! musical theater series has been hailed as “one of the very best reasons to be alive in New York.” In 2007, Encores! Summer Stars was introduced with Gypsy, starring Patti LuPone, which transferred to Broadway and garnered three Tony awards for its lead actors. Dance has been integral to the theater’s mission from the start, and dance programs, including the annual Fall for Dance Festival and a partnership with London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre, remain central to City Center’s identity.
Tickets for Encores! 2010-11 go on sale September 7, 2010, at the New York City Center Box Office (West 55th Street between 6th and 7th avenues), through CityTix® at 212-581-1212, or online at www.NYCityCenter.org. Tickets for the Orchestra, Grand Tier and Mid-Mezzanine are $100; tickets for the Rear Mezzanine and Front Gallery are $50; tickets for the Rear Gallery are $25. |
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NEW YORK CITY CENTER UNVEILS PLANS TO
MODERNIZE AND RESTORE ITS HISTORIC THEATER
$75 Million Campaign Will Realize Design by Ennead Architects LLP and
Support City Center's Popular Programs, Now and in the Future
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NEW YORK, NY, (March 17, 2010) - New York City Center today unveiled plans to modernize the organization’s home in midtown Manhattan to provide a sparkling 21st-century facility for audiences and performers, while at the same time restoring this historic, neo-Moorish building to its elaborately decorative glory.
Constructed in 1923 as a meeting hall for the Ancient Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, City Center’s building was dedicated by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in 1943 as Manhattan’s first performing arts center. A comprehensive project designed by Ennead Architects LLP will now upgrade the building from the canopies in front to the back of house with new lighting, improved seating and sightlines, gracious new amenities and more. This increased comfort, convenience and functionality will be achieved within a showplace where the shimmering mosaic walls, richly colored arabesque ceilings and intricately detailed plasterwork are again as fresh as new.
The $75 million Stepping Forward: The Campaign for City Center—already 76% of the way toward its goal—will both realize the renovation of the landmark building and support City Center’s current and future programs, such as the acclaimed Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert and the immensely popular Fall for Dance festival.
The much-needed renovation will be carried out in two phases, from late April through September 2010 and from mid-March through October 2011. This schedule ensures that there will be no significant interruption over the next 18 months to the world-class programs and performances presented at City Center.
In recognition of the civic importance of City Center’s artistic contributions to the cultural life of New York, its educational outreach throughout the five boroughs and its vital place in the architectural fabric of midtown Manhattan, the City of New York has committed more than $35.6 million to the capital campaign to renovate the city-owned property, with funds coming from the Office of the Mayor through the Department of Cultural Affairs, the City Council and the Office of the Manhattan Borough President.
“With this campaign, we are ensuring that City Center can better serve its artists and audiences in the future, even as we celebrate and restore the glory of our past,” stated Arlene Shuler, President and CEO of New York City Center. “We are deeply grateful to our Board and the other supporters who have already stepped forward to make this campaign a success, beginning with the City of New York.”
“From its early stages as Manhattan’s first performing arts center to its present day as a welcoming home to so many terrific companies, New York City Center has an extraordinary track-record of embracing artists and diverse audiences,” said Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kate D. Levin. “This renovation will bring the landmark facility into the 21st century, providing amenities that contemporary audiences expect and resources that help performers do their best work.”
According to Duncan Hazard, Partner in Charge, Ennead Architects LLP, “When people step into the refreshed and reanimated City Center, we hope they will feel we’ve given them a thoroughly top-line, modern performing arts center, that remains true to their affection for this wonderful place. It is a privilege for us to be working with this gorgeously ornamented building, which simply could not be constructed today. We want it to be a pleasure for the audiences and performers to experience every aspect, old and new, of City Center.”
Renovation Highlights
Ennead Architects LLP’s design preserves the essential character of New York City Center, while beautifully restoring and dramatically enhancing the building with modern patron amenities.
The design addresses and resolves a number of functional shortcomings inherent in the original building while retaining its distinctive appeal. A new canopy on the exterior with additional exterior lighting and signage, subject to the approval of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, will announce the theater’s presence more visibly on the street and define the building more dramatically within its urban context. In the interior, the original box office lobby and mezzanine lobby will be faithfully restored, and several dramatic new spaces will be introduced, including an expanded and redesigned street level lobby and a new patrons’ lounge that capitalizes on an existing alley space. The number of restroom facilities of the theater will be increased by fifty percent. Upgrades to the auditorium will include the re-sloping of the floors to improve sightlines within the house, and the reconfiguration, respacing and resizing of theater seating throughout to make it compatible with contemporary standards and to provide more comfort and improved ADA accessibility for all patrons.
The renovation respects and enhances the original theater’s much-loved Moorish-accented design motifs. In addition to the careful restoration of many of the spaces, the new design insertions have been based on a careful study of the underlying geometric motifs of Islamic architecture, reinterpreted to be complimentary but not imitative of the existing fabric. The architects’ goal is to create a vibrant new venue, with all of the conveniences and amenities that contemporary patrons expect, but one that is still “City Center,” beloved by generations of New York City theatergoers.
Back of house improvements include a new “sprung” stage floor suitable for dance, all new theatrical support systems, a completely refurbished dressing room tower and ADA accessible toilets for the performers.
History of the Building
Built in 1923 as a Moorish-style meeting hall for the Ancient Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, the former temple officially became New York City Center on December 11, 1943, with Mayor LaGuardia himself taking the baton to conduct the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra in the national anthem. Throughout the 1940s and 50s, City Center flourished as a popular, affordable alternative to the Broadway theater, the Metropolitan Opera House and Carnegie Hall. City Center was so successful in fostering the performing arts that New York City Opera, New York City Ballet and New York City Symphony were founded under its dome. A very young Leonard Bernstein conducted the New York City Symphony in low-cost, after-work concerts. Luminaries of the theater, including Paul Robeson, Orson Welles and Tallulah Bankhead, played the classics on City Center’s stage. Still-rising stars such as Bob Fosse and Walter Matthau appeared in popular revivals of Broadway musicals.
After the opening of Lincoln Center and the departure of New York City Opera and New York City Ballet, the building was under-utilized and was threatened with demolition. It was saved in the 1970s when, under the leadership of then-chairman Howard M. Squadron, the theater was dedicated as New York’s premier home for dance and given landmark status, and New York City Center was formed to manage the complex and ensure its survival as a performing arts center. By this point, however, much of the vintage architectural detail had faded or been covered up, and the functional shortcomings of a former Shriners’ hall had never been adequately addressed in converting the building into a home for dance and musical theater. The grand re-opening, in October 2011, of the modernized and restored theater will give way to a new era for the building and for New York City Center.
About New York City Center
www.NYCityCenter.org
New York City Center has played a defining role in the cultural life of the city for more than 60 years. It was Manhattan’s first performing arts center, dedicated by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in 1943 with a mission to make the best in music, theater and dance accessible to all audiences.
Today, City Center is home to many distinguished companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Paul Taylor Dance Company and Manhattan Theatre Club; a roster of renowned national and international visiting artists; and its own critically acclaimed and popular programs. The Tony-honored Encores! concert series has been hailed as “one of the very best reasons to be alive in New York.” In 2007, Encores! Summer Stars was introduced with Gypsy, starring Patti LuPone, which transferred to Broadway and garnered three Tony Awards for its lead actors. Dance has been integral to the theater’s mission from the start, and dance programs, including the annual Fall for Dance Festival and a partnership with London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre, remain central to City Center’s identity.
The City Center performing arts complex, with its 2,753-seat mainstage, two smaller theaters, four studios and 12-story office tower, provides a nurturing environment where artists can rehearse, present their work and build audiences. City Center offers a wide array of services on behalf of the non-profit performing arts community and honors the theater’s founding mandate of accessibility with a broad range of ticket prices, starting as low as $10.
Educational programming is vital to City Center’s mission and the theater’s many initiatives for students, teachers and artists help integrate the performing arts with public school curricula. Programs include in-school and on-site student workshops in New York City public schools, special student performances, and professional development training for teachers and teaching artists, who reach more than 5,000 student participants each season. City Center also administers long-term artist residencies in public schools.
About Ennead Architects LLP
www.ennead.com
Ennead Architects LLP is an internationally acclaimed architectural firm, whose work includes new building design, planning, renovation and adaptive re-use projects, largely for not-for-profit educational, cultural, scientific, and governmental institutions. Among Polshek Partnership’s award-winning projects are: The Standard New York, The Public Theater renovation, Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History, William J. Clinton Presidential Center, Carnegie Hall renovation and expansion, Yale University Art Gallery renovation and expansion, Brooklyn Museum renovation and expansion, Holland Performing Arts Center, Weill Cornell Medical College Weill Greenberg Center. Projects in progress include Stanford University Concert Hall, Tisch School of the Arts, Utah Museum of Natural History, Vietnam Veterans Memorial Education Center, and New York City Center. Polshek Partnership is the recipient of the AIA Firm Award, the President’s Medal of the AIA/New York Chapter, and the Smithsonian Institution’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award. |
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NEW YORK CITY CENTER HONORS STEPHEN SONDHEIM
ON THE OCCASION OF HIS 80TH BIRTHDAY
Released February 23, 2010 |
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Len Cariou, Nathan Lane, Angela Lansbury, Alexander Hanson and Michele Pawk have joined other stars who have shone in Stephen Sondheim musicals, including Michael Cerveris, Raúl Esparza, Sutton Foster, Joanna Gleason and Donna Murphy in a gala celebration of Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Stephen Sondheim on the occasion of his 80th birthday on Monday, April 26. The gala, directed by Tony Award winner John Doyle, will highlight numbers from shows for which Mr. Sondheim has written both music and lyrics, and will feature a full orchestra conducted by Encores! Music Director Rob Berman. The benefit will help fund New York City Center’s artistic and education programs. In addition, a portion of the evening’s proceeds will go to Young Playwrights Inc, a charity of great importance to Mr. Sondheim.
The birthday celebration cast (as of March 22, 2010) includes: Len Cariou, Michael Cerveris, Claybourne Elder, Raúl Esparza, Sutton Foster, Alexander Gemignani, Joanna Gleason, Alexander Hanson, Mark Jacoby, Nathan Lane, Angela Lansbury, Debra Monk, Donna Murphy, Michele Pawk, Jim Walton, B.D. Wong, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Chip Zien.
The gala will begin at 6:00 pm with cocktails at City Center, 55th Street (between 6th & 7th Aves.), followed by the show at 7:00 pm. The evening will end with a post-performance dinner at The Plaza Hotel, 5th Ave. and Central Park South. [See below for complete ticket information.] Gala co-chairs are Joanne Woodward, Bobbie and Lew Frankfort, Perry and Marty Granoff, Stacey and Eric Mindich, and Mary Jo and Ted Shen.
“I am so delighted to be invited to play some part in the celebrations for Stephen Sondheim,” said John Doyle. “City Center is taking a look back, in concert, at moments from all the shows for which Steve wrote both the words and the music. Highlights will be sung by some of Broadway’s most shining stars – all of whom either originated or revived major roles in these shows. We can never celebrate Steve enough. He has done more than any other artist to influence the development of musical theatre. This is simply City Center’s way of saying, ‘Thank You’."
As a group, the gala’s performers have appeared in over 75 Sondheim shows:
Len Cariou created the title role in the original production of Sweeney Todd, winning a Tony Award for Best Actor. He was nominated for a Tony Award for his portrayal of Fredrik in A Little Night Music, a role he repeated in the 1977 film version.
Michael Cerveris won a Tony Award for his performance as John Wilkes Booth in Assassins. Other Sondheim roles include the Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd, Road Show at the Public Theater, Passion at the Kennedy Center, A Little Night Music at Chicago Shakespeare and Sunday in the Park With George at Ravinia.
Claybourne Elder made his New York stage debut in Road Show at the Public Theater.
Raúl Esparza was nominated for the Tony Award for his performance as Bobby in the revival of Company. Other Sondheim roles include Sunday in the Park With George, Merrily We Roll Along at the Kennedy Center and Company at the Cincinnati Playhouse.
Sutton Foster will star in Anyone Can Whistle, the final Encores! production of the New York City Center 2009‑10 season.
Alexander Gemignani starred as Addison Mizner in Road Show at the Public Theater, in Assassins on Broadway, and in the Broadway revivals of Sunday in the Park With George and Sweeney Todd.
Joanna Gleason won the Tony Award for her performance as The Baker’s Wife in Into the Woods.
Alexander Hanson is currently starring as Fredrik on Broadway in A Little Night Music, a role he also played in London.
Mark Jacoby starred as Judge Turpin in the 2005 Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd. He played Fredrik in the White Plains Performing Arts Center’s production of A Little Night Music.
Nathan Lane won the Tony Award for his performance as Pseudolus in the 1998 revival of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and starred in The Frogs at Lincoln Center Theater. He played Addison Mizner in the workshop production of Wise Guys (subsequently retitled Road Show). He also sang a song written especially for him by Sondheim in the film The Birdcage.
Angela Lansbury is currently starring on Broadway in A Little Night Music. She made her Broadway musical debut starring in Anyone Can Whistle, and won Tony Awards for her performances in Gypsy and Sweeney Todd.
Debra Monk starred as Joanne in the Broadway revival of Company. Her other Sondheim credits include the off-Broadway production of Assassins andthe Broadway benefit Children and Art.
Donna Murphy won the Tony Award for Passion and starred as Phyllis in the Encores! production of Follies.
Michele Pawk appeared in the off-Broadway production of Merrily We Roll Along and at The Kennedy Center in Bounce (subsequently retitled Road Show). She also performed in the Broadway benefit Children and Art, and on the recording, Sondheim: The Stephen Sondheim Album.
Jim Walton starred as Franklin Shepard in the original Broadway production of Merrily We Roll Along and as Anthony in the 1989 revival of Sweeney Todd.
B.D. Wong starred in the 2004 Roundabout Theatre production of Pacific Overtures and performed in the Broadway benefit Children and Art.
Catherine Zeta-Jones is currently starring on Broadway in A Little Night Music.
Chip Zien played The Baker in the original Broadway production of Into the Woods.
John Doyle has garnered great acclaim for his fresh interpretation of Sondheim’s works. His 2004 staging of Sweeney Todd was a big hit in London and was re-mounted on Broadway, winning Tony Awards for Best Revival of a Musical and Outstanding Direction. He was nominated for a Tony Award for Outstanding Direction for his revival of Company. Most recently, Doyle directed Sondheim's Road Show at the Public Theater.
Rob Berman is entering his third season as Music Director of Encores!. Mr. Berman won a Helen Hayes Award for Best Musical Direction for his work on the Kennedy Center’s production of Sunday in the Park with George. He was also Music Director of the Sondheim revue Opening Doors at Zankel Hall.
Stephen Sondheim will celebrate his 80th birthday on March 22, 2010. Mr. Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics for Road Show (2003), Passion (1994), Assassins (1991), Into the Woods (1987), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Sweeney Todd (1979), Pacific Overtures (1976), The Frogs (1974), A Little Night Music (1973), Follies (1971), Company (1970), Anyone Can Whistle (1964), and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), as well as lyrics for West Side Story (1957), Gypsy (1959), Do I Hear A Waltz? (1965), and additional lyrics for Candide (1973). He won Tony Awards for Best Score for a Musical for Passion, Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, Follies, and Company. Sunday in the Park with George received the 1985 Pulitzer Prize.
New York City Center (Arlene Shuler, President and CEO) has long been known and beloved by New York audiences not only as one of the City’s preeminent performing art institutions but also as an accessible and welcoming venue for dance and theater. New York City Center produces the Tony-honored Encores! musical theater series, and is home to some of the country’s leading dance companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre and Paul Taylor Dance Company, as well as Manhattan Theatre Club, one of New York’s leading theater companies. In 2004 New York City Center launched the acclaimed Fall for Dance Festival, continuing to fulfill its mission to make the arts accessible to the broadest possible audience. In 2006, New York City Center formed partnerships with London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre to facilitate the exchange of innovative dance works, and with Carnegie Hall to work together on exciting new programming initiatives between the two neighboring institutions. In 2007 New York City Center introduced the Encores! Summer Stars series with the critically-acclaimed production of Gypsy¸ starring Patti LuPone, which subsequently enjoyed a successful run on Broadway, and which was followed by Damn Yankees starring Sean Hayes and Jane Krakowski and this past summer’s The Wiz starring Ashanti.
Sponsorship and tickets to the benefit are available by calling 212-763-1205. Support levels are:
Vice Chairman Table for ten: $50,000
Golden Benefactor Table for ten: $25,000
Silver Benefactor Table for ten: $15,000
Benefactor Ticket: $2,500
Patron Ticket: $1,500
Sponsor Ticket: $500
Tickets to the benefit show only are $25, $60, $85 and $250 and are available at the New York City Center Box Office (West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues), through CityTix® at 212-581-1212, or online. Program and artists subject to change. |
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TWYLA THARP AND SAN FRANSISCO BALLET TO RECEIVE JEROME ROBBINS AWARD
NEW YORK CITY CENTER TO RECEIVE INAUGURAL FLORIA V. LASKY AWARD
Released July 23, 2008 |
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Twyla Tharp and San Francisco Ballet will receive The Jerome Robbins Award for excellence in the dance arts on Friday, September 26, 2008 at a ceremony at New York City Center. Each recipient will receive $100,000 from The Jerome Robbins Foundation. On the same evening, The Jerome Robbins Foundation will present the inaugural Floria V. Lasky Award, in the amount of $25,000, to New York City Center. The Awards and dinner will precede the final program of City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival, which will include a special tribute to Mr. Robbins and The Jerome Robbins Prize recipients.
“New York City Center is honored to receive the inaugural Floria V. Lasky Award and to celebrate Jerome Robbins’ legacy on our stage,” stated Arlene Shuler, City Center President & CEO. “Floria was a wonderful friend and an inspiration to so many and we feel privileged to receive this award which recognizes City Center’s long history of presenting dance and musical theater.”
Jerome Robbins, a towering figure in the dance and theater world, established The Jerome Robbins Foundation in 1970 with the intent to support dance, theater and their associative arts. Following the outbreak of AIDS, he directed the Foundation’s resources almost exclusively to addressing the AIDS crisis. Before his death in 1998, Mr. Robbins expressed his wish that the Foundation again extend its resources to the performing arts – dance and theater especially, but not exclusively – including what later developed into The Jerome Robbins Award.
In 1995, Jerome Robbins wrote to the directors of his foundation, “I would like there to be established a prize to some really greatly outstanding person or art institution. The prizes should lean toward the arts of dance and its associative collaborators but not necessarily be defined by that surround.” In explanation, he cited many callings, from teachers and designers to choreographers and presenting organizations, enjoining the directors to award the prize only when warranted by the distinction of the person, organization, or project. Past recipients of the awards, each in the amount of $100,000, have included Jennifer Tipton, New York City Ballet, The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and Mikhail Baryshnikov.
"Twyla Tharp and San Francisco Ballet under Helgi Tomasson's leadership epitomize the breadth and depth of American dance, embracing the art's rich history, building on it and moving it forward," said the Directors of the Jerome Robbins Foundation. "It is only appropriate, in this year celebrating Jerome Robbins, that Ms. Tharp and San Francisco Ballet will be the recipients of the first award statues inspired by Mr. Robbins' seminal works, Fancy Free and On the Town."
The Jerome Robbins Award
Twyla Tharp and San Francisco Ballet, 2008 Recipients
“Jerry was a very good friend for a very long time,” Ms. Tharp said. “My thanks to the Jerome Robbins Foundation for this honor in his name.”
“Throughout my professional dance career, I’ve considered Jerome Robbins my mentor, and having San Francisco Ballet awarded the Jerome Robbins Award is indeed an honor,” said San Francisco Ballet Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson. “We are very proud to receive such a prestigious award.”
Twyla Tharp has choreographed more than 125 dances, five Hollywood movies, directed and choreographed two Broadway shows, and received one Tony Award, two Emmy Awards, the 2004 National Medal of the Arts, the Astaire Award, the Drama League Award for Sustained Achievement in Musical Theater, and both the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Choreography, among her many honors.
San Francisco Ballet, America’s oldest professional ballet company, has a long and rich tradition of artistic “firsts” since its founding in 1933, including performing the first American productions of Swan Lake and The Nutcracker as well as the first 20th-century American Coppélia. SFB is one of the three largest ballet companies in the United States. Under the direction of Helgi Tomasson for more than two decades, the Company has achieved an international reputation as one of the preeminent ballet companies in the world. This year, SFB celebrates its 75th anniversary.
The Floria V. Lasky Award
New York City Center, Inaugural Recipient
The Floria V. Lasky Award was established this year by The Jerome Robbins Foundation in memory of their loving friend and fellow director of many years. In a legal career spanning seven decades, Floria V. Lasky, Esq., was instrumental in paving the way for numerous modern theater classics as well as representing an array of theatrical and literary talent. Her counsel and guidance were essential to numerous theatrical guilds and studios and her contributions were further enhanced in her capacity as the president of both The Jerome Robbins Foundation and The Frederick Loewe Foundation. The Floria V. Lasky Award shall be given to those that exemplify her values and have provided long outstanding service of championing the arts of theater and dance.
New York City Center has long been known and beloved by New York audiences not only as one of the city's preeminent performing arts institutions but also as an accessible and welcoming venue for dance. New York City Center is the New York home to some of the country’s leading dance companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre and Paul Taylor Dance Company. Continuing to fulfill its mission to make the arts accessible to the broadest possible audiences, in 2004 New York City Center launched the acclaimed Fall for Dance Festival which, for $10 a ticket, annually celebrates the vitality and creativity of dance today. In 2006, New York City Center and London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre created a partnership to facilitate the exchange of innovative dance works and new commissions by up-and-coming and acclaimed choreographers and dance companies, both in London and in New York City. In addition to its rich dance offerings, New York City Center also produces the Tony®-honored Encores! and Encores! Summer Stars musical theater series, and is the home of Manhattan Theatre Club, one of New York City’s premier theater companies.
Mr. Robbins’ works have a long history of being performed on the New York City Center stage, with ballets such as The Guest (1949), The Cage (1951), Ballade (1952), and Afternoon of a Faun (1953) created for New York City Ballet while they were the resident ballet company at City Center; now American Ballet Theatre regularly performs Robbins’ ballets as part of their fall season at City Center. Robbins also choreographed Broadway classics The King and I and West Side Story, performed by the City Center Light Opera Company. In 2007, City Center produced the acclaimed Encores! Summer Stars production of Gypsy, which has since transferred to Broadway. The original 1959 production of Gypsy was directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins, and the City Center production recreated Mr. Robbins’ classic choreography. In November 2008, City Center will produce another Robbins masterpiece, On the Town, as part of a city-wide Leonard Bernstein Festival.
For more information on the Fall for Dance Festival and the September 26 performance featuring a Jerome Robbins tribute, please visit www.NYCityCenter.org. |
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