THIS WEEK'S TOP BALLET NEWS
● Texas Ballet Theater Presents Cirque du Ballet
● Pacific Northwest Ballet Prepares For the Opening of Its 50th Anniversary Season
● Tulsa Ballet Opens Season with Creations in Studio K
● Val Caniparoli Added to San Francisco Ballet’s next@90 Festival
● BalletMet Kicks Off 45th Season with Works by Edwaard Liang
● Siphesihle November To Star as Romeo in Cape Town City Ballet
Texas Ballet Theater Presents Cirque du Ballet
On September 16, 2022 at Winspear Opera House in Dallas, Ben Stevenson, O.B.E.’s (TBT’s Artistic Director Laureate) Cirque du Ballet will premiere. The ballet will showcase characters and choreography from famous ballets such as Cinderella, Dracula, and Romeo and Juliet brought together as acts in a nostalgic circus. The ring master narrated production is ideal for children and adults alike who are interested in experiencing their first ballet.
“This ballet gives me an opportunity to work with a lot of dancers on different things they’ve done in their repertoire,” Stevenson said. “We’ll have fun with it – I always love working with the dancers.”
Cirque du Ballet is Stevenson’s first ballet since being named Artistic Director Laureate. He previously served as Artistic Director for 19 seasons. Former Associate Artistic Director Tim O’Keefe now serves as Acting Artistic Director for the nonprofit ballet company.
Pacific Northwest Ballet Prepares For the Opening of Its 50th Anniversary Season
PNB’s golden year is commemorated at Seattle’s McCaw Hall in a program highlighted by Carmina Burana, a work choreographed by its founding Artistic Director Kent Stowell. Danced to Carl Orff’s iconic score, Stowell’s ballet premiered in Seattle in 1993 with set designer Ming Cho Lee’s 26-foot golden wheel a dominant symbol throughout the ballet.
Also on the program is George Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante which the choreographer says “contains everything I know about classical ballet – in thirteen minutes” and a world premiere by American Ballet Theatre’s Resident Choreographer Alexei Ratmansky.
Tulsa Ballet Opens Season with Creations in Studio K
To celebrate the 15th year since its inception by Artistic Director Marcello Angelini, Tulsa Ballet kicks off their 66th season with Creations in Studio K featuring works by Craig Davidson, Nicolo Fonte, and Ma Cong.
Davidson has created a large body of work for The Royal Ballet of Flanders, one of the most prestigious European ballet companies. This will be his second work for an American ballet company, following a work he created for the Atlanta Ballet. Fonte, who serves as Resident Choreographer for Ballet West, has created three works for Tulsa Ballet, in addition to staging his Bolero for the company. Cong served as Resident Choreographer with Tulsa Ballet for more than 15 years during which he has created a large body of works, including a piece to be re-staged with TBII, Tulsa Ballet’s second company. Cong’s works were instrumental in the growth of a generation of Tulsa Ballet dancers as his choreography pushes the stylistic versatility and artistry of every dancer involved.
Underlining the importance of the creative space Studio K provides, Angelini adds,
“What differentiates a vibrant arts organization from your run-of-the-mill ballet company is its dedication to consistently contributing new works to the national and international market. There are dance companies that are ‘museums,’ just presenting existing works in order to survive. Then, there are dance companies that identify with the importance of contributing to the future of the art form. It is those companies, like Tulsa Ballet, that chart the course of the field for decades to come.”
Val Caniparoli Added to San Francisco Ballet’s next@90 Festival
Replacing Benjamin Millepied (who withdrew from the event due to scheduling conflicts) on the roster for San Francisco Ballet’s next@90 festival to be held at the beginning of 2023 is Val Caniparoli who celebrates his 50th anniversary with the company. Caniparoli joined SF Ballet in 1973 and in addition to dancing as Principal Character Dancer since 1985, he has created more than 20 works for SF Ballet, including Ibsen’s House, which premiered during the 75th anniversary New Works Festival in 2008.
next@90 marks the first festival at SF Ballet since 2018’s Unbound and will include three programs of three ballets each. next@90 choreographers include Nicolas Blanc, Bridget Breiner, Val Caniparoli, Robert Garland, Yuka Oishi, Yuri Possokhov, Jamar Roberts, Danielle Rowe, and Claudia Schreier.
BalletMet Kicks Off 45th Season with Works by Edwaard Liang
From September 16-18, 2022, Columbus’ ballet company will perform the opener of its 45th season with BalletMet at the Ohio.
“BalletMet at the Ohio pays homage to the old, the new, and the theatre we have called home for so many years,” said Edwaard Liang, artistic director at BalletMet. “The 2022-23 season marks our 45th anniversary, and BalletMet at the Ohio is the perfect way to celebrate how far we have come, and how much farther we will go.”
Murmuration, the first ballet performed in the production, was originally choreographed by Liang in 2012 and was inspired by its score, Ezio Bosso’s Violin Concerto #1, as well as the starling phenomena, murmuration. Just as starlings fly in incredible patterns together at dusk, the dancers in Murmuration will move in beautiful unison, replicating the movements of starlings as they swirl and turn in unison.
Tributary will fill the stage with dancers in a riot of white tutus, a celebration of classical ballet that features a roster of 47 dancers.
Siphesihle November To Star as Romeo in Cape Town City Ballet
Siphesihle November, currently a Principal Dancer with National Ballet of Canada, has been invited to appear as a Guest Artist with Cape Town City Ballet, in South Africa, on August 25, 2022.
This one-night only performance at Artscape Opera House marks November’s premiere as the title character in Romeo and Juliet, dancing opposite Chanté Daniels. Veronica Paeper’s choreography will be accompanied by the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Brandon Phillips.
November was the recipient of The Erik Bruhn Prize in 2019 and was the subject of documentary film Beyond Moving, which follows his journey from his birthplace in Zolani, South Africa, to Canada’s National Ballet School and The National Ballet of Canada.
This will be November’s first guest performance in South Africa.
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Photo Credits: 1) Texas Ballet Theater Dancers in Swan Lake. Photo by Amitava Sarkar; 2) Angelica Generosa and Dylan Wald. Photo © Angela Sterling; 3) Tulsa Ballet Dancers. Photo from Tulsa Ballet; 4) Val Caniparoli. Photo from San Francisco Ballet; 5) BalletMet Dancers. Photo from BalletMet; 6) Siphesihle November. Photo by Karolina Kuras.
