ABT May 06
AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE
Segerstrom Hall, Orange County Performing Arts Center, Costa Mesa, CA
Mixed repertory program
Tuesday-Thursday — May 2-4 at 8 p.m.
Apollo
Choreography George Balanchine
Music: Igor Stravinsky
Jeu de Cartes
Company Premiere & Center Debut
Choreography: John Cranko
Music: Igor Stravinsky
Gong
Center Premiere
Choreography: Mark Morris
Music: Colin McPhee
Sylvia
Center Premiere
Choreography: Sir Frederick Ashton
Music: Léo Delibes
Friday — May 5 at 8 p.m.
Saturday — May 6 at 2 & 8 p.m.
Sunday — May 7 at 2 p.m.
Theater: Orange County Performing Arts Center – Segerstrom Hall
600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, CA
Tickets: $25, $40, $55, $70, $85
In person - the Center Box Office
Online - www.ocpac.org
Phone - (714) 556-2787
TTY - (714) 556-2746
Groups - (714) 755-0236
AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE
May 2-7, 2006 in Segerstrom Hall
COSTA MESA, CA – American Ballet Theatre returns to Segerstom Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center for its 18th engagement on May 2-7, 2006 with The Center premiere of Sir Frederick Ashton’s Sylvia and a program of mixed repertory, including George Balanchine’s Apollo, the Company Premiere and Center debut of John Cranko’s Jeu de Cartes and Mark Morris’ Gong, also a Center debut
MIXED REPERTORY
(May 2-4, 2006)
Apollo
George Balanchine’s Apollo, set to music by Igor Stravinsky, was given its world premiere by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1928. It was first performed by ABT in 1943 at the Metropolitan Opera House. The ballet, which is a simple program without a plot, includes the birth of Apollo, dances with the Three Muses – Calliope (Muse of Poetry), Polyhymnia (Muse of Mime) and Terpsichore (Muse of Dance and Song) – and the god’s ascent to Mount Olympus. Apollo is staged for ABT by Richard Tanner.
Jeu de Cartes
John Cranko’s Jeu de Cartes, “A Poker Game in Three Deals,” was given its world premiere by the Stuttgart Ballet in Stuttgart, Germany on June 22, 1965. Danced to a score by Igor Stravinsky, Jeu de Cartes includes scenery and costumes by Dorothee Zippel. The ballet is considered to be among Cranko’s choreographic jewels. ABT’s performance of Jeu de Cartes on May 2 marks the ballet’s company premiere and the Center debut.
Gong
A ballet for fifteen dancers, Mark Morris’ Gong was given its world premiere by ABT in 2001. Suffused with orientalism, Gong brilliantly melds light and shadow, gamelan-inspired music, and Isaac Mizrahi's color-saturated costumes to create a kaleidoscope of innovative movement. Staged by Tina Fehlandt, Gong is performed to “Tabuh Tabuhan” by composer Colin McPhee. Lighting design is by Michael Chybowski. This marks the ballet’s Center debut.
SYLVIA
(May 5-7, 2006)
With a score by Léo Delibes, Sylvia was Sir Frederick Ashton’s second full-length work when it was premiered by The Royal Ballet in 1952 with Margot Fonteyn, Michael Somes and Alexander Grant in the leading roles. Set in mythical Greece, Ashton described the plot as “Boy loves girl, girl captured by bad man, girl restored to boy by god.”
The ballet tells the story of the nymph Sylvia, who has pledged her allegiance to the chaste goddess Diana. As an acolyte, Sylvia has sworn off love. However, she is pierced by the arrow of Eros and falls in love with the shepherd Aminta, only to be kidnapped by the hunter Orion. In the way of things mythological, the gods intercede.
Performed by ABT in two acts, Ashton’s Sylvia is staged by Christopher Newton, former dancer and ballet master for The Royal Ballet. This new production has scenery and costumes by Christopher and Robin Ironside, with additional designs by Peter Farmer.
This engagement by ABT will signify the first time Sylvia will be performed at The Center.
AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE
Recognized as a national treasure since its founding in 1940, ABT annually tours the United States, performing for more than 600,000 people. It has also made more than 15 international tours to 42 countries as perhaps the most representative American ballet company. Many of these engagements were sponsored by the U. S. State Department.
The company is committed to presenting a repertory of the best ballets from the past and encouraging the creation of new works by gifted young choreographers. The repertory does, in fact, include all of the great full-length story ballets of the nineteenth century, such as Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and Giselle, the finest works from the early part of this century, such as Les Sylphides, Jardin aux Lilas and Rodeo, and acclaimed contemporary masterpieces such as Airs, Push Comes to Shove and Duets. ABT has built on its extraordinary repertoire by commissioning works by all of the great choreographic geniuses of the twentieth century: George Balanchine, Antony Tudor, Jerome Robbins, Agnes de Mille and Twyla Tharp, among others.
In 1980, Mikhail Baryshnikov became artistic director of ABT, succeeding Lucia Chase and Oliver Smith who had jointly guided the company since 1940. Under Baryshnikov’s leadership, numerous classical ballets were staged, restaged and refurbished, and the company experienced a strengthening and refining of the classical tradition. In 1990, Jane Hermann and Oliver Smith succeeded Baryshnikov and immediately established an agenda that was dedicated to maintaining the great traditions of the past while aggressively pursuing a vital and innovative future.
In October 1992, former ABT Principal Dancer Kevin McKenzie was appointed artistic director. McKenzie, steadfast in his vision of ABT as "American," is committed to maintaining the Company's vast repertoire and to bringing the magic of dance theatre to the great stages of the world.
Julie Kent, Maxim Beloserkovsky, Angel Corella, Paloma Herrera, Gillian Murphy and Ethan Stiefel are among the remarkable artists who dance with ABT. The company also has a number of dancers with ties to Southern California including: Stella Abrera (South Pasadena), Lara Bossen (San Diego), Misty Copeland (San Pedro), Ashley Ellis (Santa Monica), Jennifer Lee (Corona), Ilona McHugh (Santa Barbara), Jessica Saund (San Diego) and Jennifer Whalen (Ventura).
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