8/12/16 O&A NYC SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY: Natalia Makarova- Dying Swan

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“Her performances set standards of artistry and aristocracy of dance which mark her as the finest ballerina of her generation in the West”- The History of Dance. Continue reading

8/5/16 O&A NYC SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY: Jerome Robbins- Fancy Free

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69110-004-8FD44BA7                                          Shirley Edd, Michael Kidd, John Kriza and Jerome Robbins

Fancy Free, a ballet choreographed by Jerome for Ballet Theatre, the predecessor of American Ballet Theatre. Set to a score by Leonard Bernstein, with scenery by Oliver Smith, costumes by Kermit Love and lighting by Ronald Bates. The premiere took place on Tuesday, April 18th, 1944, at the original Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. The sailors were played by Jerome Robbins, Michael Kidd, and John Kriza.  Continue reading

6/11/16 O&A NYC HOLLYWOOD MONDAY: The Red Shoes (1948)- Ballet Sequence

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The Red Shoes, a 1948 British film based on the fairy tale The Red Shoes by Hans Christian Andersen, stars Moira Shearer, Anton Walbrook and Marius Goring and features renowned dancers Robert Helpmann, Leonide Massine and Ludmilla Tcherina.  Continue reading

6/8/16 O&A NYC SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY: Swan Lake- III Act- Sylvie Guillem, Manuel Legris, Cyril Atanasoff

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The Swan Lake III Act pas de trois in Rudolf Nureyev’s version with Sylvie Guillem, Manuel Legris and Cyril Atanasoff from the 1988 Paris Opera Ballet production. Continue reading

5/21/16 O&A NYC SATURDAY MORNING CONCERT: Nureyev and The Joffrey Ballet in Tribute to Nijinsky (1980)

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NUREYEV and the Joffrey Ballet/In Tribute to Nijinsky, the Dance in America broadcast, debuted on March 9, 1981. Recorded in August 1880 in Nashville the program presented a collection of three ‘reconstructed ballets had been seen in a special limited run on Broadway. For television, the dances have been supplemented with biographical comments on Nijinsky by Dale Harris and snippets of interviews with Rudolf Nureyev. Continue reading

5/20/16 O&A NYC SHAll WE DANCE FRIDAY: Sherezade (2002)- Kirov Ballet Feauturing Svetlana Zakharova and Farukh Ruzimatov

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Scheherazade premiered on June 4, 1910, at the Opéra Garnier in Paris by the Ballets Russes. The choreography for the ballet was by Michel Fokine and the libretto was from Fokine and Léon Bakst. This ballet provoked exoticism by showing a masculine Golden Slave seducing Zobeide who is one of the many wives of the Shah. Continue reading

5/13/16 O&A NYC SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY: Theme & Variations- Gelsey Kirkland and Mikhail Baryshnikov (1978) American Ballet Theatre

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Theme and Variations received its world premiere at New York’s City Center on November 26, 1947, danced by Alicia Alonso and Igor Youskevitch. George Balanchine’s plotless ballet with its glorious choreography and glittering costumes is a vision of the Imperial Ballet in its heyday at the Maryinksy Theatre.  A second production with costumes by Desmond Heeley,  premiered at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, on April 17, 1978, with Gelsey Kirkland and Mikhail Baryshnikov in the leading roles.

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5/6/16 O&A NYC SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY: La Valse (1951) Featuring Tanaquil LeClercq and Nicholas Magallanes

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George Balanchine choreographed Maurice Ravel’s La valse in 1951. Ravel wrote La valse, poème chorégraphique pour orchestre (a choreographic poem for orchestra), between February 1919 and 1920. The music premiered in Paris on 12 December 1920. It was conceived as a ballet but is now more often heard as a concert work. The work has been described as a tribute to the waltz, and the composer George Benjamin. Continue reading

4/26/16 O&A NYC INSPIRATIONAL TUESDAY- REMEMBERING PRINCE: The Beautiful Ones- Prince and Misty Copeland

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Misty Copeland first came to the general public’s attention in 2009 when she appeared in Prince’s video Crimson and Clover. Then a soloist and nine year member of American Ballet Theatre, Copeland received a phone call one morning “I was asked if Prince could have my cell number…I was literally still waking up. ‘What? Prince who?'” The next day she headed to Los Angeles for the video shoot. Continue reading