Week of October 26-30, 2020
To Read
To Watch
To Do
Costume Week!
Put down your Halloween costume and join ABTKids Daily for Costume Week!
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Community
ABTKids Daily
Week of October 26-30, 2020
Experience the excitement of classical ballet at home with ABTKids Daily!
Welcome to ABTKids Daily, American Ballet Theatre’s new home for families and educators to discover digital content for their virtual classrooms. Join us each day to Meet an ABT Dancer, engage with an ABT Teaching Artist, learn fun facts and enjoy ballet-themed activities from the comfort of your own home.
As America’s National Ballet Company®, ABT is dedicated to preserving and extending the great legacy of classical dancing, through exciting performances and educational programming of the highest quality, presented to the widest possible audience.
Join us each Monday morning to bring the joy of classical ballet to your family. A weekly curriculum will be posted for your discovery!
ABTKids Daily is generously supported by
Explore this week’s materials below or view the archive here.
Watch ABTKids 2020: B is for Ballet!
Presented in partnership with Random House Children’s Books,
the program is inspired by B Is for Ballet: A Dance Alphabet.
Meet a Dancer Wardrobe Supervisor Monday
This week meet ABT Wardrobe Supervisor Tomoko Ueda-Dunbar
It would be impossible for ABT’s dancers to bring ballet stories to life without the important theatrical element of costuming. Audiences can be transported to India (La Bayadère), Spain (Don Quixote) and even 1940s New York City (Fancy Free) without the dancers even moving one step. They can just look at the costumes and instantly tell which characters the dancers are portraying.
Today we sit down with ABT Wardrobe Supervisor Tomoko Ueda-Dunbar to learn about the challenging job of costuming ABT’s 80+ dancers!
Teaching Artist Tuesday
Join one of ABT’s Teaching Artists as they introduce you to ABT and its ballets. Learn a dance, stop and sketch, and don’t forget to have fun!
Up this week: ABT Design Teaching Artist Dennis Ballard!
Make a Cobweb Headpiece
What's Up Wednesday
Winston Goes to the Warehouse (Episode 2) - Costume Tour
Join Winston, a student at the American Ballet Theatre Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, as he makes his first ever trip to ABT’s warehouse in Secaucus, New Jersey.
Throwback Thursday
Every Thursday we pull a photo from our archives and share it with one of our ABT dancers. You never know what stories may come from a single snapshot!
Betsy McBride
ABT Corps de Ballet
Joined ABT 2015
“One of the first tutus that I ever wore on stage was for Aurora’s variation from The Sleeping Beauty for Youth America Grand Prix. I was very young and had always dreamed of wearing a real ballerina tutu, so it was a big moment for me. It was white and pink and very sparkly! I felt like a princess just putting it on!
Once I became a professional with Texas Ballet Theater, my first principal role was Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty. I got to wear three different tutus for each act of The Sleeping Beauty. I wore a bright pink one with pretty long sleeves for the first act, a romantic tutu for the second act, and a white and silver tutu for the third act. It was so special to get to wear Aurora’s tutus again, so many years later.
When I joined ABT, I arrived the week before The Sleeping Beauty. I quickly learned my roles and performed the following week for the first time with ABT. I got to wear several beautiful tutus from this production. My favorites that I’ve worn from ABT’s production of The Sleeping Beauty are the Fairies and Jewels tutus. I’ve always loved wearing all kinds of tutus from different ballets but all of The Sleeping Beauty tutus definitely hold special memories for me.”
View More Photos of Betsy!
Writing Prompt
Write about a memorable costume you have worn – performance, Halloween, or just for fun!
Funtime Friday
Design Your Own Costume!
At the ballet, we get to meet many exciting characters. In ABT’s ballet Harlequinade, the leading character Harlequin wears a fitted costume with many colorful diamond and triangle patches. Click on the image and download a worksheet to draw and design your very own dancer in any costume you want!
Happy Halloween!
Enjoy this montage of dancers in costume!
ABT JKO School Children's Division Online Community Classes
In the Spring of 2020, @ABTSchool launched virtual classes taught by former ABT dancers, ABT JKO School faculty and ABT teaching artists – all certified in the ABT National Training Curriculum.
Recommended for ages 2-4 and 5-8, these classes engage ABT’s youngest students and their families, as well as the global community at large, by exploring musicality, fostering creativity and imagination, and teaching ballet fundamentals.
View the full series on @ABTSchool IGTV or ABT’s YouTube Channel.