2023 Fall Gala Featuring ABT Principal Dancers, ABT Studio Company, and Students of the ABT Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School

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Christine Shevchenko and Calvin Royal III in Ballet Imperial. © The George Balanchine Trust. Photo: Quinn Wharton.

NEW YORK, NY – American Ballet Theatre will host its 2023 Fall Gala at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center on Tuesday, October 24 at 6:30 P.M.

The Fall Gala will feature a one-time-only program of beloved classic and contemporary excerpts showcasing ABT’s roster of Principal Dancers. The evening will also highlight talented young dancers from ABT’s Training Programs.

ABT is proud to honor The Shubert Foundation, the nation’s largest funder of unrestricted grants to not-for-profit dance and theatre companies, at the 2023 Fall Gala. The Foundation’s unstinting commitment and magnanimous philanthropy have sustained and advanced live performing arts in the United States, including ABT, for nearly 50 years. ABT is grateful to have this occasion to celebrate The Shubert Foundation’s exceptional grantmaking as a singular champion of dance and theatre. Alongside peer organizations, also supported by The Shubert Foundation, ABT extends its heartfelt gratitude.

Honorary Chairs for the 2023 Fall Gala are Amy Astley and Blaine Trump, with Chairs Sarah Arison, Avery and Andy Barth, Emily Blavatnik, Melanie Hamrick and Mick Jagger, Stewart R. Smith and Robin A. Ferracone, Sutton Stracke, and Chai Vasarhelyi supporting.

ABT apprentices, ABT Studio Company dancers, and over 130 students from the ABT JKO School, including over 60 students from the Children’s Division and 75 students in the Pre-Professional Division, will perform a pièce d’occasion set to excerpts from Camille Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals, choreographed by Lauren Lovette and Rubén Martín.

ABT’s Training Programs provide young dancers with the industry standard in ballet training, preparing them for careers in American Ballet Theatre’s main Company or other leading national and international companies. Notably, over 90% of current ABT dancers are alumni of either the ABT JKO School, ABT Studio Company, or an American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensive.

In celebration of the 2023 Fall Gala, ABT’s Principal Dancers will perform a special mixed repertory program, beginning with Devon Teuscher and Thomas Forster in The Sleeping Beauty pas de deux with staging by Susan Jaffe and Irina Kolpakova after choreography by Marius Petipa, set to music by Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky. Cassandra Trenary and Calvin Royal III will perform the Romeo and Juliet balcony pas de deux by Kenneth MacMillan with music by Sergei Prokofiev. The Act II pas de deux from Kevin McKenzie’s production of Swan Lake will be performed by Christine Shevchenko and James Whiteside to music by Tchaikovsky. Skylar Brandt and Joo Won Ahn will make their debuts in The Leaves Are Fading pas de deux by Antony Tudor with music by Antonín Dvořák. Isabella Boylston and Aran Bell will perform in the World Premiere of Danzón No. 2, a new work choreographed by ABT Principal Dancer James Whiteside, set to music by Arturo Márquez, transcribed by Leticia Gómez-Tagle. Hee Seo and Cory Stearns will make their debuts in the pas de deux from Concerto, choreographed by MacMillan, set to music by Dmitri Shostakovich. With choreography after Petipa and Alexander Gorsky and music by Ludwig Minkus, the Don Quixote pas de deux will be performed by Catherine Hurlin and Daniel Camargo. Finally, Gillian Murphy, Joo Won Ahn, and Herman Cornejo will perform an excerpt from Études with choreography by Harald Lander and music by Carl Czerny, arranged by Knudåge Riisager.

For more information on ABT’s 2023 Fall Gala or to purchase tickets and tables, please contact Megan Stahlberg, Associate Director of Special Events, at mstahlberg@abt.org.

Additional performances during ABT’s 2023 Fall season will run from October 18–29 at the David H. Koch Theater featuring three programs and eight ballets. Tickets, beginning at $30, are available for purchase online, in person at the Koch Theater box office, or by phone at 212-496-0600. For more information, visit ABT’s website at www.abt.org.

ABOUT AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE

American Ballet Theatre is one of the greatest dance companies in the world. Revered as a national treasure since its founding season in 1940, its mission is to create, present, preserve, and extend the great repertoire of classical dancing for the widest possible audience. Headquartered in New York City, ABT is the only cultural institution of its size and stature to extensively tour, enchanting audiences for eight decades in 50 U.S. states, 45 countries, and over 480 cities worldwide. ABT’s repertoire includes full-length classics from the nineteenth century, the finest works from the early twentieth century, and acclaimed contemporary masterpieces. In 2006, by an act of Congress, ABT was designated America’s National Ballet Company®.

Leadership support of ABT’s New Works Initiative is provided by Mark Casey and Carrie Gaiser Casey, The Ted and Mary Jo Shen Charitable Gift Fund, and through an endowed gift from The Toni and Martin Sosnoff New Works Fund.

Commissions and presentations of new works by women choreographers are supported by the ABT Women’s Movement. Champion support for the ABT Women’s Movement is provided by Jenna Segal.

Special thanks to Denise Littlefield Sobel for her leadership gifts to: ABT Today Fund, advancing the Company’s mission; and ABT RISE, fueling the Company’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

ABT is supported, in part, with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of The Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

For more information, please visit www.abt.org.

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