March 7, 2007
ABT TO PERFORM IN NEW ORLEANS
ABT Principal Dancers Join the ABT Studio Company
for Two Performances, March 30 and 31 at Tulane University
Principal Dancers from American Ballet Theatre and the ABT Studio Company will perform for the first time in New Orleans on March 30 and 31 at 8:00 P.M. at Tulane University’s Dixon Hall. ABT Principal Dancers Irina Dvorovenko, Gillian Murphy, Maxim Beloserkovsky and Soloist Gennadi Saveliev, with members of the ABT Studio Company, will be among the first dance companies to perform in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. ABT’s visit to New Orleans also represents the culmination of ABT’s “Buffalo Project,” a collaboration between filmmaker Elliot Caplan, the University at Buffalo and the ABT Studio Company.
American Ballet Theatre’s New Orleans program will begin with a pre-performance talk with ABT Studio Company Artistic Director Kirk Peterson at 7:15 P.M., followed by the ABT Studio Company performances of Peterson’s Eyes That Gently Touch and Nocturne, Antony Tudor’s Jardin aux Lilas and Brian Reeder’s Ghost Light. The program also features ABT dancers in a series of pas de deux from Swan Lake and Diana and Acteon.
In a unique commission by the Center for the Moving Image at the University at Buffalo, a new work, Ghost Light, was created by choreographer Brian Reeder and documented by award-winning filmmaker Elliot Caplan. Over the course of three weeks, Caplan recorded Reeder’s creative process as an education resource for dance history, instruction and choreography. Ghost Light was given its World Premiere by the ABT Studio Company on February 3, 2007 in Buffalo. The performances of Ghost Light on March 30 and 31 will be given as a symbolic gift to the residents of New Orleans from the city of Buffalo.
The ABT Studio Company is a small classical company of twelve young professional dancers. In its twelfth season, the Studio Company prepares these dancers to
enter American Ballet Theatre and provides opportunities for the emergence of new and established choreographers and composers. Through national performances, lecture-demonstrations and academic residencies, the ABT Studio Company brings the excitement of close contact with a professional company into communities around the country. This will be the Studio Company’s first visit to New Orleans.
Tickets for American Ballet Theatre’s performances at Tulane University are $30 – $80 and are available for purchase at www.nobadance.com and www.ticketmaster.com, or by phone at (504) 522-0996. For more information, click here.