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Community

ABTKids Daily

Week of May 10-14, 2021

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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.

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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
Bloomberg Philanthropies

 

Explore this week’s materials below or view the archive here.

 


Watch ABTKids at the Top of the Rock!
Presented in partnership with Rockefeller Center
as part of their 2021 Spring Sunday event.

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.

Week of May 10-14, 2021


To Read

To Watch

To Do

Princess Week

In 1940, American Ballet Theatre (then called Ballet Theatre) performed the Act II of Swan Lake at the Center Theatre in Rockefeller Center. Patricia Bowman performed the role of Odette (White Swan) and in the process became the first ballerina to dance the role of a princess for ABT. Four years later Tamara Toumanova was the first to bring Odette’s counterpart Princess Odile (Black Swan) to the stage!

While Odette and Odile may be among the most famous princesses in classical ballet, ABT’s repertoire is filled with many inspirational princesses. Many you will recognize from your favorite fairy tales (Aurora from The Sleeping Beauty), some are inspired by real princesses from history (Helen of Troy), and one princess that some people mistake for a bird (Princess Florine from The Sleeping Beauty) because she dances with the Bluebird!

This week on ABTKids Daily we celebrate and pay tribute to all of our favorite royal princesses. Don’t’ forget to put on your tiara and practice your best princess wave!

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Meet A Dancer Monday

Principal Dancer Christine Shevchenko

 

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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 JKO Faculty Member Leann Underwood and her loyal Prince Benjamin!

"Rose Adagio" from The Sleeping Beauty

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What’s up Wednesday 

Ballet Princess Word Search

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Throwback Thursday

We pull a photo from our archives and share it with a member of the ABT family.  You never know what stories may come from a single snapshot!

Leslie Browne’s first performance as the Swan Queen in Phoenix at her father’s studio.
Leslie Browne’s first performance as the Swan Queen in Phoenix at her father’s studio.

Leslie Browne
Former ABT Principal Dancer
Joined ABT as Soloist in 1976
Promoted to Principal Dancer in 1986
Current Faculty Member at the ABT Summer Intensive Program

My very first princess role was Odette in Act II of Swan Lake. I was 15 in this photo and I performed it at my father’s dance studio in Phoenix for his spring concert. I was already living and studying in New York so it was my first performance as a guest artist and was very exciting for me. Swan Lake is probably the first ballet I fell in love with and is still my favorite classical full length ballet to watch. The concept, choreography and music to me are perfection. What I love most about this role was the emotion and the lifts in the pas de deux. I loved being up in the air and feeling like I was flying. I also loved the beautiful arm movements that represented the wings of the swan.

Leslie Browne and John Meehan in Firebird.
Leslie Browne and John Meehan in Firebird.

My second role as a princess was during my first few years in ABT. I was cast as princess Tsarina in Firebird. In this photo my prince is John Meehan. I loved being Tsarina because she is innocent and joyful. We did have to throw balls in the air and catch them as they represented apples from the tree and sometimes we would miss so we needed to practice catching the balls a lot. There was a moment in the ballet where the Prince and I had to do a very long, slow walk towards each other from across the stage and then finally we would kiss. Everyone on stage just stayed still and watched and the audience was silent and I have to say it was very hard for me not to giggle during this very dramatic moment. Firebird was different from any ballet I ever performed because it had all these strange monsters and the music was Stravinsky and very different from the classical ballets, but I absolutely loved it because it was so dramatic.

Leslie Browne and Ethan Brown in The Sleeping Beauty.
Leslie Browne and Ethan Brown in The Sleeping Beauty.

This third photo is as the Lilac Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty and I am being partnered by my brother Ethan. My first princess role in a full length classical ballet was also in The Sleeping Beauty, as Princess Woodland Glade, and I absolutely loved doing it. There was a little bit of partnering and then I had a solo and then there was a coda so it was a complete little ballet in itself. This particular princess fairy had to do a lot of hops on pointe so I was always very nervous that I was going to fall off my hops but fortunately I always made it through. Then after I finished dancing I couldn’t wait to stand in the wings and watch the Rose Adagio. I feel very fortunate to have all these wonderful memories and these photos to remind me of them.

Writing Prompt

Which princess story would like to see become a ballet?

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Funtime Friday

Design Your Own Princess Costume!

One of the most challenging jobs in the theater is that of the costume designer.   When designing costumes for story ballets like Swan Lake or The Sleeping Beauty, the designer has to find a way to reimagine these iconic characters and bring them to life in a new and exciting way.

While the choreography and the dancers are incredibly important to telling the story, the costume is the element that instantly grabs the audiences attention and transports them to an exciting new land or kingdom!

Today you’re going to step into the role of Costume Designer and create your own princess costume. Feel free to use the examples of Princess Odile from Swan Lake by Zack Brown and Princess Aurora from The Sleeping Beauty by Richard Hudson to inspire you in your design.


Odile sketch by Zack Brown.

Aurora sketch by Richard Hudson.

Which one of your favorite princesses are you going to design for?
(Click the image to download the worksheet.)

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Explore the ABTKids Daily Archive

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.

@ABTSchool IGTVYouTube

Photo: Richard Corman.
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