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ABT News

April 8, 2024

New York Premiere of Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works to Highlight American Ballet Theatre’s Summer Season at the Metropolitan Opera House, June 18 – July 20, 2024

Former ABT Principal Dancer Alessandra Ferri to Appear as Guest Artist in Woolf Works

General Public On Sale Begins Monday, April 22 at 12:00 P.M.

ABT - WW_HurlinCamargo4ezCatherine Hurlin and Daniel Camargo in Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works. Photo: Emma Zordan.

 NEW YORK, NY  – Tickets for ABT’s 2024 Summer season go on sale Monday, April 22 at 12:00 P.M. at the Metropolitan Opera House box office. Performances will run from June 18 through July 20, 2024, and will feature the New York Premiere of Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works, as well as repertory favorites Onegin, Swan Lake, and Romeo and Juliet, plus the return of Tony Award® winner Christopher Wheeldon’s Like Water for Chocolate.

Principal Dancers for the 2024 Summer season include Joo Won Ahn, Aran Bell, Isabella Boylston, Skylar Brandt, Daniel Camargo, Herman Cornejo, Thomas Forster, Catherine Hurlin, Gillian Murphy, Calvin Royal III, Hee Seo, Christine Shevchenko, Cory Stearns, Devon Teuscher, Cassandra Trenary, James Whiteside, and Roman Zhurbin.

 

New York Premiere

ABT will present the New York Premiere of Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works on Tuesday evening, June 25 at 7:30 P.M. featuring ABT Guest Artist and former Principal Dancer Alessandra Ferri. Woolf Works, an award-winning ballet triptych, re-creates the emotions, themes, and fluid style of three of Virginia Woolf’s novels: Mrs. Dalloway, Orlando, and The Waves. Enmeshed with elements from Woolf’s letters, essays, and diaries, Woolf Works expresses the heart of an artistic life driven to discover a freer, uniquely modern realism. It brings to life Woolf’s world of “granite and rainbow,” where human beings are at once both physical body and uncontained essence.

Woolf Works has received notable recognition and outstanding critical acclaim. The full-length contemporary ballet won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production, and McGregor was awarded the Critics Circle National Dance Award for Best Classical Choreography for the work.

Created for The Royal Ballet in 2015, Woolf Works is structured into three acts: “I now, I then,” “Becomings,” and “Tuesday,” each starkly distinct in visual design and choreography. Woolf Works features concept, direction, and choreography by Wayne McGregor and music by Max Richter, with set design by Ciguë (“I now, I then”), We Not I (“Becomings”), and Wayne McGregor (“Tuesday”); costume design by Moritz Junge; lighting design by Lucy Carter; film design by Ravi Deepres; and dramaturgy by Uzma Hameed. Woolf Works is produced in association with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London. This production was first seen at the Royal Opera House, London on May 11, 2015.

The ballet will receive its North American Premiere by American Ballet Theatre on April 11, 2024, at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California. During ABT’s 2024 Summer season, Woolf Works will be given seven performances through June 29.

In addition to the opening night performance, Ferri will make a guest appearance on Friday, June 28, during ABT’s 2024 production of Woolf Works at the Metropolitan Opera House. This performance, as one of ABT’s 2024 Summer season celebratory evenings, will be dedicated to honoring Ferri and her career.

 

2024 Summer Season Celebratory Evenings

This season, ABT unfolds a series of celebratory evenings, complete with a post-show toast on the Grand Tier of the Metropolitan Opera House. Admission is extended to that evening’s ticket holders with the purchase of an additional reception ticket.

In the month of June, ABT will celebrate Opening Night of the Summer season on Tuesday, June 18, the New York Premiere of Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works on Tuesday, June 25, and an evening honoring Guest Artist and former ABT Principal Dancer Alessandra Ferri on Friday, June 28.

During July, the Corps de Ballet Celebration will take place on Friday, July 5, while Herman Cornejo’s 25th Anniversary Toast will take place on Friday, July 19.

Reception tickets can be purchased for $98. For more information, visit www.abt.org/SummerEvents.

 

Full-Length Productions

ABT’s Summer season will kick off with seven performances of John Cranko’s Onegin beginning on Tuesday evening, June 18 at 7:30 P.M. with Devon Teuscher and Daniel Camargo in the leading roles. Set to music by Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, arranged and orchestrated by Kurt-Heinz Stolze, Onegin is based on the verse-novel Eugene Onegin by Alexandrer Pushkin. Onegin received its World Premiere on April 13, 1965, by Stuttgart Ballet in Stuttgart, Germany. The ballet received its Company Premiere by American Ballet Theatre on June 1, 2001, at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York led by Julie Kent (Tatiana), Robert Hill (Onegin), Vladimir Malakhov (Lensky), and Maria Riccetto (Olga). This new production, with sets and costumes by Santo Loquasto and lighting by James F. Ingalls, was premiered by National Ballet of Canada on June 19, 2010, at the Four Seasons Center for the Performing Arts, Toronto, Canada, and was first performed by ABT on June 4, 2012, at the Metropolitan Opera House. Onegin is staged for ABT by Reid Anderson and Jane Bourne. Opening night at the Metropolitan Opera House on Tuesday, June 18 will conclude with a post-performance toast to kick off the Summer season.

Week three of ABT’s Summer season will open on Monday evening, July 1 with the first performance of Swan Lake, led by Isabella Boylston as Odette-Odile and Daniel Camargo as Prince Siegfried. Set to music by Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, Swan Lake is choreographed by Kevin McKenzie after Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov and features scenery and costumes by Zack Brown and lighting by Duane Schuler. This production of Swan Lake premiered on March 24, 2000, at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. with Julie Kent (Odette-Odile) and Angel Corella (Prince Siegfried) in the leading roles. The ballet will be given eight performances this season. Complete with a post-performance toast, the Friday, July 5 performance of Swan Lake will be a Corps de Ballet Celebration to honor ABT’s world-class talent in the corps de ballet.  

Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet will open on Tuesday evening, July 9 with Devon Teuscher and Aran Bell in the title roles. Set to the score by Sergei Prokofiev, Romeo and Juliet features scenery and costumes by Nicholas Georgiadis and lighting by Thomas Skelton. Romeo and Juliet received its World Premiere by The Royal Ballet in London on February 9, 1965, and was given its ABT Premiere at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. on January 3, 1985, with Leslie Browne and Robert La Fosse in the leading roles. Romeo and Juliet will be given seven performances through July 13 at the Metropolitan Opera House.

The final week of the 2024 Summer season will feature seven performances of Like Water for Chocolate beginning Tuesday evening, July 16 at 7:30 P.M. with Cassandra Trenary as Tita and Herman Cornejo as Pedro. Based on the bestselling novel by Laura Esquivel, Like Water for Chocolate tells the story of Tita, a young Mexican woman who is overwhelmed by a sense of duty and family tradition. Tita’s only form of expression is through cooking, but her life takes an unexpected turn when she falls in forbidden love with her neighbor Pedro. From the award-winning team of choreographer Christopher Wheeldon and composer Joby Talbot, this co-production with The Royal Ballet features scenery and costumes by Bob Crowley, lighting by Natasha Katz, and video design by Luke Halls.

The ballet received its World Premiere by The Royal Ballet on June 2, 2022, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, led by Francesca Hayward as Tita and Marcelino Sambé as Pedro. It received its North American Premiere by American Ballet Theatre on March 29, 2023, at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California, led by Cassandra Trenary as Tita and Herman Cornejo as Pedro. The Friday, July 19 performance of Like Water for Chocolate will mark the final 2024 Summer season celebratory evening in commemoration of Herman Cornejo’s 25th Anniversary with American Ballet Theatre.

 

Family Programming

ABTKids, American Ballet Theatre’s annual one-hour introduction to ballet for families, is scheduled for Saturday, June 22 at 11:00 A.M. with ABT Principal Dancer Misty Copeland set to host. A limited number of $150 VIP tickets are available for purchase that include premium seating, a souvenir gift bag, and a post-performance meet-and-greet with an ABT dancer. All other tickets for the ABTKids performance are $30. ASL interpretation will be provided.

The 2024 Summer season will also include the return of ABT’s Pre-Performance Workshop series at the Metropolitan Opera House. Young fans will have the opportunity to participate in an hour of hands-on activities, designed as an introduction to the works they will see on the Met stage. Workshops will take place at 9:15 A.M. before the ABTKids performance on Saturday, June 22, and at 11:00 A.M. before the matinees of Swan Lake on Thursday, July 4 and Saturday, July 6. Workshop tickets are $20 and require a corresponding performance ticket.

 

ABT Masters Series

This summer, ABT launches the ABT Masters Series, a day long immersive experience for ballet fans to study one of ABT’s 20th century classical works. Designed for adults 20-years or older with beginner to advanced-beginner ballet experience, participants will start the day at ABT’s 890 Broadway studios for body conditioning and ballet technique classes before diving into a 90-minute repertoire workshop, exploring the history of the session’s ballet, its movement, and characters, all taught by ABT Artistic Staff members and notable ABT alumni. That evening, participants will attend a pre-show talk with an ABT dancer before watching the corresponding ABT performance in an Orchestra seat at the Metropolitan Opera House.

The 2024 ABT Masters Series will run on Saturday, June 22 and Saturday, July 13 alongside performances of Onegin and Romeo and Juliet, respectively.

The day-long experience can be purchased for $250, including workshop fees, pre-performance talk, and one Orchestra ticket to attend the evening performance at the Metropolitan Opera House. For more information, visit ABT’s website.

 

Single Tickets

Single tickets for American Ballet Theatre’s 2024 Summer season at the Metropolitan Opera House will be on sale beginning Monday, April 22 at 12:00 P.M. Tickets can be purchased by phone at 212-362-6000, in person at the Met Box Office, or online at ABT’s website. Tickets start at $30. The Metropolitan Opera House is located on Broadway between 64th and 65th streets in New York City.

Ticket holders for the 2024 Summer season at the Metropolitan Opera House may exchange tickets up until noon the day of the performance at no charge, minus any difference in the ticket price. We regret that there are no refunds or cancellations.

 

Discounted Tickets and Student Ticket Policy

American Ballet Theatre offers $12-30 advance tickets and day of rush tickets for any full-time undergraduate or graduate student. A valid student ID is required. Tickets are subject to availability and require advance registration on the Met website. Limit two tickets per person, per performance.

American Ballet Theatre offers $35 orchestra day of rush tickets to the general public for all performances. Two tickets may be purchased for one performance every seven days. Tickets are subject to availability and require advance registration on the Met website.

American Ballet Theatre offers theatergoers under 30 years old $30 advance tickets to select performances. A limited number of tickets are available. Tickets are subject to availability and require an ID for pick up. Limit two tickets per person, per performance.

*All casting, programming, and pricing are subject to change.

 

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®.

 

Swan Lake is generously underwritten by R. Chemers Neustein.

American Ballet Theatre’s performances of Romeo and Juliet are generously underwritten through an endowed gift from Ali and Monica Wambold.

Leadership support of ABT’s New Works Initiative is provided by the Blavatnik Family Foundation, 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 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.

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