10 Performances April 1 to 10, 2004

Press Contact: Tim Choy, Laura Shane at 323/954-7510

DANCE AT THE MUSIC CENTER

Program of Mixed Repertory
Four Performances April 1, 2, 6, & 7
“Petite Mort” Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; Choreographed by Jiri Kylian
“Sechs T√§nze” Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; Choreographed by Jiri Kylian
“Pillar of Fire” Music by Arnold Schoenberg; Choreographed by Antony Tudor
“Within You Without You: A Tribute to George Harrison”
Choreographed by David Parsons, Ann Reinking, Natalie Weir and Stanton Welch

American Ballet Theatre, led by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie, will return to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Music Center for a ten performance engagement as part of the inaugural season of Dance at the Music Center.

The season is highlighted by six performances of Kenneth MacMillan’s “Romeo and Juliet” to the Prokofiev score performed April 3 and 4 and April 8-9-10. The richly textured “Romeo and Juliet” remains one of the Company’s most romantic, heart-wrenching, and enduring works. A gala benefitting American Ballet Theatre and Dance at the Music Center will take place on the opening night performance of “Romeo and Juliet.”

The season opens with a program of Mixed Repertory headed by two Jiri Kylian pieces “Petite Mort” and “Sechs T√§nze,” both to music of Mozart, the 1942 Antony Tudor classic “Pillar of Fire” to music of Arnold Schoenberg, and closes with “Within You, Without You: A Tribute to George Harrison,” choreographed by Ann Reinking, David Parsons, Natalie Weir and Stanton Welch to recordings of Harrison.

Nine of American Ballet Theatre’s principal dancers will lead casts of “Romeo and Juliet” opening with Xiomara Reyes and Ethan Stiefel on Saturday, April 3 at 7 pm. Paloma Herrera and Marcelo Gomes will dance Sunday April 4 at 2 pm and Friday April 9 at 8 pm. Ashley Tuttle and Angel Corella dance Thursday, April 8 at 8 pm; Alessandra Ferri and Mr. Corella are paired on Saturday, April 10 at 8 pm. Irina Dvorovenko and Maxim Beloserkovsky dance on Saturday April 10 matinee at 2 pm.

Both “Romeo and Juliet” and the mixed repertory program will later be performed at American Ballet Theatre’s Lincoln Center Metropolitan Opera House engagement in June 2004.

Tickets for "Romeo and Juliet" and the Mixed Repertory at the Music Center, priced from $25.00 to $85.00, are available at the Box Offices at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 North Grand Avenue, and through Ticketmaster Phone Charge at 213/365-3500 or 714/740-7878, online at www.ticketmaster.com, and at all Ticketmaster Outlets including Tower Records, Robinsons-May, Wherehouse Music, Tu Musica, and Ritmo Latino.

About the Repertory

Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s “Romeo and Juliet” received its World Premiere by The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London on February 9, 1965; it was given its American Ballet Theatre Company Premiere in Washington, D. C. at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on January 3, 1985. MacMillan – one of the century’s great choreographers (New York Times September 12, 1993) – was a founding member of the Sadler’s Wells (now Royal) Theatre Ballet. MacMillan made his first experimental workshop ballets for SWTB leading to the company to commission the Stravinsky ballet “Danses Concertantes” in 1955.

Thereafter MacMillan gradually abandoned dancing for his true vocation – choreography. During a period of remarkable creativity, MacMillan seemed to turn with ease from plotless ballets to big company works. Then in 1965 came MacMillan’s first full-length ballet “Romeo and Juliet,” created on Lynn Seymour and Christopher Gable, and then danced by Margot Fonteyn and Rudolph Nureyev at the world premiere and the film version.

The full-evening ballet, conceived on a grand scale for a great opera house like Covent Garden (and now performed by American Ballet Theatre at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Music Center), became a challenge MacMillan was to face on many more occasions — to show the strength of The Royal Ballet, and to give tremendous roles to its foremost artists. MacMillan was director of The Royal Ballet from 1970 until 1977 when he resigned to devote himself to choreography. He was much honored for his services to British Ballet, culminating in his Knighthood in 1983.

For American Ballet Theatre, where he was Artistic Associate from 1984 to 1989, MacMillan created “Winter’s Eve” to music by Benjamin Britten with designs by Nicholas Georgiadis (a frequent collaborator) in 1957. In 1981, he created “The Wild Boy” for the Company, danced by Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov, staged “Triad” inn 1984, one act of “Anastasia” and the full “Romeo and Juliet” in 1985 and added “Requiem” in 1986, and “The Sleeping Beauty” in 1987.

“Petite Mort,” choreographed by Jiri Kylian to music of Mozart, was given its World Premiere at the Salzburg Festival on August 23, 1991 at the Kleines Festspielhaus, Salzburg, Germany and was given its American Ballet Theatre Company Premiere at City Center, New York on October 30, 2003. Kylian created this ballet especially for the Salzburg Festival on the second centenary of Mozart’s death choosing the slow movements of two of Mozart’s most beautiful and popular piano concertos.

“This deliberate choice should not be seen as a provocation or thoughtlessness – rather as my way to acknowledge the fact that I am living and working as part of a world where nothing is sacred, where brutality and arbitrariness are commonplace. It should convey the idea of two antique torsos, heads and limbs cut off – evidence of intended mutilation – without being able to destroy their beauty reflecting the spiritual power of their creator.”

The choreography includes six men, six women and six foils. The foils have the function to be actual dance partners, and, at times, seem more unruly and obstinate than a partner of flesh and blood. They visualize a symbolism, which is more present than a story line. Aggression, sexuality, energy, silence, cultivated senselessness and vulnerability – they all play a significant part. "Petite Mort," literally meaning “small death” serves as a paraphrase for orgasm in French and Arabic. The costumes are by Joke Visser.

Kylian’s “Sechs T√§nze” received its World Premiere by the Nederlands Dans Theatre at the Het Muziektheater, Amsterdam on October 24, 1986 and was given its American Ballet Theatre Company Premiere at City Center, New York on October 30, 2003. Kylian said, “Two centuries separate us from the time Mozart wrote his German Dances. A historical period shaped considerably by wars, revolutions and all sorts of upheavals. With this mind, I found it impossible to simply create different dance numbers reflecting merely the humor and musical brilliance of the composer.”

“Instead, I have set six seemingly nonsensical acts, which obviously ignore their surroundings. They are dwarfed in face of the ever-present troubled world, which most of us for some unspecified reason carry in our souls. Although the entertaining quality of Mozart’s “Sechs T√§nze” enjoys great general popularity, it shouldn’t only be regarded as a burlesque. Its humor ought to serve as a vehicle to point towards our relative values. Mozart’s ability to react upon difficult circumstances with a self-preserving outburst of nonsensical poetry is well known.”

“Pillar of Fire,” one of the great works of the American Ballet Theatre repertory, received its world premiere by American Ballet Theatre on April 8, 1942 at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York. This new production, staged by Donald Mahler with scenery and costumes by Robert Perdziola, was given its World Premiere by American Ballet Theatre at City Center, New York on October 23, 2003. This is the first time ABT has presented “Pillar of Fire” since 1990. The music for Antony Tudor’s “Pillar of Fire,” Arnold Schoenberg’s “Verkl√§rte Nacht” (Transfigured Night) was inspired by a nineteenth century two-character German poem “Weib und die Welt” (Woman and the World).

Set in a time when a child born out of wedlock was not condoned in polite society, the poem deals with a pregnant woman who is afraid that her fiancé will not marry her. He, being truly in love with her, accepts the fact and tells her that the child will be considered his. Tudor has taken this theme for “Pillar of Fire” and in pure dance terms tells the emotionally complex story of jealousy, longings, flirtations, ostracism, and finally love involving three sisters – an elder spinster, the middle who desperately wants love, marriage and a family, and the youngest, a flirtatious girl who can have anyone — who live in a small town at the turn of the century.

The program is concluded with “Within You Without You: A Tribute to George Harrison.” Performed to his recordings, the work features choreography by Ann Reinking, Stanton Welch, David Parsons, and Natalie Weir – each of whom created a new ballet to vintage Harrison songs, including "My Sweet Lord," "Something," "Within You Without You," "I Dig Love," "Isn’t a Pity," and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

About American Ballet Theatre

American Ballet Theatre, founded in 1940, is recognized as one of the great dance companies of the world, and is a living national treasure. The Washington Post recently wrote, “Once in a not too frequent while there comes along an evening that reminds you what dancing is ‚Ķ such an evening is American Ballet Theatre.”

ABT annually tours the United States and has appeared in all 50 states, performing for more than 600,000 people, and is the only major ballet company to do so. It has also made more than 15 international tours, appearing in 126 cities in 42 countries. As a result, ABT is perhaps the most recognized and presented American ballet company, and it has been sponsored by the United States Department of State on many of these engagements.

The repertoire, perhaps unmatched in the history of ballet, includes all of the full-length ballets of the nineteenth century, such as "Swan Lake," "The Sleeping Beauty" and "Giselle," the finest works from the early part of the 20th century, as well as acclaimed contemporary masterpieces.

In addition to acquiring such an extraordinary repertoire, ABT has commissioned works by all of the great choreographic geniuses of the 20th century: George Balanchine, Anthony Tudor, Jerome Robbins, Agnes de Mille, and Twyla Tharp, among others.

Kevin McKenzie is the Artistic Director of ABT. He was appointed in 1992, after a tenure as Principal Dancer dating from 1980-91. Mr. McKenzie, steadfast in his vision of ABT as “American,” is committed to maintaining the company’s vast repertoire, and to bringing the magic of dance theater to the great stages of the world.

Kevin McKenzie was a leading dancer with both the National Ballet of Washington and The Joffrey Ballet before joining American Ballet Theatre as a Soloist in March, 1979. He was appointed a Principal Dancer the following December and danced with the Company until 1991. As a Principal Dancer with ABT, Mr. McKenzie danced leading roles in all of the major full-length classics.

Calendar Listing for America Ballet Theatre

10 Performances April 1-10, 2004

“Romeo and Juliet” Six performances – April 3-4, April 8-10
Music by Sergei Prokofiev; Choreography by Kenneth MacMillan
Program of Mixed Repertory Four Performances Thursday, April 1 at 7:30 pm,
Friday, April 2 at 8 pm; Tuesday, April 6, at 8 pm; & Wednesday, April 7 at 8 pm
“Petite Mort” Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; Choreographed by Jiri Kylian
“Sechs T√§nze” Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; Choreographed by Jiri Kylian
“Pillar of Fire” Music by Arnold Schoenberg; Choreographed by Antony Tudor
“Within You Without You: A Tribute to George Harrison”
Choreographed by David Parsons, Ann Reinking, Natalie Weir and Stanton Welch

Engagement by date:
Thur 4/1 (Rep) 7:30 pm; Fri 4/2 (Rep) 8 pm; Sat 4/3 (RJ) 7 pm; Sun 4/4 mat (RJ) 2 pm
Tue 4/6 (Rep) 8 pm; Wed 4/7 (Rep) 8 pm; Thur 4/8 (RJ) 8 pm;
Fri 4/9 (RJ) 8 pm; Sat 4/10 mat (RJ) 2 pm; Sat 4/10 eve (RJ) 8 pm

Casting for “Romeo and Juliet”
Sat Apr 3 – 7 pm Xiomara Reyes and Ethan Stiefel
Sun Apr 4 – 2 pm, Fri Apr 9 – 8 pm Paloma Herrera and Marcelo Gomes

Thur Apr 8 – 8 pm Ashley Tuttle and Angel Corella

Sat Apr 10 mat – 2 pm Irina Dvorovenko and Maxim Beloserkovsky

Sat Apr 10 eve – 8 pm Alessandra Ferri and Angel Corella

Theatre: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Music Center
135 North Grand Avenue, Los Angeles

Tickets: $25, $35, $50, $85

Phone – Ticketmaster Phone Charge 213/365-3500 or 714/740-7878

Online – www.ticketmaster.com or www.musiccenter.org

In Person – Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Box Office, 135 N.Grand Ave.
Ticketmaster Outlets including Tower Records, Robinsons-May, Wherehouse Music, Tu Musica, and Ritmo Latino.
Mail/Fax — Single Ticket (Music Center PDF Printable Form)

Groups: 15 or more, call Connie Nelson at 310/446-4398

Information: Online — www.musiccenter.org
Music Center Dance information line – 213/972-0711
About American Ballet Theatre online — www.abt.org

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