FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 5, 2007
CONTACT: Mark Fleisher:
Festival Ballet Providence, 401.353.1129
Up CLOSE, on HOPE
Program 1: Three Weekends of Thrilling Dance
November 2007
Providence, RI -
| Program: | Up CLOSE on HOPE, program II performances |
| Date: | November 3, 4, 10, 11, & 17, 2007 |
| Time: | |
| Place: | Festival Ballet Providence Black Box Theater, 825 Hope Street, Providence, RI |
| Cost: | $40, includes performance and intermission wine and hors d’oeuvres. Subscriptions still available, for Nov & March programs, $75 pp. |
| Program: | Includes numerous contemporary ballets in an intimate setting, by choreographers including, Colleen Cavanaugh, Mark Harootian, Jolanta Veleikaite, Petr Ostaltsov and Mihailo Djuric, performed by the Company’s international roster of dancers. |
| Information: | Vist www.festivalballet.com , write info@festivalballet.com or call 401.353.1129. |
Festival Ballet Providence’s award-winning series, Up CLOSE, on HOPE, showcasing exciting mixed repertory works in an intimate studio setting, opens for three weekends in November. The program will include a dynamic and varied program of world and company premieres, representing a broad span of choreographic talent. Up CLOSE on HOPE performances offer the chance to see thrilling, original contemporary dance in close proximity, to meet the dancers, and to mingle with the evening’s choreographers. Up CLOSE on HOPE is a unique way for audiences to see dance!
The performances will take place November 3, 4, 10, 11, and 17 at the company’s East Side studios at 825 Hope Street on Saturdays at 7:30 pm and on Sundays at 6:00 pm in the Leach Grand Studio black box theater, for a limited audience of 90. The November performances will feature an enhanced theater facility, with an updated electrical system, a new dimmer panel, increased number of lights, and curtains. Financial support for the improvements comes from significant gifts from Fidelity Investments, the State of Rhode Island, and generous individual donors.
The success of Up CLOSE, on HOPE is largely due to the intimacy of the theater and the quality of the wide ranging repertory chosen by Festival Ballet Providence Artistic Director Mihailo Djuric. The program is intended to expand the audience’s taste for dance, to showcase established and rising choreographers, and to provide numerous challenging roles to the dancers in the company.
Colleen Cavanaugh’s Queen Bee, created for the 2007 Pawtucket Arts Festival, is one of the company premieres. Founder of Cadence Dance Project, Cavanaugh has created a metaphorical work to Vivaldi that examines her own relationship with her teenage daughter, the time repeated power struggle of two women to reach a dominant position in their transforming relationship.
Company member Mark Harootian, who has created numerous works for Up CLOSE on HOPE including last year’s audience favorite Armenian Moves, will present four movements to the music of Regina Spektor as a work-in-progress of a larger work destined to be part of the company’s main-stage series in the future. He will also set a pas de trios, an excerpt from a larger work created in 2004 for Utah Ballet in homage to the Hindu god Vishnu, set to the Indian folk fusion music of composer Cheb I Sabbah.
Former Company member Petr Ostaltsov will set the pas de trios from The Fairy Doll on company dancers. Featuring a woman and two Pierrot suitors, it is a very entertaining work, regularly performed by the great Russian ballet companies, with original 19th century choreography by Marius Petipa, revised by Nikolai and Sergei Legat. The music by Riccardo Drigo is renowned for its beauty.
Ballet Mistress Milica Bijelic is setting the Grand Pas de Deux from Le Corsaire on two couples. First year Ballet Mistress Jolanta Valeikaite and newcomer to the Up CLOSE series, will stage an original work, in several movements tentatively titled To Maestro Fellini. Djuric has added two of his own works for the program; his own Bronze Prize winning romantic duet, For Susan, and the pas de deux from his original work about the blues singer Billie Holiday, toDay. He will be adding several more works to round out the evening performance including Gianni Di Marco’s memorable and passionate Je Ne T’Aime Pas created in March for Djuric’s 50th Birthday performance.
Audience members will have the opportunity to explore the delectable bounty offered on Hope Street with hors d’oeuvres and wine intermissions sponsored by neighboring East Side restaurants. The intermission sponsors for the November performances are
Oak, Pizzico, Twist on Angell, Seven Stars Bakery and Farmstead Cheese/La Laiterie, accompanied by wines courtesy of Laurine Ryan Perry and the Martignetti Companies of Rhode Island.
Tickets are available for $40 as general admission seating. Subscription are still available for the November and March programs, for $75. Subscribers receive the benefits of ticket exchange and preferred seating section. Tickets are available by contacting Festival Ballet Providence, 401.353.1129. For further information, send email inquiries to info@festivalballet.com.
For additional information about upcoming programs visit www.festivalballet.com
The 2007-2008 Up CLOSE on HOPE series is made possible in part by Up CLOSE on HOPE sponsor GLADWORKS, and additional support from NBC10, Acadia Consulting and the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts.
##
The Festival Ballet Providence and the Festival Ballet Providence Center for Dance Education are together a not-for-profit arts organization whose EIN is 05-0377245 and whose Rhode Island Corporate ID number is ND-27-137.
Intermission sponsors for Up CLOSE on HOPE are:
November 3 Restaurant Oak
November 4 Pizzico
November 10 Twist on Angell
November 11 Pizzico
November 17 Seven Stars Bakery with Farmstead/La Laiterie
Wines for the intermissions will be provided courtesy of the Martignetti Companies of Rhode Island and Laurine Ryan Perry.
BIOS: Guest Choreographers
Colleen Cavanaugh, Guest Choreographer
Colleen Cavanaugh danced professionally in New York and Europe before returning to her native Rhode Island to complete a medical degree at Brown University. She choreographed for and directed Cadence Dance Project for four years and is now working as an independent choreographer, making ballets for regional companies and college dance programs. Cavanaugh received a Rhode Island State Council on the Arts fellowship in choreography as well as several project grants. Two of her ballets were selected and presented by Ballet Builders in New York City, a showcase for contemporary ballet. Her choreography has been presented in New England, New York and Europe. Her commissioned work, I Corpi Celesti, inspired by Galileo, was premiered in May 2003 by Festival Ballet Providence to great acclaim. Ms. Cavanaugh’s works have been featured regularly for the Up CLOSE on HOPE series including Caress, Demeter’s Tears, Schumann Songs, Scarlet Tangents and Little Girl Blue. Colleen is also a practicing Obstetrician/Gynecologist and is an Assistant Clinical Professor at Brown University School of Medicine.
Mark A. Harootian, Company member, Guest Choreographer
A native of Worcester, Massachusetts, Mark received his early training from the Performing Arts School of Worcester dancing with the Worcester Youth Ballet and Burncoat Senior High’s dance department. He matriculated to University of Utah’s ballet department on scholarship and as a member of Utah Ballet, graduating with a BFA, emphasis on performing and teaching. There Mark performed and choreographed in many of the department’s seasonal shows as well as dancing many leading roles with Utah Ballet. In addition Mark has performed at Disney’s Epcot Center, the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics Medal Plaza, the Festival of White Nights in Pushkin Russia. Aside from memorable roles including The Captain in Carmen, The Sailor in Con Amore and Doug Spivey in The Widow’s Broom, Mark has captivated audiences and inspired his colleagues by choreographing new works Breaking the Limits, Let it Go for a While, Mutable Air and his most recent premiere, Armenian Moves for the Up CLOSE, on HOPE series. Awarded a choreography grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts in 2007, Mark will continue to pursue this talent for choreography.. This is Mark’s fourth season with Festival Ballet Providence.
Jolanta Valeikaite
Ballet Mistress
Born and raised in Vilnius, Lithuania, Ms. Valeikaite received her training from the Vilnius Ballet School. As a student she received her break through at age 18, in her debut in the title role of Giselle, whereupon she was promoted to soloist in the Lithuanian National Ballet Company. Her coaches included T. Legat, I. Kolpakova and P. Gusev. A principal for 10 years with the company, Jolanta danced numerous principal roles including those in Swan Lake, Giselle, Cinderella, The Sleeping Beauty, Raymonda, and Romeo & Juliet, and toured extensively in the Unites States, South America, and Europe. In 1988 she received prizes in international ballet competitions in Moscow, Varna and Paris.
Moving to Germany in 1992, Ms. Valeikaite was principal at Bonn Ballet (1992-1994), and at Essen Ballet (1994-1997). Additionally she has appeared as guest artist at numerous other companies including V. Vasiliev-E.Maximova Company, the Bolshoi, Xin Peng Wang and Ruth Page’s Nutcracker. She continues to collaborate with the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theater on numerous projects. From 1998 to 2001 she established, directed and instructed at her own ballet School in Bonn. Since 2003 she has been Ballet Mistress and choreographer for the Performing Arts School of Worcester, as well as teaching in several other dance schools. This is Yolanta’s first year in this position at Festival Ballet Providence.
