FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 7, 2005

Festival Ballet Providence, 401.353.1129

February 10-12 Love takes Center Stage with “Balanchine & MORE! Way cool and way hot!”
Triple Bill: Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante and World Premieres by Gianni Di Marco and Viktor Plotnikov

Providence, RI -

Festival Ballet Providence continues its tradition of celebrating Valentine’s Day weekend with romance at VMA Arts & Cultural Center with a triple bill of three aspects of love, by three talented choreographers: George Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante, and world premieres by Gianni Di Marco and Viktor Plotnikov.

Festival Ballet Providence Artistic Director Mihailo Djuric has assembled a thrilling evening of dance by foreign-born American choreographers, all three with an uncanny flair for innovation and style

The program opens with Balanchine’s elegant and light Allegro Brillante. Arguably the greatest choreographer of the 20th century, George Balanchine (1904-1983) created this work in 1956 toTchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 3 Op. 75 for five couples. Maria Talchief, the ballerina on whom the bravura leading role was created, noted the work as characterized by “an expansive Russian romanticism”. The ballet relies on strong dancing, precise timing, and breadth of gesture. The music’s vigorous pace makes the steps appear even more difficult. Balanchine, who came to the US in 1933 from the Soviet Union, was inspired by his new-found freedom in this country to use the strong classical base to create a brilliantly new, contemporary style that revolutionized the look of classical ballet and helped catapult New York City Ballet to one of the preeminent dance companies in the world. He remarked that Allegro Brillante “contains everything I know about the classical ballet in 13 minutes.”

The Balanchine Foundation, the organization which holds the rights to all of Mr. Balanchine’s works, viewed previous performances of the company and allowed Festival Ballet Providence to perform Allegro Brillante. A representative from the Trust, Elyse Borne, will be setting the work on Festival Ballet Providence’s company during the first week in January (January 3-7). A dancer with New York City Ballet for 13 years during the 70’s and 80’s, Ms. Borne has an intimate knowledge of Balanchine’s works, and has been staging ballets for the George Balanchine Trust since 1994. To date she has staged more than 30 of his ballets for numerous major ballet companies nationally and internationally.

Gianni Di Marco, who was commissioned to create Festival Ballet Provience’s stunning world premiere of Scheherazade one year ago, will choreograph Azúcar, a captivating and sultry new work based on the music of famed Cuban singer Celia Cruz. With a movement style that is both contemporary and sensual, Mr. Di Marco will create a work that further expands Festival Ballet Providence’s contemporary repertory, and brings the company’s dancers to new choreographic territory.

Celia Cruz’s career spanned six decades, starting humbly in Cuba on radio, leading in 1950 to a long-term relationship lasting until 1965 with the band, Sonora Matancera, eventually becoming a world acclaimed artist. Her powerful voice and distinctive style lead to fame on radio and then tours throughout South America. By the time she reached New York in 1960, she had already hewn her skills at improvisation and created a larger than life stage persona, and joined a talented group of Latino musicians who were creating the brash new sound of salsa. She grew to be the Queen of Salsa, one of the few women to succeed in the male-dominated world of salsa music. The title, Azúcar, is taken from her famous rallying cry, her way of injecting the music with that extra serving of sabor, and an allusion to the vibrant diversity of Cuban culture and to the African slaves who worked Cuba’s sugar plantations. Her life (1925-2003) and colorful career are the subject of a retrospective exhibit at the National Museum of American History in Washington, CD, “Azúcar, the Life and Music of Celia Cruz.”

Viktor Plotnikov, a rising choreographer on the international scene, has created two of Festival Ballet Providence’s signature productions, Carmen and The Widow’s Broom. He has also created numerous works for Raw Dance, was invited to create works for the famed Bolshoi Ballet, and won the Choreography Prize at the 2005 Helsinki International Ballet Competition. Arriving in the US from the Ukraine in 1991, Mr. Plotnikov has found inspiration both in his adopted home and abroad for a uniquely organic and expressive style that is truly home-grown, and is accumulating a growing cadre of fans throughout the world.

Balanchine and MORE! will be performed February 10-12th at the VMA Arts & Cultural Center, 1 Avenue of the Arts, with performances at 7:30 pm Friday, 7:30 pm Saturday, and 2:30 pm Sunday. Reserved tickets (priced from $16 to $61) and subscriptions to the remaining season are available by contacting www.tickets.com; 800.919.6272; Festival Ballet Providence, 401.353.1129; the VMA Arts & Cultural Center (401.272.4862) during box office hours; or by visiting www.festivalballet.com . Email inquiries may be directed to info@festivalballet.com. Group, senior and child discounts are available.

This production is made possible in part by season television sponsor NBC10, Coast 93.3, VMA Arts & Cultural Center and ongoing operating support from 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.

For photos or to contact any of the artists, please contact Mark Fleisher, Tel 401.353.1129 or mfleisher@festivalballet.com.

SELECTED BIOS:

George Balanchine Biography
Courtesy of the George Balanchine Foundation

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, George Balanchine (1904-1983) is regarded as the foremost contemporary choreographer in the world of ballet. He came to the United States in late 1933, at the age of 29, accepting the invitation of the young American arts patron Lincoln Kirstein (1907-96), whose great passions included the dream of creating a ballet company in America. At Balanchine's behest, Kirstein was also prepared to support the formation of an American academy of ballet that would eventually rival the long-established schools of Europe.

This was the School of American Ballet, founded in 1934, the first product of the Balanchine-Kirstein collaboration. Several ballet companies directed by the two were created and dissolved in the years that followed, while Balanchine found other outlets for his choreography. Eventually, with a performance on October 11, 1948, the New York City Ballet was born. Balanchine served as its ballet master and principal choreographer from 1948 until his death in 1983.

Balanchine's more than 400 dance works include Serenade (1934), Concerto Barocco (1941), Le Palais de Cristal, later renamed Symphony in C (1947), Orpheus (1948), The Nutcracker (1954), Agon (1957), Symphony in Three Movements (1972), Stravinsky Violin Concerto (1972), Vienna Waltzes (1977), Ballo della Regina (1978), and Mozartiana (1981). His final ballet, a new version of Stravinsky's Variations for Orchestra , was created in 1982.

He also choreographed for films, operas, revues, and musicals. Among his best-known dances for the stage is Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, originally created for Broadway's On Your Toes (1936). The musical was later made into a movie.

A major artistic figure of the twentieth century, Balanchine revolutionized the look of classical ballet. Taking classicism as his base, he heightened, quickened, expanded, streamlined, and even inverted the fundamentals of the 400-year-old language of academic dance. This had an inestimable influence on the growth of dance in America. Although at first his style seemed particularly suited to the energy and speed of American dancers, especially those he trained, his ballets are now performed by all the major classical ballet companies throughout the world.

For more extensive information about George Balanchine and his works, visit www.balanchine.org

Gianni Di Marco (choreographer)
Gianni Di Marco, a native of Venezuela, began his dance training in 1981, in the Professional Division of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School in Canada. He has also studied with The National Ballet of Canada, the Ballet Nacional de Cuba, and in Banff under the direction of Laura Alonso. After becoming a member of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in 1988, Di Marco was the first recipient of the Arnold Spohr Scholarship.

At Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Gianni was promoted to second soloist in 1990 and then first soloist the following year. Prior to joining Boston Ballet in 1995, he danced with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. In 1997, Di Marco took a leave of absence from Boston Ballet to dance with Germany’s Oper Leipzig Ballet under the direction of Uwe Scholz. He danced in many of Scholz’s new works. He continued at Boston Ballet until retiring at the end of the 2004-2005 Season. Di Marco teaches Boston Ballet’s Adaptive Dance Program, created for children with Downs Syndrome, and in 2005 was named Principal of Citydance, Boston Ballet’s outreach program which reaches 5,000 Boston public school children a year.

Gianni has a great interest in choreography. He has created a number of works for a variety of institutions throughout the region, including many Boston Ballet fundraising galas, The Wang Theatre’s 75th Anniversary Generations Gala performance, Dartmouth College, Boston Flute Association, and Dance on the Top Floor. He also has created dances at the Oper Liepzig Choreography Workshop. Di Marco created a new work for Alvin Ailey American Dance Center’s Summer Dance Program. He was assistant choreographer in productions such as Aida, La Traviata and Akhnaten for the Boston Lyric Opera, and the Huntington Theatre Company’s The Mikado. Di Marco recently created new works for Raw Dance, cutting edge creations by Boston Ballet dancers. In 2003 Mr. DiMarco’s Killing Time was performed for Festival Ballet Providence’s inaugural Up CLOSE, on HOPE performance. In 2005 he was commissioned by Festival Ballet Providence to create Schéhérazade, which received its world premiere in February 2005 to glowing reviews. His Amphibious Love was performed at the company’s most recent Up CLOSE on HOPE program.

**Viktor Plotnikov: (Choreographer)**

Viktor was born in Kharkov City, Ukraine, and began his training at the age of 11 at the Kiev-Ukraine School and continued at the St. Petersburg Ballet Academy. From 1987 to 1990 he was a soloist with Donetsk Ballet Company in the Ukraine. In 1990 Viktor joined Ballet Mississippi as a principal dancer. Additionally he has appeared as a guest artist with Tulsa Ballet Theatre and Dance Inc, and has toured Russia and the US.

In 1993 he joined Boston Ballet as principal dancer, performing major roles in the company’s classical and contemporary repertory including the title role in Onegin, Conrad in Le Corsaire, Albrecht in Giselle, Prince Desire in The Sleeping Beauty, Cavalier, Snow King and Dr. Drosselmeyer in The Nutcracker, Solor in La Bayadere, Dracula in Dracula, and “Tico-Tico” in Paul Taylor’s Company B. He has created roles in the World Premieres of Tharp’s Waterbaby Bagatelles, Spencer/Colton’s Before Ever After, and Daniel Pelzig’s Nine Lives: Songs of Lyle Lovett, The Princess and the Pea, and Flights and Fancy. His repertoire also includes Balanchine’s Divertimento No. 15, Theme and Variations and The Four Temperaments, Roland Petit’s Le Jeune Homme et La Mort, Mark Morris’ Maelstrom, Rudi van Dantzig’s Four Last Songs, and Laszlo Berdo’s Below Down Under.

Recently Plotnikov has created works specifically for Boston Ballet dancers and members of Boston Ballet II. He has choreographed a number of works for institutions throughout the region, including performances in Boston Ballet’s Grand Studio, Dance on the Top Floor, Company performances in Nantucket, and Khachaturian’s Centennial at Boston Conservatory. Plotinokov created solos and duets, performed at International Gala Performances. His most recent creations include works for the 2002 International Ballet Competition in Jackson MS. Plotnikov also created two one act ballet’s My Impressions, set to symphonic Pink Floyd and Short Stories for A Small Magazine for the Dancer’s Resource Fund, and at the well received choreographic event Raw Dance in collaboration with Boston Ballet and Boston Center for the Arts.

In 2003 Festival Ballet Providence Artistic Director Mihailo Djuric commissioned Mr. Plotnikov to create a two-act production of Carmen. The world premiere took place October 3-5, 2003, opening Festival Ballet Providence’s 26th season with standing ovations for all three performances. It was again performed in April 2005 to close the company’s 27th season. Festival Ballet Providence opened it’s 27th season with the premiere of Mr. Plotnikov’s collaborative production of The Widow’s Broom, with story by Chris Van Allsburg, original score by Alexandra Vrevalov, set design by Eugene Lee, lighting design by Alan Pickart, and costume design by Ka Yan Kan. He left days after that premiere to create a new work for the Bolshoi Ballet under the artistic direction of Alexei Ratmansky. Plotnikov’s sublime Elegant Souls was featured as part of Festival Ballet Providence’s Up CLOSE on HOPE series in March., 2005.

Mr. Plotnikov is married to Boston Ballet principal dancer Larissa Ponomarenko.

Elyse Borne (Ballet Repetiteur)
Setting Allegro Brillante on Festival Ballet Providence
Elyse Borne began her dance training in her Native Los Angeles, and finished it at the School of American Ballet in New York as a recipient of a Ford Foundation scholarship. She was invited to join the New York City Ballet where she danced for thirteen and half years, being promoted to soloist in 1983.

Her principal roles performed there include George Balanchine's The Nutcracker (sharing a debut with Mikhail Baryshnikov), Vienna Waltzes, Apollo, Harlequinade, Tchaikovsky Suite #3, Divertimento #15, Symphony in C, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Union Jack, Emeralds and Jerome Robbins' The Goldberg Variations, Dances at a Gathering and The Four Seasons.

During this time, she also made several television appearances in Dance in America and Live from Lincoln Center as well as Live from Studio 8h, a Jerome Robbins Special and Ruth Page's The Merry Widow. She traveled nationally and internationally on concert tours with Mikhail Baryshnikov, Peter Martins, Suzanne Farrel, Jean Pierre Bonnefous, Patricia McBride and Edward Villella.

In 1986, she became the principal ballet mistress for the Miami City Ballet. In 1994, she began devoting herself full-time to staging ballets for the George Balanchine Trust and teaching. She has staged more than 30 ballets for the Miami City Ballet, the Boston Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Louisville Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Singapore Dance Theatre, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Central Ballet of China, Alberta Ballet, Kirov Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, South African Ballet Theatre, Ballet West, Norwegian National Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, and the San Francisco Ballet, among others. Borne has also taught and coached at the Royal Swedish Ballet. She joined the Artistic staff of San Francisco Ballet as a Ballet Mistress from 1997-2002. She is currently staging ballets nationally and worldwide.