Don’t Miss: Festival Ballet Gala ‘Together We Dance 2’
Saturday, September 22, 2012
National Ballet of Canada's Greta Hodgkinson returns to her RI roots to perform at Together We Dance 2, returning Oct 10 to The Vets.
Back for the second year by popular demand, Together We Dance 2 will include a lineup of some of the most treasured national and international artists. Curtain time is 7:30 pm.
Together We Dance
Together We Dance was produced last year as a benefit concert in 2011, to help FBP through a difficult financial time. The dance community, from as far away as Lithuania, came out to support the company, as did the Rhode Island community. The success of the program helped kick start a successful 2011-2012 season. The enthusiasm of the community and of the performers who contributed their time and talent was the impetus for this year’s event. The Gala Performance this year will launch the company’s landmark 35th season.
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This performance is dedicated to the memory of two long-time dear friends and supporters of Festival Ballet Providence: John Sapinsley and Iona Blake Dobbins.
“We lost two of Rhode Island’s most outstanding patrons of the arts this past year," said Misha Djuric, FBP Artistic Director. "The company wanted to acknowledge their infinite support and commitment to the arts, and to us, over the years. This performance will be dedicated in their memory.”
Djuric said that while the first year's program had not been considered an annaul event, "We were encouraged by the outpouring of support and excitement it generated," he said, "both within our community and the dance world. This year’s program will continue the tradition we established last year in bringing some of the finest dancers of today to perform together, in celebration of dance and of our company.”
Featured performer: Greta Hodgkinson
One of the stars of this year’s event is one of the world’s most exciting dancers, Greta Hodgkinson. FBP is thrilled to have her joining in this Gala performance. A Providence native, she will be dancing in Rhode Island for the first time since she was 11 years old, when she was a student at FBP. Greta has been a principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada since 1996, and has been revered for her performance of Fokine’s Dying Swan, one of the three pieces she will perform at Together We Dance. Her performance on the Vets stage will give her grandparents, who are Providence residents and do not travel, their first experience seeing her dance professionally. She will be joined on stage by her husband, Etienne Lavigne, a native of Montréal, Québec, First Soloist with The National Ballet of Canada, and winner of the David Tory Award for his performance in the TV docudrama, Nureyev.
Returning artists
Several artists are back this year, including New York City Ballet's principal dancer, Ana Sophia Scheller and American Ballet Theatre's award-winning Joseph Phillips, in a rare performance outside of New York. They will perform the Black Swan Pas de Deux. Daniel Ulbricht, principal dancer with the New York City Ballet will dance a few exciting solos that have been audience favorites of throughout the world. Boston Ballet's, Misa Kuranaga, will be accompanied by Armenian native Avetik Karapetian, who joined the Boston Ballet last season as a soloist. Together they will dance the Grand Pas de Deux from Don Quixote, guaranteed to heat up the house.
For the first time, soloist Tom Mattingly and demi-soloist, Beckanne Sisk from Salt Lake City’s Ballet West are joining Together We Dance in the Grand Pas de Deux from Esmeralda. Both of them appeared in the BBC Worldwide production of the reality series, “Breaking Pointe,” which took an intense, unfiltered look at Ballet West, considered one of the most competitive ballet companies in the country. The program aired on the CW Network this past summer.
Hometown performers
Participating FBP artists are the venerated couple from the company, Mindaugas Bauzys and Vilia Putrius, who will perform the pas de deux from Agon, and Spring, a neoclassical work by Lithuanian choreographer, Egidijus Domeika. Newcomer to the FBP roster, Ruth Bronwen-Whitney will give audiences a sneak peek of Viktor Plotnikov’s upcoming commissioned work, Orchis. Both Agon and Orchis will be premiering later this year in the FBP’s 35th Season. The other artists of FBP’s company will join Ruth Bronwen-Whitney and Alan Alberto in Le Carnaval de Venise. In addition, the evening’s program will also showcase selected students from the FBP School and its Adaptive Dance Program, a unique program for children with Down’s Syndrome, in a performance of a work created for them by School Director, Mary Ann Mayer.
Together We Dance 2 will be produced by Misha Djuric, FBP’s Artistic Director.
The Vets reserved ticket information is available by contacting www.thevetsri.com or 401.421.ARTS. For questions about the program, please contact Festival Ballet Providence, 401.353.1129, by sending email inquiries to [email protected] or visiting www.festivalballetprovidence.org.
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