Suzanne Farrell Ballet to Partner with Theatre Ballet Moscow
Photo by Paul Kolnik
The Suzanne Farrell Ballet, led by Artistic Director and FSU School of Dance faculty member, will engage in an artistic partnership with Theatre Ballet Moscow in February 2015 to perform George Balanchine’s Monumentum Pro Gesualdo and Movements for Piano and Orchestra. Theatre Ballet Moscow will complete the program with pieces by George Aleksidze and Paul Mejia. Through this artistic partnership, Theatre Ballet Moscow will have the opportunity to take classes and learn Balanchine’s choreography from Ms. Farrell, one of Balanchine’s foremost interpreters. Performances will take place February 26 and 27 at 7:00pm at the Cultural Centre ZIL in Moscow.
Monumentum Pro Gesualdo and Movements for Piano and Orchestra were created independently, but have been companion pieces in performance since 1966. Both ballets are set to the works of Stravinsky. The partnership between George Balanchine and Igor Stravinsky is said to be one of the most important music and dance collaborations of the twentieth century. Monumentum Pro Gesualdo was composed in honor of Don Carlo Gesualdo’s 400th birthday and consists of Stravinsky’s orchestrations of Gesualdo’s madrigals. The leading role for Movements for Piano and Orchestra was danced by Ms. Farrell at its premier in April 1963—her first major role in a Balanchine ballet. Igor Stravinsky’s Movements for Piano and Orchestra consists of five short movements altogether lasting around eleven minutes.
The Suzanne Farrell Ballet, housed in the Kennedy Center, has participated in numerous artistic partnerships in the company’s 13 year history. In 2005, the company partnered with the National Ballet of Canada to perform Balanchine’s Don Quixote. In 2011, the company traveled to Bulgaria for an artistic partnership with the National Ballet of Bulgaria. In addition to these international partnerships, The Suzanne Farrell Ballet has collaborated with regional ballet companies in the U.S. since 2007 including Cincinnati Ballet, Ballet Austin, and The Sarasota Ballet. She also frequently brings the company to Florida State during her teaching residencies on campus. These partnerships allow Ms. Farrell to share her coaching skills and profound understanding of Balanchine’s choreography with other dancers, while providing others an opportunity to see The Suzanne Farrell Ballet dancers interpret these works.
“We are looking forward to bringing the genius of Balanchine to dancers and audiences in Moscow,” said Suzanne Farrell, Artistic Director of The Suzanne Farrell Ballet. “I have memories of dancing and staging ballets in Russia, and this opportunity will allow our dancers to make memories of their own.”
Ms. Farrell, one of Balanchine’s most celebrated muses, danced with New York City Ballet from 1961-1969 and 1975-1989. Over the years, she originated 23 roles in Balanchine ballets and her repertory eventually reached some 110 ballets. She has received numerous awards, including the 1976 Dance Magazine award, a 1985 Emmy Award for her performance in Eight by Adler, the 1988 New York State Governor’s Arts Award, the 2003 National Medal of the Arts, and the 2005 Kennedy Center Honors. The documentary, Suzanne Farrell: Elusive Muse, received an Academy Award® nomination for Best Documentary, airing on PBS and in theaters across the United States. Since the fall of 2000, Ms. Farrell has been a tenured professor of dance at FSU in Tallahassee. She also stages Balanchine works throughout the world for the George Balanchine Trust.
Upcoming Event, The Way We’re Made
Florida State School of Dance MFA candidates, Sharon C. Carelock, Ashley Goos, and Veoletta Range, will present The Way We’re Made, in partial fulfillment of the Master of Fine Arts Degree in Dance, on February 27 & 28, 2015 at 8:00 p.m. in the Nancy Smith Fichter Dance Theatre in Montgomery Hall, located on FSU’s main campus. Read More >>