The Suzanne Farrell Ballet Makes Joyce Debut 10/19-23

The Joyce Theater Foundation is set to present The Suzanne Farrell Ballet, making its Joyce Theater debut with an all-Balanchine program, from October 19 - 23, 2011. The engagement will feature some of Balanchine's most acclaimed and cherished works - Haieff Divertimento, Meditation, Diamonds pas de deux from Jewels, and Agon. Tickets for this week-long engagement are $10-$59 ($26 - $44 for Joyce Members) and are available through JoyceCharge at www.Joyce.org or by calling 212-242-0800. Please note: ticket prices are subject to change. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street, in Chelsea.

The Suzanne Farrell Ballet (SFB) is led by the legendary New York City Ballet principal who, since founding the company over ten years ago, has established its prominence in the ballet world. One of George Balanchine's most celebrated muses, Farrell devotes much of the company's repertory to the works of this master choreographer. For its Joyce debut, the engagement presents an all-Balanchine program that features some of his most cherished works. First performed by New York City Ballet in 1947, Haieff Divertimento had not been seen for over 15 years until The SFB company revived it in 2010. SFB has the distinction of being one of only three ever to recreate the work. The program also includes Meditation, the first ballet Balanchine created on Farrell and the first to which he gave her ownership; Diamonds pas de deux from Jewels, considered one of Balanchine's most beautiful pieces and acclaimed for its classical style that juxtaposes a grand scale with sweetness and vulnerability; and Agon, an intimate, athletic work, premiering in 1957 and considered groundbreaking at that time. Featuring an Igor Stravinsky score commissioned by Balanchine, Agon was created during a three-year period between 1953-1956 when the two artists worked very closely together to combine Stravinsky's innovative and complex meter changes with Balanchine's vision of 17th-century court dance.

Suzanne Farrell, one of George Balanchine's most celebrated muses, is a legendary figure in the ballet world. Born in Cincinnati, Ms. Farrell moved to New York City in 1960 after winning a Ford Foundation scholarship at the School of American Ballet. One year later, she joined Balanchine's New York City Ballet. Her unique combination of musical, physical, and dramatic gifts quickly ignited Balanchine's imagination. By the mid 1960s, she was Balanchine's most renowned ballerina. When she retired from the stage in 1989, Ms. Farrell had achieved a performance career that is without precedent or parallel in the history of ballet. During her twenty-eight years performing on stage, she danced a repertory of more than one hundred ballets, nearly a third of which were composed expressly for her by Balanchine and other choreographers, including Jerome Robbins and Maurice Béjart. To insure the preservation of Mr. Balanchine's legacy, she founded The Suzanne Farrell Ballet in 2001. Ms. Farrell is a repetiteur for the George Balanchine Trust, the independent organization founded after the choreographer's death by the heirs to his ballets to oversee their worldwide licensing and production. Since the fall of 2000, Ms. Farrell has been a tenured professor at Florida State University. In addition to her work for the Balanchine Trust, she serves in a variety of cultural and philanthropic organizations. Her best-selling autobiography, Holding On to the Air was published in 1990, and the documentary Suzanne Farrell - Elusive Muse was an Academy Award nominee in 1997.

The Suzanne Farrell Ballet, making its Joyce Theater debut for a one-week engagement from October 19 - 23, will perform as follows: Wednesday at 7:30pm; Thursday - Friday at 8pm; Saturday 2pm & 8pm; Sunday 2pm & 7:30pm. Dance Chat, a free post-performance talkback with members of Suzanne Farrell Ballet, will take place on Thursday, October 20. This enlightening discussion is open to all patrons attending that evening's performance. Tickets range in price from $10-$59 ($26 - $44 for Joyce Members) and are available through JoyceCharge at www.Joyce.org or by calling 212-242-0800. Please note: Tickets prices are subject change. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street, in Chelsea.

About The Joyce Theater Foundation
The Joyce Theater Foundation, a non-profit organization, has proudly served the dance community and its audiences for three decades. The founders, Cora Cahan and Eliot Feld, acquired and renovated the Elgin Theater in Chelsea, which opened as The Joyce Theater in 1982. The Joyce Theater is named in honor of Joyce Mertz, beloved daughter of LuEsther T. Mertz. It was LuEsther's clear, undaunted vision and abundant generosity that made it imaginable and ultimately possible to build the theater. One of the only theaters built by dancers for dance, The Joyce Theater has provided an intimate and elegant home for more than 320 domestic and international companies. The Joyce has also commissioned more than 130 new dances since 1992. In 1996, The Joyce created Joyce SoHo, a dance center providing highly subsidized rehearsal and performance space to hundreds of dance artists, as well as special residency opportunities for selected choreographers to support the creation of new work. In 2009, The Joyce opened Dance Art New York (DANY) Studios to provide affordable studios for rehearsals, auditions, classes, and workshops for independent choreographers, non-profit dance companies, and the dance/theater communities. New York City public school students and teachers annually benefit from The Joyce's Dance Education Program, and adult audiences get closer to dance through informative Dance Talks, Joyce Pre-Show gatherings, and post-performance Dance Chat discussions. The Joyce Theater now features an annual season of approximately 48 weeks with over 340 performances for audiences in excess of 135,000.