ABT Celebrates 70th Anniversary Season With Gala 5/17
By: Marivic Tagala Apr. 29, 2010
American Ballet Theatre will celebrate its 70th Anniversary Season with an Opening Night Gala on Monday, May 17 at 6:30 P.M. Mrs. Michelle Obama will serve as Honorary Chairman, along with Caroline Kennedy and Blaine Trump. The Spring Gala will honor David H. Koch for 25 years of service to ABT and its Board of Governing Trustees.
A special 70th Anniversary highlight program will feature American Ballet Theatre's Principal Dancers in excerpts from Sir Frederick Ashton's Birthday Offering, Swan Lake and Twyla Tharp's The Brahms-Haydn Variations. The performance will include the Company Premieres of Ashton's Thaïs Pas de Deux and Awakening Pas de Deux, as well as a pas de deux from John Neumeier's Lady of the Camellias. The evening will also feature the Spring Gala debut of ABT II, in the first movement of Edwaard Liang's Ballo Per Sei. Set to music by Antonio Vivaldi, Ballo Per Sei was given its World Premiere at The Joyce Theater on April 13, 2010.
Henri Barguirdjian, Danielle Ganek, Anne Grauso and Caryn Zucker will serve as Gala Co-Chairmen, Anka K. Palitz and Marianne and John K. Castle will serve as Vice Chairmen of the evening and Aileen Mehle is Chairman Emerita. Corporate Co-Chairs are Richard and Diotay Baker, Christine and Renaud Dutreil, and Karin and Stephen Sadove. Daniel Cappello, Blair Husain and Melissa Smith will serve as Junior Co-Chairmen.
American Ballet Theatre's 2010 Spring Gala is sponsored by Graff and NBC Universal. A portion of the proceeds from the Spring Gala will support ABT II and ABT's education and community outreach programs.
A Gala dinner under the Tent at Lincoln Center will immediately follow the performance. Gala benefit tickets priced at $1,500, $2,000 and $2,500 include the performance and post-performance dinner. For Gala benefit ticket information only, call American Ballet Theatre's Special Events office at 212-477-3030, ext. 3239.
Performance-only tickets, priced $28 to $150, are available online, at the Metropolitan Opera House box office or by calling 212-362-6000. For more information, please visit ABT's website at www.abt.org.
Pictured are Gillian Murphy and Eric Tamm in Sir Frederick Ashton's Birthday Offering. Photographed by Gene Schiavone.
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