Dancers Over 40 Presents BALANCHINE: BROADWAY AND BEYOND at St. Luke's Theater Tonight, 10/8

Dancers Over 40, the organization "dedicated to preserving the History, Legacy and Lives of our creative community, while sharing the knowledge with the younger generation just beginning their careers" will present a tribute to the great George Balanchine, and the incredibly talented group of performers who worked with the master during his tenure at New York City Ballet. The event will take place tonight, October 8th at 8 p.m. at St. Luke's Theater (308 West 46th Street).

Tickets are $40 and $65 (premium seats) and are available through Telecharge (212-239-6200) or online at telecharge.com. DO40 members can purchase $20 tickets with discount code by calling (212) 947-8844 or online at broadwayoffers.com. Tickets may also be obtained at the St. Luke's Theater box office, which is open daily from 2-6pm. For further information, please call the DO40 Hotline at (212) 330-7016.

DO40's first-ever ballet event will feature Merrill Ashley, VIda Brown, Marge Champion, John Clifford, Gene Gavin, Allegra Kent, Frank Ohman, Barbara Milberg Fisher, Bettijane Sills, Carol Sumner, Barbara Walczak and Patricia Wilde. Extremely rare film and video clips will be shown, including excerpts from the Zenobia Ballet, On Your Toes, Western Symphony 1st and 3rd movements (with Mr. Gavin and Ms. Kent), Sanguinic Square Dance and Divertimento #15, (featuring both Ms. Ashley and Ms. Wilde), Pulcinella (Ms. Sumner), Raymonda Variation and Who Cares? (Ms. Sills and Mr. Ohman) and Divertimento from A Midsummer Night's Dream (Ms. Kent).

The evening will feature special guests Barbara Horgan, Director of The Balanchine Foundation and Candice Agree, radio host for WQXR-FM. Nancy Goldner, author of "The Balanchine Variations", and Robert Greskovic, dance critic for The Wall Street Journal, will moderate the evening. The event will be videotaped and donated to the Jerome Robbins Dance Collection at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.

Dancers Over 40, Inc. was created as a not-for-profit organization to provide a community of support in response to the fiscal -- as well as physical - needs of mature dancers, choreographers and related artists. Our goals are to seek educational opportunities, present seminars, socials and panel discussions on topics important to mature dancers concerned about their ability to continue to live and work in a creative environment and continue the legacy to those dancers about to begin their journey.

The greatest choreographer of our time, George Balanchine, is responsible for the successful fusion of modern concepts with older ideas of classical ballet. Balanchine received his training in Imperial Russia before coming to America in 1933. Here, the free-flowing U.S. dance forms stimulated him to develop new techniques in dance design and presentation, which have altered the thinking of the world of dance. Often working with modern music, and the simplest of themes, he has created ballets that are celebrated for their imagination and originality. His company, the New York City Ballet, is the leading dance group of the United States and one of the greatest companies in the world. An essential part of the success of Balanchine's group has been the training of his dancers, which he has supervised since the founding of his School of American Ballet in 1934. Balanchine chose to shape talent locally, and he has said that the basic structure of the American dancer was responsible for inspiring some of the striking lines of his composition. Balanchine is not only gifted in creating entirely new productions – his choreography for classical works has been equally – fresh and inventive. He has made American dance the most advanced and richest in choreographic development in the world today.

For more information, visit www.dancersover40.org, or find the group on Facebook or YouTube. 

Pictured: Vera Zorina and George Balanchine. The Goldwyn Follies (1938).