Miami City Ballet to Make NYC Debut January 21-25 at City Center

Miami City Ballet, under the Artistic Direction of Edward Villella, will make its Manhattan debut, January 21 - 25, 2009, at New York City Center, presenting two programs over six performances, featuring classics by George Balanchine and Twyla Tharp. This engagement is a homecoming of sorts for Edward Villella; in bringing his world renowned company to City Center, he is returning to the stage where he began his own professional career in 1957, when he joined City Ballet, then based at City Center under the artistic direction of George Balanchine

Program I, an evening of Balanchine and Tharp Classics, opens with Balanchine's 1972 Symphony in Three Movements, danced to music by Stravinsky. Balanchine's 1951 La Valse, with music by Ravel, will follow. The evening ends with Twyla Tharp's In The Upper Room, a 1986 piece filled with power, energy and speed.

Program II features three Balanchine masterworks: "Rubies" (1967) with music by Stravinsky; Symphony in C, with music by Bizet (1947); and Square Dance (1957), with music by Antonio Vivaldi and Arcangelo Corelli.

Note: Symphony in C, Square Dance and La Valse were set by Mr. Balanchine and had their premieres on the stage at New York City Center: Symphony in C on October 11, 1948, La Valse on February 20, 1951 and Square Dance on November 21, 1957. Mr. Villella appeared in the premieres of Square Dance, Symphony in Three Movements and "Rubies."

Miami City Ballet Principal Dancers include Tricia Albertson, Katia Carranza, Mary Carmen Catoya, Jeremy Cox, Jeanette Delgado, Patricia Delgado, Carlos Guerra, Jennifer Kronenberg, Renato Penteado, Deanna Seay, Haiyan Wu and Rolando Sarabia. Principal

Soloists include Didier Bramaz and Yang Zou.

Miami City Ballet (MCB), under the Artistic Direction of Edward Villella since its founding in 1986, is among the largest ballet companies in the United States, with a company of more than 55 dancers and a repertoire of 88 ballets. The company has four home counties in South Florida: Broward, Miami - Dade, Palm Beach and Collier, where MCB is the resident ballet company of the Naples Philharmonic Center. MCB tours extensively across the Untied States and Internationally. Its Miami City Ballet School, opened in 1993, trains students for a professional career in ballet, and its education program reaches thousands of young people annually. The dancers of Miami City Ballet are an international mix and come from some of the worlds top training facilities and dance companies, including American Ballet Theatre, Ballet Nacional de Cuba, Ballet Nacional de Caracas, Schools of the Paris Opera Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, and San Francisco Ballet, among others.

New York City Center has long been known and beloved by New York audiences not only as one of the City's preeminent performing art institutions but also as an accessible and welcoming venue for dance and theater. New York City Center produces the Tony-honored Encores! musical theater series and its new Encores! Summer Stars series, and is home to some of the country's leading dance companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, Paul Taylor Dance Company and Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company, as well as Manhattan Theatre Club, one of New York's leading theater companies. In 2004 New York City Center launched the acclaimed Fall for Dance Festival, continuing to fulfill its mission to make the arts accessible to the broadest possible audience. In 2006, New York City Center and Sadler's Wells Theatre, London created a partnership to facilitate the exchange of innovative dance works, and new commissions by up-and-coming and acclaimed choreographers and dance companies, both in London and New York City.

Miami City Ballet will play for six performances, January 21 - 25, 2009 at New York City Center, West 55th Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues, according to the following schedule: Wednesday, - Friday evenings at 8 pm, Saturday January 24 at 2 and 8 pm and Sunday January 25 at 3pm. Tickets are $25, $35, $65, $85, $110 can be purchased by calling CityTix® at 212-581-1212, online at www.NYCityCenter.org or at the City Center Box Office (West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues).