NYTB/Chamber Works Will Present SLEEPING BEAUTY

NYTB/Chamber Works (Diana Byer, Founder and Artistic Director) announces Sleeping Beauty performances (February 29 & March 1) at Florence Gould Hall (55 East 59th Street, NYC). Tchaikovsky's captivating score sets the mood for James Sutton's hour-long version of Sleeping Beauty from the Co.'s Once Upon a Ballet Series (suitable for ages 3+). Set in a magical fairy kingdom beneath the roots of a great tree, this beloved classic, filled with magic and poetry, tells the enchanting tale of Princess Aurora from her fateful birth to her triumphant wedding. The set, property design, & scenic painting are by Gillian Bradshaw-Smith, and costumes are designed by Sylvia Taalsohn Nolan

NYTB/Chamber Works will also host a 40th Anniversary Reunion on April 25, celebrating four decades as the city's leading chamber ballet.

Performance Schedule and Tickets

Performances of Sleeping Beauty will take place at Florence Gould Hall (55 East 59th Street) on Saturday, February 29 and March 1 at 11am, 1pm and 3:30pm. Tickets at $17 for a child (12 and under) and $30 for an adult are available from Ticketmaster. Groups of 10+ will receive 10% off, and this includes a meet-and-greet with the dancers.

About the Creative Team

James Sutton, teacher, choreographer, and writer, was for fourteen years an Associate Arts Professor in Dance at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and is currently company teacher for New York Theatre Ballet. He was the co-recipient of the Balasaraswati/Joy Ann Dewey Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching from the American Dance Festival in 2015.  As a performer, he appeared as a principal dancer with the Houston Ballet, Chicago Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Milwaukee Ballet, and DANCERS.  Formerly Associate Director of the Kathryn Posin Modern Dance Company, he formed his own company in New York in 1983.  His choreographic commissions span all aspects of theatre and dance, from opera and musical productions to ballet and contemporary dance.  A frequent guest instructor around the US, he taught on the faculties of Marymount Manhattan College, Connecticut College, Southern Methodist University, and the University of Michigan, as well as frequent summers at the American Dance Festival beginning in 1985.  He was formerly ballet master for Ballet Hispanico of New York, and, for five years, company teacher for the Metropolitan Opera Ballet. Internationally, he has been a guest teacher at the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia; Cloud-Gate Dance Theatre in Taipei, Taiwan; Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, Australia; and the Cullberg Ballet and Balett Akademien in Stockholm, Sweden, among other venues across Europe and Asia. Previously an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and teacher at the Juilliard School in New York, he is currently a Senior Lecturer for the University of Texas in New York, Publications Assistant at Brooklyn Academy of Music, and a contributing writer for Ballet Review and Playbill.

Sylvia Taalsohn Nolan (costume design) is the Resident Costume Designer of the Metropolitan Opera. In addition to opera, she has a special interest in dance design. For NYTB, she has designed costumes for classical ballet as well as original repertoire by Nicolo Fonte, Martha Connerton, Clove Galilee, Christopher Gillis, Edward Henkel, Mathew Nash, Matthew Neenan, Keith Michael, Marco Pelle, James Sutton and Benoit-Swan Pouffer. She also designed new costumes for NYTB's reconstruction of Fandango and Les Mains Gauches (Tudor), Designs with Strings (Taras) and A. de Mille Celebration.

Gillian Bradshaw-Smith (set & property design, scenic painting) was born in India, educated in England, moved to Dallas in 1963 and then to New York in 1967. As a fine artist, she showed her work in art galleries and museums, including the prestigious Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery. Her work in scenic design, principally for the ballet, started in 1990. Since then she has designed over twenty productions, including work for NYTB (Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, The Alice-in- Wonderland Follies, Carnival of the Animals, Jardin aux Lilas), Dances Patrelle
(Murder at the Masque, The Firebird, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, The Yorkville Nutcracker), and St. Louis Ballet (Swan Lake, Giselle, The Nutcracker).

About NYTB/Chamber Works

With its ever-expanding repertory, NYTB's cutting-edge programming brings fresh insight to classic revivals paired with the modern sensibilities of both established and up-and-coming choreographers. Going strong after 40 years, NYTB's diversity in repertory explores the past while boldly taking risks on the future with respected programs: NYTB/CHAMBER WORKS with REP, the Once Upon a Ballet Series, the NYTB/Ballet School and the LIFT Community Services Program.