Words on Dance Presents Christopher Wheeldon in conversation with Rita Moreno, 4/27

Words on Dance in association with Symphony Space, is proud to present an evening with CHRISTOPHER WHEELDON, featuring the internationally acclaimed choreographer and director in rarely seen television and film clips and a live conversation conducted by the Academy, Tony, Emmy, and Grammy Award-winning actress/singer/dancer RITA MORENO, April 27, 7:00 PM at Symphony Space, 95th Street and Broadway.

(Premium tickets at $250 available at www.wordsondance.org also include a post-program private reception with Christopher Wheeldon and Rita Moreno.)

The conversation will take place just two weeks after the opening night of the much-anticipated Broadway musical An American in Paris, directed and choreographed by Mr. Wheeldon, which received rave reviews when it premiered in Paris last December. Clips representing the work of both Mr. Wheeldon and Ms. Moreno (and a look at the Broadway production of An American in Paris, starring Robert Fairchild and Leanne Cope and based on the Oscar-winning 1951 film), will be shown.

In his Words on Dance conversation, Mr. Wheeldon will talk about his extraordinary career, including his memories of training at The Royal Ballet School beginning at the age of 11 and dancing with The Royal Ballet. He arrived at New York City Ballet in 1993, and was a company member before becoming the company's first artist in residence and first resident choreographer. In 2001 his Polyphonia, set to piano compositions by Ligeti and premiered by New York City Ballet, helped solidify his place in ballet history. Anna Kisselgoff of The New York Times pronounced the work "astonishingly fresh ... rich and spare at the same time, familiar in tone but inventively unpredictable."

For the past decade and a half Wheeldon has worked extensively on both sides of the Atlantic, choreographing such acclaimed works as Liturgy, After the Rain, Fool's Paradise, Carousel (A Dance),The Nightingale and the Rose, The Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Aeternum, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and A Winter's Tale. The latter, a 2014 adaptation of the Shakespeare play with a score by Wheeldon's frequent collaborator Joby Talbot, was hailed as a "triumph" by the London Telegraph and "one of the most fully achieved story ballets to be staged at Covent Garden in years" by The Guardian. In February 2015 A Winter's Tale was screened in more than 400 movie theaters across the U.S. as part of the HD series of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Christopher Wheeldon was born in the town of Yeovil in Somerset, England, trained at The Royal Ballet School, and joined The Royal Ballet in 1991. He joined New York City Ballet in 1993 and was promoted to Soloist in 1998. He served as NYCB's first-ever Artist in Residence for the 2000/01 season and was named NYCB's first Resident Choreographer in July 2001. In 2007, Wheeldon founded Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company and was appointed an Associate Artist for Sadler's Wells Theatre in London. Chris has created works for New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, The Royal Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Boston Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, the Royal Swedish Ballet, Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company, Pennsylvania Ballet and Bolshoi Ballet.

His works are in the repertory of all the world's leading companies and he is Artistic Associate for The Royal Ballet, Covent Garden. Outside the ballet world, he has choreographed Dance of the Hours for the Metropolitan Opera's production of Ponchielli's La Gioconda (2006) and worked with Richard Eyre on his production of Carmen (2012). He also choreographed ballet sequences for the feature film Center Stage (2000) and was the choreographer for Sweet Smell of Success on Broadway (2002). In 2012 he collaborated on the closing ceremony of the London Olympic Games, watched by 23.2 million people worldwide.

In 2014 Chris directed and choreographed the musical An American in Paris which premiered in Paris in December 2014 at the Théâtre du Châtelet. The Broadway production is scheduled to begin previews at the Palace Theatre March 13 and open on April 12. He will choreograph a new adaptation of The Nutcracker for Chicago's Joffrey Ballet that will premiere in December 2016. Wheeldon's awards include the Martin E. Segal Award from Lincoln Center; the American Choreography Award; a Dance Magazine Award; and an Olivier Award and the London Critic's Circle Award for best new ballet for Polyphonia. In 2013 his production of Cinderella won the Benois de la Danse, and he received an Olivier Award for Aeternum and the 2014 Leonid Massine Prize for choreography for A Winter's Tale.

Rita Moreno belongs to an elite group of performers who have won the grand slam of the industry's most prestigious awards: the Oscar, the Emmy, the Tony and the Grammy. Her Oscar win came in 1962 as Anita in the film version of West Side Story for which she also won a Golden Globe. The Tony was for her 1975 comedic triumph as Googie Gomez in Broadway's The Ritz. The Grammy was awarded for her 1972 performance on The Electric Company Album, based on the long-running children's television series. She won two Emmys?the first for a 1977 variety appearance on The Muppet Show and the following year for a dramatic turn on The Rockford Files. Moreno was born Rosa Dolores Alverio in Humacao, Puerto Rico. At age 5, she moved with her mother to New York and soon after began taking dance lessons. She made her Broadway debut at 13 in Skydrift, starring Eli Wallach. Her film credits include Singin' in the Rain, The King and I, The Night of the Following Day, Marlowe, Popi, Carnal Knowledge, The Ritz, The Four Seasons, I Like it Like That, Angus, Slums of Beverly Hills, Blue Moon, Piñero, and Casa de los Babys. She received a Tony nomination for her role in The National Health in 1974. Other Broadway credits include The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window, Gantry, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Wally's Café, and the female version of The Odd Couple. Her West End stage credits include She Loves Me and Sunset Boulevard. Her television work includes The Electric Company, 9 to 5, B.L. Stryker, Cosby Mystery Series, Cane, Oz, and Happily Divorced, and she was nominated for three Emmys for voicing the title character on the animated series Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? Moreno has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and received the 2013 Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. Rita Moreno: A Memoir, published by Celebra Books in 2013, was a New York Times bestseller. This is Ms. Moreno's second appearance with Words on Dance. In 2008 she participated in a WOD tribute to Jerome Robbins.

WORDS ON DANCE, founded in San Francisco in 1994 by Deborah Kaufman, is a 2012 Izzie Award honoree for sustained achievement, continuing a commitment to present the most celebrated dance artists of our generation and engage them with live audiences. Words on Dance conversations and screenings perpetuate the momentum of documenting dance and keeping the art form at the forefront of the current generation. This is the fourth NYC presentation of the California-based organization. The previous three events, held at the Paley Center for Media, featured a conversation with Maria Tallchief, conducted by Evelyn Cisneros (on tape), a live conversation with Eliot Feld hosted by Cynthia Gregory, and a live conversation with Edward Villella hosted by Crista Villella. Christopher Wheeldon in conversation: From Ballet Broadway, is sponsored by Sue and Michael Steinberg. Words on Dance is supported in part by The Jerome Robbins Foundation, the John and Lisa Pritzker Family Fund, Barbara Horgan, and Robert and Sharon Yoerg.

www.wordsondance.org