American Ballet Theatre Announces ABT Heals, Music and Dance Program for Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital

American Ballet Theatre, in conjunction with Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital, has launched ABT Heals, a bi-weekly music and dance program to provide comfort and the beauty of ballet to Mount Sinai's physicians and staff, patients and their families.

Designed to coincide with ABT's virtual season by spotlighting a different ballet each week, ABT Heals features ABT Orchestra members playing musical excerpts from ballet classics, live-streamed from their living rooms. Programming also includes conversations with ABT dancers, special performances by ABT Orchestra members with family members who are also musicians, lessons and insights from ABT's conductors, video highlights from recent and historical ballet performances and appearances by special ABT guests. Upcoming programming for ABT Heals includes a week of music, conversations and videos from the Company's productions of Romeo and Juliet, Of Love and Rage, Giselle, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty.

ABT Heals began on May 27 and will run through July 2. The live and pre-recorded offerings will be streamed through Mount Sinai's KidZone TV network to the Kravis Children's Hospital, Mount Sinai Queens and staff respite rooms throughout the Mount Sinai Health System.

The program honors the memory of Dr. Barry Webber, a beloved surgeon at Mount Sinai Queens who passed away from complications of COVID-19 in April. Dr. Webber was married to Harriet Clark, a former ABT dancer who currently leads the ABT Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School Children's Division as Principal Teacher.

"It is with deep gratitude and a profound commitment to healing that we offer the artistry of American Ballet Theatre to the Mount Sinai community. We hope that these concerts will bring solace, even joy, to those who are sick and those who are working tirelessly to help them recover. Inspired by the union of science and art, medicine and movement in the marriage of Dr. Barry Webber and Harriet Clark, we hope that the ABT Heals programs will help to combat loneliness and create a sense of togetherness," says Kara Medoff Barnett, Executive Director of American Ballet Theatre.

"We thank American Ballet Theatre for their very beautiful and heartfelt tribute to our beloved Barry Webber. Our community of caregivers and patients will always remember this generous and healing gift," says David Reich, MD, President, Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai Queens.

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