Metropolitan Ballet to Present HANSEL & GRETEL, 11/22-23

Metropolitan Ballet Company (MBC) will open its season on Saturday, November 22nd & Sunday, November 23rd with a family-oriented program featuring one of the most enduring fairy tales of all time, Hansel & Gretel. Created for Metropolitan in 2009 by highly acclaimed New York City choreographer Kanji Segawa, with stage designs by NYC set designer Adam Riggar and costumes by Elena Comendador, this vivid and memorable story ballet follows the adventures of the clever Hansel and his brave sister Gretel, as they foil the witch's evil plans, and in the best fairy tale tradition, live happily ever after.

Marius Petipa's celebrated Le Jardin Animé (The Animated Garden), from the second act of the great classical ballet Le Corsaire and The Sailors, an athletic folk dance for boys as staged by the Voloshky Ukrainian Dance Ensemble's Artistic Director, Taras Lewyckyj, will complete this action-packed program that will appeal to all audiences, both young and young at heart.

Performances will be held at 1:00pm and 4:00pm on Saturday, November 22nd and at 1:00pm and 4:00pm on Sunday, November 23rd at the Josephine Muller Auditorium at Abington Friends School, 575 Washington Lane, Jenkintown, PA 19046. Tickets are $15 in advance or $18 at the door. Running time of the program is one hour and 30 minutes, including one intermission.

MBC also invites families to join us for "All Things Ginger", a Special Family Concert Event. Celebrate the fall season with ginger treats, autumn refreshments, and opportunities to meet cast members from Hansel and Gretel. Delicious treats, music and fun will abound! The "All Things Ginger" event will take place on both Saturday, November 22nd and Sunday, November 23rd at 2:30pm each day, at the Faulkner Library at Abington Friends School. The $35 admission includes both the "All Things Ginger" Event and a Saturday or Sunday Ballet Performance.

For more information, please call 215-663-1665, email collinsvidnovic@verizon.net or visit www.metropolitanballetcompany.org to purchase tickets online.

Photo by EA Kennedy, III