Ballet and Orchestra Share Artscape Stage in Spectacular SYMPHONY OF DANCE

The Cape Town City Ballet and Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra will appear together on stage for the spectacular production, SYMPHONY OF DANCE, showing at Artscape in Cape Town in October. Conceptualized by Robin van Wyk, Artistic Director of Cape Town City Ballet, the programme features six breath-taking ballets danced to famous orchestral and instrumental masterpieces by Strauss, Rachmaninoff, Ponchielli, Barber and Pärt.

The highlight of the programme is bound to be the world premiere and first ever staging of "Romance", a new ballet by Robin van Wyk, danced to a live performance of Sergei Rachmaninoff's magnificent 2nd Piano Concerto. Audiences will be thrilled to know that the piano soloist for all performances will be the acclaimed South African pianist, Francois du Toit.

Two more ballets will also be premiered. "Largo Variation", choreographed by Kirsten Isenberg, is set to the poignant minimalistic, "Spiegel im Spiegel", by the Estonian composer, Arvo Pärt. In "Adagio for Strings", another new work by Van Wyk, the dancers will move to the stirringly emotive composition by the same name, written by American composer Samuel Barber.

Audiences can additionally look forward to the beloved music of Johann Strauss in "The Emperor Waltz", choreographed by Veronica Paeper, and "The Blue Danube", choreographed by Van Wyk. In Van Wyk's ballet "Ensemble for Six", "The Dance of the Hours" from Amilcare Ponchielli's opera, LA GIOCONDA, will take centre stage.

Of his ballet-meets-orchestra concept, Van Wyk say:

Our ballet audiences are accustomed to seeing the dancers on stage and the orchestra in the pit. However, for Symphony of Dance, the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Graham Scott, will share the onstage limelight with us in a wonderful celebration of classical and neo-classical dance.

SYMPHONY OF DANCE is showing at Artscape in Cape Town from 7 - 11 October. Performances take place at 19:30 on 7, 9 and 10 October, with a 14:00 matinee on 10 October and a 15:00 matinee on 11 October. For this limited season, tickets from R150 - R350 are available at Computicket or Artscape Dial-a-Seat on 021 421 7695.