North Carolina Dance presents Ailey, Balanchine, Tharp

Media Contact:

Kristen Gleason
Director of Marketing
The Paramount Theater
215 East Main Street
Charlottesville, VA 22902
434.979.1922 ext. 103
kristen@theparamount.net

For Immediate Release

September 13, 2007

While the September 26 performance is taking place as scheduled,
the dance master class scheduled for Tuesday, September 25
has been cancelled.

Founded in 1970, North Carolina Dance Theatre is the oldest professional ballet company in North Carolina. Based in Charlotte, this world-class repertory dance ensemble performs classic, contemporary, and cutting-edge dance with virtuosity, energy, and artistic excellence.

Under the direction of former New York City Ballet members Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux and Patricia McBride, the company has attracted superb dancers and built a versatile and diverse repertoire ranging from full-length classical ballets to innovative contemporary works.

Touring American Masterpieces this fall, the internationally-lauded company showcases some of the best American choreography of the century, including master works by Alvin Ailey, George Balanchine, and Twyla Tharp (Night Creature, Who Cares?, and Nine Sinatra Songs, respectively).

Making their only stop in Virginia in an engagement that includes a dance master class, North Carolina Dance Theatre brings American Masterpieces to The Paramount on Wednesday, September 26 at 8 pm. This performance is sponsored in part by a Friend of 91.1 WTJU-FM.

North Carolina Dance Theatre is among the finest mid-sized dance companies in the country, and has toured extensively throughout the United States and Europe. The company’s excellence has fostered performances at major dance festivals including the Spoleto Festival, the American Dance Festival and DanceAspen. The company employs 24 professional dancers and fosters the growth of apprentice dancers through its second company, North Carolina Dance Theatre 2.

President and Artistic Director Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux began his career with the Paris Opera Ballet and danced with the Kirov and Bolshoi Ballets before joining the New York City Ballet and ultimately the faculty of the School of American Ballet. Bonnefoux has also served as choreographer and ballet master for the Pittsburgh Ballet, and is currently the artistic director for the ballet company and school at the Chautauqua Institute in New York.

Associate Artist Director Patricia McBride danced a phenomenal 32 seasons with the New York City Ballet, displaying her remarkable virtuosity and artistic range in more than one hundred ballets. McBride has worked with many of the dance world’s greats, including George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Andre Eglevsky, Rudolph Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Peter Martins.

Each of the pieces on the American Masterpieces program has a special connection with North Carolina Dance Theatre, Bonnefoux, or McBride.

One of Alvin Ailey’s classic works, Night Creature features sensual movements that evoke nocturnal characters, striking, jazzy movements propelled by the exuberance of Duke Ellington’s symphonic score that climax in a stunning finale. North Carolina Dance Theatre has been chosen as the first and only American company to perform Night Creature other than the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

When George Balanchine created Who Cares? on the New York City Ballet in 1969, Patricia McBride was front and center. This wildly-popular Balanchine ballet performed to over a dozen George Gershwin songs (including “I Got Rhythm,” “Embraceable You,” and “Fascinating Rhythm”) portrays an energy both broadly American and characteristic of Manhattan. Choreographed on McBride, she and Bonnefoux performed “The Man I Love” with New York City Ballet many times throughout the country.

Twyla Tharp’s Tony-Award-winning talents are showcased in her classic Nine Sinatra Songs, which presents a view of 1950s social dancing through the nostalgic and yet sharpened eyes of the 1980s. “Ol’ Blue Eyes’” timeless tunes are paired with costumes designed by Oscar de la Renta for a glamorous work that gives each dancer a distinct personality. Bonnefoux met Twyla Tharp in the 1980s while they were both choreographing for Olympic Champion ice-skater John Curry.

Bonnefoux will lead a pre-performance discussion at the theater on Wednesday, September 26 at 7 pm. The discussion is free to ticket holders of the performance.

Tickets for North Carolina Dance Theatre’s 8 pm performance of American Masterpieces on Wednesday, September 26 are $44.50, $51.50, $54.50, and $59.50. A Youth/Child price of $35.50 is offered for those aged 12 and under. Half-price student rush tickets and group discounts are also available.

Tickets may be purchased online or through The Paramount’s Box Office at 434.979.1333.

For more information about North Carolina Dance Theatre, please visit www.ncdance.org.