Media City Ballet 2008 Season

Dance in your own backyard!

 Media City invites you to celebrate great Live Classical Ballet right here in your Neighborhood!

Imaginary Lovers, Slaves, Ghosts, Feats of Magic and Elaborate Parties are all part of our 2008 season.
Please join the Media City Ballet as they dance their way through stories of times past and present.

Ballet Russe Remembered  

Sunday, April 27, 2008    - 7:30 PM

Media City Ballet revisits the depth and beauty of the Ballet Russe repertory with it's daring, artistic choices, it's gorgeous delivery and promise. Their stylized Classical Ballet stands apart from all other artistic forms in its ability to move an audience's mind and heart with stories of passion, love, longing and separation through music and movement.   Media City Ballet honors their legacy and wishes to share their dramatic artistry with you by dancing highlights from the Ballet Russe repertoire.

The program will include:  Alexander Borodin’s “Polovtsian Dances” from “Prince Igor,” Carl Maria Von Weber’s “Le Spectre de la Rose”,” variations from Alexander Glazunov’s “Raymonda,”  Pas de Deux from Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Shehérézade” and Jacques Offenbach’s can-can from “Gaîté Parisienne,” all staged by Natasha Middleton.  The Maple Youth Ballet will appear as a Guest Ballet Company performing George Balanchine’s “Valse-Fantaisie,” which features a windswept pattern of dancing in leaps and leg beats to waltz rhythms, with music by Mikhail Glinka and costumes by Karinska.  Charles Maple, Director of The Maple Youth Ballet and former soloist for the American Ballet Theatre, will stage this performance of“Valse–Fantaisie.”

An Evening of Katchaturian:  The Composer and his Ballets

Saturday, August 16, 2008 - 7:30 PM     

“ I consider ballet a great art. Man’s life’s entire variety, richness of his moral experiences can be expressed in it. Ballet evokes love to the beautiful, and its music should be of a high quality, able to visibly narrate about the events taking place at the stage…”

Aram Khachaturian.

Aram Khachaturian is author of the worldwide known ballets such as “Gayane,”  “Masquerade” and “Spartacus”. Their creation not only raised Armenian national ballet to the world level, but also noticeably enriched the treasure house of the world musical-dramatic art. His music is noted for its modal and harmonic, melodic and orchestra generosity, which are all connected with a broad gamma of thoughts and feelings in his scores. 

The program offers excerpts from all three Ballets.

Gayane means Happiness and is a celebration of life events in which Khachaturian wanted the folk songs and dancing melodies to be integrated and inseparable from the whole music of the ballet.

 The well-known tale of Spartacus is written in modern language, with application of contemporary methods of the musical-theatrical form. The main personages in the ballet are characterized with specific and repeated musical themes. Such is the theme of Rome and the theme of oppressed slaves.

Masquerade was written for the 25th anniversary of the Russian revolution. It is a symphonic suite in the tradition of lavish classical Russian music. Media City Ballet’s Artistic Director, Natasha Middleton stages this ballet to enhance the fantasy and bring a modern face to this elaborate party.

The Nutcracker

Saturday & Sunday, December 6 & 7, 2008 - 2:00 PM & 7:00

Candy, mice, snow, toy soldiers, real magic and artistic aerialists spice up this cherished holiday classic. While maintaining the original charm and traditional settings of the ballet, the performance is embellished with comic characterization; elaborate sets and Dazzling Ballet that keeps the audience engaged from moment to moment and wanting more! Live choral music precedes the Sunday performances.  This is a fantasy ballet enjoyed by adults and children alike!

Order tickets through the Alex Theatre here.
Or call 818-243-2539