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Kansas City Ballet 50th Anniversary Celebration
Continues with Three Premieres in
Stunning Winter Program Feb. 21-24 KANSAS CITY, MO (January 14, 2008) – Kansas City Ballet’s 50th Anniversary Celebration Season will continue February 21-24, 2008 at the Lyric Theatre with the presentation of one Kansas City PREMIERE and two WORLD PREMIERES: the ballet, First Position, by Artistic Director William Whitener, Brahms Paganini by American icon Twyla Tharp and a commissioned piece, Hey-Hay, Going to Kansas City from the legendary Donald McKayle. This dynamic program premieres in Kansas City and then travels onto New York City for seven performances March 11-16, 2008. Following two years of highly acclaimed successes at the Evening Stars outdoor dance series in New York City, Kansas City Ballet was invited to perform at the prestigious Joyce Theatre. William Whitener’s WORLD PREMIERE, titled First Position, continues Mr. Whitener’s commitment to presenting audiences with the unexpected while providing them an evening of high quality performance. Set to the music of Alexander Glazounov, his Concert Waltz No. 2 in D and three movements from Scénes de Ballet, the work is steeped in the traditional classical ballet vocabulary. First Position is the 11th dance Whitener has choreographed for Kansas City Ballet. It is in honor of the Company’s 50th anniversary and dedicated to Kansas City Ballet founder Tatiana Dokoudovska and Artistic Director Emeritus Todd Bolender. Mr. Whitener describes the ballet as “a reminiscence based on my memories of encountering the world of classical ballet as a young boy in the 1950s. The title of the ballet acknowledges the placement of the body at the beginning of each ballet class: First Position.” This ballet is being underwritten in part by the Metropolitan Performing Arts Fund, UMB trustee. Brahms Paganini, choreographed by Twyla Tharp in 1980 is the fifth Tharp addition to the repertory in recent years and as such, will be the newest of her Kansas City PREMIERES. While this extraordinary artist is known most recently for her Broadway hit Movin’ Out to the music of Billy Joel, her impact on the world of dance is incalculable. Brahms Paganini, a 25-minute tour de force, opens with an astounding 13-minute solo that was described by the London Times as, “one of the most amazing feats I have seen all year.” Artistic Director William Whitener performed this virtuosic solo as a member of the Twyla Tharp Company in the U.S. and abroad. Mr. Whitener, whose career as a performer was largely tied to the Twyla Tharp Company following eight years with the Joffrey Ballet, will stage the work with Shelley Freydont, another former Tharp Company dancer. Other recent Tharp productions Whitener has brought to Kansas City include Deuce Coupe, Nine Sinatra Songs, As Time Goes By and The Catherine Wheel Suite. Brahms Paganini was made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpiece: Dance initiative, administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts. Donald McKayle’s piece, Hey-Hay, Going to Kansas City, the second WORLD PREMIERE of the evening, is based upon and set to the music of the legendary Jazz Era in Kansas City circa 1917-1930. Donald McKayle, one of the greatest African-American choreographers of the postwar era, has been commissioned by the Kansas City Ballet for its 50th anniversary season to create a work based on this dynamic and extraordinary period of our city’s history. Whether it was the Hey-Hay Club, the Blue Room, Paseo Ballroom or any of the dozens of clubs and ballrooms dotting KC’s 18th & Vine landscape in the early 1900’s, the life force of the city was jazz. Hey-Hay, Going to Kansas Citybrings the boomtown known as the ‘Paris of the Plains’ to life. The music of such legendary artists as Euday Bowman, Charlie Parker, Jay McShann and his Orchestra, Jesse Stone and His Blue Serenaders, Mary Lou Williams Trio, and Count Basie are featured. The creation of this ballet was funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and the William T. Kemper Foundation, Commerce Bank Trustee. Kansas City Ballet’s Winter Program has been made possible by the generous support of the Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation, Missouri Arts Council, a state agency, ArtsKC Fund, Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City, Hotel Phillips, KUDL 98.1, The Kansas City Star, and KSHB TV 41. About Kansas City Ballet
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