Press Release: Tulsa Ballet at The Joyce - August 2009

For Immediate Release, please
Contact: Richard Kornberg & Associates, 212-944-9444
Richard Kornberg – Richard@KornbergPR.com / Billy Zavelson – Billy@KornbergPR.com


TULSA BALLET
RETURNS TO NYC AFTER 25 YEARS
JOYCE THEATER DEBUT
AUGUST 10 – 15

Following a 25-year hiatus from the Big Apple, Tulsa Ballet will make its long awaited return to NYC with its Joyce Theater debut this summer from August 10 – 15. Tickets for this company’s highly anticipated week-long engagement start at $19 and are available by calling JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800 or via the internet at Joyce.org. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street, in Chelsea.

Tulsa Ballet’s Joyce debut will feature a riveting triple bill that includes Nacho Duato’s stunning Por Vos Muero, Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Elite Syncopations and Young Soon Hue’s This Is Your Life, a work created for the company in the spring of 2008. Artistic Director Marcello Angelini, when asked about his decision for the repertory to be presented at The Joyce, explains: “The decision for the New York repertory has been a complex one. Our company enjoys a rich and wide repertory that spans from the classics of the 19th century to the works of the top dance makers of the 20th century and the present times. Our program had to be representative of our eclectic repertory and had to depict the primary quality of our troupe: its versatility”. With this philosophy in mind, Elite Syncopations, on a score written by Scott Joplin and other contemporaries of this icon of American music, will open the program, portraying the classical technique and quality of the troupe’s dancers as well as their sense of humor. Por Vos Muero, a work that uses the rich Spanish music of the XV century to enhance its mesmerizing choreography, will reveal the company’s contemporary aspect.

The other aspect of Tulsa Ballet is its renewed commitment to create art in Tulsa and export it to the world. With this concept in mind, the company built and opened a proper 300 seats, $6 million theater, built around the project of creating new art, in the spring of 2008. This Is Your Life was among the works that graced that evening. Created loosely on the concept of the 1950’s television show that bore the same name, this work merges drama, humor, acting and stunning dancing to tell the story of its characters. Three works, one from a man who wrote dance history like Sir Kenneth MacMillan, one from a man that is writing dance history like Nacho Duato and a third one by an accomplished young talent that is already claiming her place in the spotlight.

ABOUT TULSA BALLET
Tulsa Ballet was founded in 1956 by husband and wife, Roman Jasinski and Moscelyne Larkin, dancers internationally known for their style in the grand Ballet Russe tradition, and musician Rosalie Talbot. The artistic mission of the Company has remained constant throughout the years: To combine the beauty and joy expressed by dance with the drama and entertainment of the theatre.

Another milestone in the company's history occurred when Marcello Angelini was appointed Artistic Director in 1995. A native of Naples, Italy, Angelini has performed as principal dancer and guest artist with some of the most renowned companies in the world. A graduate of his father’s ballet school, and the recipient of a special government scholarship to the Kiev Institute of Dance in the former Soviet Union, Angelini's professional career spans nine countries and three continents. Mr. Angelini has been called by Dance Magazine “The Italian Tornado” for undertaking an ambitious repertory building program. In the last decade, Tulsa Ballet has added more then 70 new works to its repertory that were either Oklahoma Premieres, American Premieres or World Premieres. Tulsa Ballet has also claimed a spot on the international scene, performing in three European countries and South Korea during the past seven years. Press quotes are included with this press release.


The repertoire of the company today includes the majority of the 19th century works, including August Bournonville’s La Sylphide, Giselle, Swan Lake and the Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, all either re-staged or choreographed by Angelini, as well as Anna-Marie Holmes’ Don Quixot, Ronald Hynd’s Rosalinda, Andre Prokowsky’s Three Musketeers and Anna Karenina, Amedeo Amodio’s Carmen, Christopher Wheeldon’s A Midsummer Nights Dream, Val Caniparoli’s Lady of the Camellias, Ben Stevenson’s Cinderella and Michael Smuin’s Tony Award Winning version of Romeo and Juliet.
But this is just a part of the eclectic repertoire that has become the trademark of this organization. At Tulsa Ballet, full length classical works are always alternated with neo-classical and contemporary works by the likes of George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Antony Tudor, Paul Taylor, Kurt Jooss, Nacho Duato, Billie Forsythe, Jiri Kylian, Stanton Welch, Christopher Wheeldon, Twyla Tharp and many others.

Tulsa Ballet will perform according to the following schedule at The Joyce Theater from August 10 – 15: Monday – Wednesday at 7:30pm, Thursday – Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 2pm. Tickets for these performances are $19; $29; $39 (for Joyce members $19; $29) and can be arranged by calling JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800 or online at www.joyce.org. NOTE: Ticket prices are subject to change. For more information about Tulsa Ballet, please visit www.tulsaballet.org. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street.

* * * * * *
Leadership support for The Joyce Theater’s 2008–2009 season has been received from the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust.

The Joyce Theater Foundation gratefully acknowledges The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation for its generous endowment to support dance performances at The Joyce Theater.

The Joyce Theater’s Subsidized Rental Program is made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency; and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Major support for The Joyce has been provided by The Boeing Company, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, First Republic Bank, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, JPMorgan Chase Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, The Starr Foundation and an endowment created by the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund to encourage the performances of out-of-town companies at The Joyce Theater.



International and National Quotes

“…30 dancers from 15 nationalities work at a level of expertise one would expect to see in a major coastal city or in Europe. The repertoire has attracted an extraordinary pool of talent and has put this mid-American company in the international eye.”
-- Dance Magazine, March 2005


“Mercury Rising. Ma Cong (Tulsa Ballet Principal Dancer). One of the 25 to Watch.” Dance Magazine’s annual look at who’s new and breaking through in 2006.
-- Dance Magazine, January 2006


“Tulsa Ballet is notable for its willingness to dream big and to inspire big support and excitement as it achieves its dreams.” “…in addition to the superb classical dancing of those 32 men and women…demonstrate that what Tulsa (Artistic) Director Marcello Angelini has long worked for is beginning to materialize, in quite dramatic fashion. This is indeed a company to be taken seriously. Such warmth and purity would be remarkable even at an American Ballet Theatre (New York City) or a San Francisco Ballet. Here in Tulsa, it is increasing business as usual.”
-- Dance insider, February 2006

“To look at what Marcello Angelini has accomplished in 13 years at Tulsa Ballet is to see what a community-based arts revolution looks like. Thirteen years of serious imagining, planning, fundraising, and creating have resulted not only in the development of a company recognized for excellence at home and abroad, but now also in a newly renovated and expanded rehearsal and school facility and an adjacent very modern, very spectacular $5 million theater, Studio K - Kivisto Hall, dedicated to the creation of new work.”
-- Dance Insider, May 2008


“…Tulsa Ballet, one of the best in the world.”
–The Semanario, national magazine, for the Sintra, Portugal performances July 2002

“The highlight points of the BALLET EXPO SEOUL 2008 were definitely the Contemporary Ballet Evening performance and the guest ballet companies from abroad…. Among them, Tulsa ballet from USA was defiantly distinguished in performance scale and choice of their performing works.
-- Mom magazine. September issue. Page 81
Seoul, South Korea


BRILLIANT YOUNG DANCERS
The Tulsa Ballet from Oklahoma, USA at the Croatian National Theater in Zagreb
“Throughout the three ballets, the talented young dancers, about twenty of them, (whose artistic director is Marcello Angelini) convincingly showed three completely different aspects of the modern world.”
-- MILICA JOVIĆ, Školske novine,
-- daily newspaper


VISITING PERFORMANCE: Tulsa Ballet from Oklahoma at the Zagreb CNT
PURE DANCING POETRY

The director Marcello Angelini achieves new accomplishments with the ensemble, whilst numerous similar American ballet ensembles are in a crisis or are even closing down

On Sunday, at the Zagreb CNT the Tulsa Ballet with its visiting performance prepared an unforgettable evening. It presented three diverse shorter ballets that gave an insight into the great technical potentials and training of the ensemble and some specifics that are cherished in the repertoire”
-- VIJENAC, April 26, 2007 pg. 21


“Indescribable lightness of dancing
Tulsa Ballet under the artistic leadership of Marcello Angelini dances and impressive and diverse repertoire with an envious number of works by the most significant choreographers of modern ballet and dance theatre: from Tudor, Robbins and Balanchine, Cullberg and Jooss, to Taylor and Duato”

“An immense and contagious energy and beauty, indescribable purity and lightness of dancing, by nationality Babylonian diversity of the American Tulsa Ballet fascinated and with a magic of another world filled the stage and the auditorium of the CNT in Zagreb on April 22, 2007.”

-- MAJA ĐURINOVIĆ VIJENAC, April 26, 2007 pg. 21, Belgrade


Tulsa Ballet, Small Town, Big Success
Oklahoma Rising

“It was Artistic Director Marcello Angelini’s dream to build a world-class company from the moment he decided to give up his career as a dancer and take artistic control of TB in 1995. Some would say he has succeeded…. His company is one where dancers’ thrive. Because the vision is so wide….you get the feeling that here, with Tulsa Ballet, you can do anything”

-- Pointe Magazine, March 2008,
Cover Story.