Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo 2015
15 September - 11 November

Choreography: LEV IVANOVICH IVANOVLighting Designer: KIP MARSHCostume Designer: MIKE GONZALESSet Design: JASON COURSONFurther Info: Swept up into the magical realm of swans (and birds), this elegiac phantasmagoria of variations and ensembles in line and music is the signature work of Les Ballets Trockadero. The story of Odette, the beautiful princess turned into a swan by the evil sorcerer, and how she is nearly saved by the love of Prince Siegfried, was not so unusual a theme when Tchaikovsky first wrote his ballet in 1877 -- the metamorphosis of mortals to birds and visa versa occurs frequently in Russian folklore. The original Swan Lake at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow was treated unsuccessfully; a year after Tchaikovsky's death in 1893, the St. Petersburg Maryinsky Ballet produced the version we know today. Perhaps the world's best known ballet, its appeal seems to stem from the mysterious and pathetic qualities of the heroine juxtaposed with the canonized glamour of 19th century Russian ballet.

Choreography: MARIUS PETIPA STAGED BY ELENA KUNIKOVALighting Designer: KIP MARSHCostume Designer: DAVID TETRAULTMusic: CESARE PUGNIFurther Info: La Esmeralda is a three act ballet based upon Victor Hugo’s Notre Dame de Paris. Originally choreographed by Jules Perrot, the ballet was first produced in London, March 9, 1844, with Carlotta Grisi in the title role. The Russian premiere, with new choreography by Marius Petipa, was in St. Petersburg in 1849. The story is of the hopeless love of the deaf and hunchback Quasimodo for the gypsy girl Esmeralda. The great Russian ballerina, Alexandra Danilova, wrote in her memoirs : “...Esmeralda was in love with a very handsome officer who was romancing her while he was betrothed to another woman - the usual story- and, of course, he wouldn’t marry her. She was burned at the stake. Very tragic.” In this scene during the second act of the ballet, the heartbroken Esmeralda laments the two-timing officer while being consoled by her friend, Pierre Grengoire, and her fellow gypsies.

Choreography: Inspired by MARIUS PETIPA Staged by ELENA KUNIKOVALighting Designer: KIP MARSHCostume Designer: MIKE GONZALESMusic: LUDWIG MINKUSSet Design: MIKE GONZALESFurther Info: Paquita is a superb example of the French style as it was exported to Saint Petersburg in the late 19th Century. Paquita was originally a ballet-pantomine in 2 acts, choreographed by Joseph Mazillier, to music by Ernest Deldevez. The story had a Spanish theme, with Carlotta Grisi (creator of Giselle) as a young woman kidnapped by gypsies, who saves a young and handsome officer from certain death. Premiering at the Paris Opera in 1846, the ballet was produced a year later in Russia by Marius Petipa. Petipa commissioned Ludwig Minkus, the composer of his two most recent successes (Don Quixote and La Bayadere) to write additional music in order to add a brilliant “divertissement” to Mazillier’s Paquita. Petipa choreographed for this a Pas de Trois and a Grand Pas de Deux in his characteristic style. These soon became the bravura highlights of the evening-to the point that they are the only fragments of Paquita that have been preserved. The dancers display a range of choreographic fireworks, which exploit the virtuoso possibilities of academic classical dance, enriched by the unexpected combinations of steps.

Further Info: To Be confirmed

Choreography: ALEXANDRE MINZLighting Designer: KIP MARSHCostume Designer: MIKE GONZALES, after BENOISMusic: FREDERIC CHOPINSet Design: JOHN CLAASSENFurther Info: Les Sylphides is an "abstract" classical ballet, without narrative structure or defined characters. Although it atmospherically suggests "Giselle" and "La Sylphide," the sentiments aroused spring from the sublime music of Chopin - the evanescence of dreams, desire, and melancholy.

Choreography: Inspired by MERCE CUNNINGHAMLighting Designer: TRICIA TOLIVERCostume Designer: KEN BUSBINMusic: Taped ANDREW FRANCK, inspired by JOHN CAGEFurther Info: “In short, this generation has conceived an intensity of movement so great that it has not to be seen against something else to be known, and therefore, this generation does not connect itself with anything, that is what makes this generation what it is and that is why it is American, and this is very important in connection with portraits of anything.” Gertrude Stein

A post modern dance movement essay.

Choreography: PETER ANASTOSLighting Designer: KIP MARSHCostume Designer: MIKE GONZALESMusic: J.S. BACHFurther Info: Stylistic heir to Balanchine's Middle-Blue-Verging-On-Black-and-White Period, this ballet has become a primer in identifying stark coolness and choreosymphonic delineation in the new(neo) neo-new classic dance. It has been called a wristwatch for Balanchine clock-time.

Choreography: Inspired by MARIUS PETIPA and ALEXANDER GORSKYLighting Designer: KIP MARSHCostume Designer: MIKE GONZALESMusic: LUDWIG MINKUSSet Design: ROBERT GOUGEFurther Info: Scene: The outdoor cafe of Lorenza's Inn
Waitresses
Gypsies
Lorenza (mother to Kitri)
Kitri (the prettiest girl in the village, madly in love with Basil)
Basil (a pesoless barber with a roving eye and a weakness for strong drink)
The Marquise Cristobal Iglesias Habsburgo de Azuza y Cycamonga
(a rich nobleman, desperately seeking a beautiful young wife)
Amour (who neatly ties together all the loose ends)
Fairies

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza*
(*Due to economic reasons, these two characters have been eliminated. You may, if you like, imagine the aristocratic vagrant and his constant companion, Sancho Panza, wandering about aimlessly and getting in everyone's way, which in most versions is all they do anyway.)

Choreography: LEV IVANOVICH IVANOVLighting Designer: KIP MARSHCostume Designer: MIKE GONZALESSet Design: JASON COURSONFurther Info: Swept up into the magical realm of swans (and birds), this elegiac phantasmagoria of variations and ensembles in line and music is the signature work of Les Ballets Trockadero. The story of Odette, the beautiful princess turned into a swan by the evil sorcerer, and how she is nearly saved by the love of Prince Siegfried, was not so unusual a theme when Tchaikovsky first wrote his ballet in 1877 -- the metamorphosis of mortals to birds and visa versa occurs frequently in Russian folklore. The original Swan Lake at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow was treated unsuccessfully; a year after Tchaikovsky's death in 1893, the St. Petersburg Maryinsky Ballet produced the version we know today. Perhaps the world's best known ballet, its appeal seems to stem from the mysterious and pathetic qualities of the heroine juxtaposed with the canonized glamour of 19th century Russian ballet.

Choreography: Inspired by MERCE CUNNINGHAMLighting Designer: TRICIA TOLIVERCostume Designer: KEN BUSBINMusic: Taped ANDREW FRANCK, inspired by JOHN CAGEFurther Info: “In short, this generation has conceived an intensity of movement so great that it has not to be seen against something else to be known, and therefore, this generation does not connect itself with anything, that is what makes this generation what it is and that is why it is American, and this is very important in connection with portraits of anything.” Gertrude Stein

A post modern dance movement essay.

Choreography: Inspired by MARIUS PETIPA and ALEXANDER GORSKYLighting Designer: KIP MARSHCostume Designer: MIKE GONZALESMusic: LUDWIG MINKUSSet Design: ROBERT GOUGEFurther Info: Scene: The outdoor cafe of Lorenza's Inn
Waitresses
Gypsies
Lorenza (mother to Kitri)
Kitri (the prettiest girl in the village, madly in love with Basil)
Basil (a pesoless barber with a roving eye and a weakness for strong drink)
The Marquise Cristobal Iglesias Habsburgo de Azuza y Cycamonga
(a rich nobleman, desperately seeking a beautiful young wife)
Amour (who neatly ties together all the loose ends)
Fairies

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza*
(*Due to economic reasons, these two characters have been eliminated. You may, if you like, imagine the aristocratic vagrant and his constant companion, Sancho Panza, wandering about aimlessly and getting in everyone's way, which in most versions is all they do anyway.)

Choreography: PETER ANASTOSLighting Designer: KIP MARSHCostume Designer: MIKE GONZALESMusic: J.S. BACHFurther Info: Stylistic heir to Balanchine's Middle-Blue-Verging-On-Black-and-White Period, this ballet has become a primer in identifying stark coolness and choreosymphonic delineation in the new(neo) neo-new classic dance. It has been called a wristwatch for Balanchine clock-time.