This should be interesting after the major ruckus over Scottish Ballet's auctioning off a dinner with a dancer. ABT is taking it quite a few steps farther.... I guess any way to bring in money in this economic downturn is good (well, almost any), but at what point is it going to far?

Is having a guest stage manager disrupting to the dancers/staff? Do $100 minimum bids, with a high chance of some going much higher, limit this to those with cash to burn and make it inaccessible to the average ballet fan? And what is the obsession with smelly old pointe shoes (there are oodles of them sitting/decomposing in dark corners of rehearsal studios)?

I hope it does go well and it's well thought out to avoid uncomfortable situations for winners/dancers/staff etc.


POINTE, CLICK & BID for BALLET

AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE LAUNCHES
HOLIDAY AUCTION SITE

www.abt.cmarket.com to Offer One-of-a-Kind ABT Experiences


American Ballet Theatre will launch a limited-time holiday gift
auction site enabling the public to bid on rare one-of-a-kind ABT
experiences and unique gifts. Items offered for auction include exclusive
dinners with ABT dancers in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and New York City,
limited-edition photographs of ABT, and backstage opportunities ranging from
a guest stage managing position to an onstage walk-on role during an ABT
performance. Other items include signed pointe shoes from ABT Principal
Dancers and studio rehearsal visits in New York and London.

This special auction, which opens 8:00A.M. Monday, December 1,
2008 and closes 8:00P.M. Monday, December 15, 2008, offers users the option
to bid on items (minimums apply) or to ³buy now² at a posted price. Opening
bids begin as low as $100.

Proceeds from POINTE, CLICK & BID for BALLET will benefit
American Ballet Theatre. For bidding, please visit ABT¹s auction website at
www.abt.cmarket.com. For more information, please contact Brie Wilson at
212-477-3030, ext. 3239.

CORY STEARNS PROMOTED TO SOLOIST WITH AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE

1/6/2009 - Cory Stearns has been promoted to Soloist with American Ballet Theatre effective immediately. The promotion was announced today by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie.

Born in Long Island, New York, Stearns began his classical training at Seiskaya Ballet with Mme. Valia Seiskaya. At age 15, he participated in the Youth America Grand Prix and was offered a full scholarship to The Royal Ballet School in London. During his training there, he performed in Madrid, Moscow, Milan and Germany. In March 2004, Stearns appeared with Kylie Minogue in her music video Chocolate. Upon graduating with honors from The Royal Ballet School, he received, for the second year, the Dame Ruth Railton Award for excellence in dance.

Stearns joined American Ballet Theatre’s Studio Company in September 2004. He joined the main company of ABT as an apprentice in January 2005 and became a member of the corps de ballet in January 2006. His repertory with the Company includes Conrad in Le Corsaire, a leading role in Études, Her Lover in Jardin aux Lilas, a Carnival Dancer in Othello, Paris in Romeo and Juliet, the Celtic Prince and a Fairy Knight in The Sleeping Beauty and roles in Brief Fling, Citizen, Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes, The Leaves Are Fading, Overgrown Path and Rabbit and Rogue. Stearns created a featured role in From Here On Out.

PRINCIPAL DANCER JULIE KENT TO TAKE MATERNITY LEAVE

1/7/2009 - American Ballet Theatre Principal Dancer Julie Kent will take maternity leave effective immediately, it was announced today by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie. Miss Kent and her husband, ABT Associate Artistic Director Victor Barbee, expect their second child in June of this year.

Kent is expected to return to the Company for the 2009-2010 season.

DAVID LANSKY NAMED GENERAL MANAGER
OF AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE


1/9/2009 - David Lansky, Director of Production and Operations with American Ballet Theatre, has been named to the position of General Manager, it was announced today by ABT's Executive Director Rachel S. Moore.

"David is a consummate professional and an incredibly important part of ABT’s senior management team," said Moore. "I am absolutely delighted to announce this promotion."

A member of American Ballet Theatre's production team since 1986, Lansky has held staff and managerial positions during his 22-year tenure with the Company. He joined ABT as Assistant Stage Manager and was promoted to Stage Manager in 1991. He was subsequently named Assistant Production Manager, Production Manager and, in 2004, he was promoted to the role of Director of Production and Operations with ABT. Prior to joining ABT, Lansky worked as a stage manager both on and Off Broadway, on national tours and for regional productions. He served as production stage manager for the Trisha Brown Dance Company's 1985-86 international tour and has toured with the national companies of The Magic Show, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Blues in The Night, starring Eartha Kitt.

Anyone know anything about Mr. Lansky?

He has been there forever and is amazing.
A True professional

THAT is great news. ABT has had so many management issues over the last ten years, it will be nice to get someone competent and with integrity into that position.

Jodie Gates Named
Altria/ABT Choreography Fellow for 2009


Choreographer Jodie Gates has been named the Altria/ABT
Choreography Fellow for 2009, it was announced today by ABT Artistic
Director Kevin McKenzie.

A former principal dancer with The Joffrey Ballet, Pennsylvania
Ballet and William Forsythe's Ballet Frankfurt, Gates teaches for
universities and dance schools internationally, and stages the works of
William Forsythe for dance companies around the world. She is a Professor
of Dance at the University of California, Irvine and is founder and artistic
director of the award-winning CaDance, which presents the annual Laguna
Dance Festival in Laguna Beach, California. She currently serves on the
board of Dance/USA. Her recent choreographic credits include Courting the
Ballet for Staatsballett Berlin, Barely Silent for Complexions Contemporary
Ballet and Minor Loop for The Washington Ballet, among others.

The Altria/ABT Choreography Fellows program was established as
part of Voices and Visions: The Altria/ABT Women¹s Choreography Project,
launched in 2008 in an effort to identify and nurture female choreographers.
The Fellows program annually chooses an emerging female choreographer to
create a new work for ABT II. The newly commissioned works, one each year
for three years (2008-2010), will be performed in New York City and at ABT
II¹s tour venues. Gates¹ new work, set to the second movement of
Beethoven¹s Symphony No. 9, with costumes by Melanie Watnick, will be given
its World Premiere at the Lynch Theater at John Jay College on April 3,
2009.

In addition to the Fellows program, Voices and Visions,
generously funded by Altria Group, Inc., includes a series of training and
mentoring workshops open to female members of ABT and ABT II. The
Workshops, led by Stephen Pier, a faculty member and choreographic mentor at
the Juilliard School, focus on developing choreographic structure and the
creative process with studies on intention, theme, phrase, music, style,
partnering and overall form, as well as analysis of existing ballets.
Dancers who wish to pursue further study will then be able to explore their
choreography by creating original work on students from The Jacqueline
Kennedy Onassis School and ABT¹s Summer Intensive program. The goal is to
encourage potential choreographers to explore the art of choreography more
deeply in subsequent years and offer opportunities to female members of ABT
to choreograph future works for ABT II.

Anne Milewski Named
Jennifer Alexander Dancer for 2009




Anne Milewski, a member of American Ballet Theatre¹s corps de
ballet, has been named the second annual Jennifer Alexander Dancer, it was
announced today by ABT Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie.

I n 2008, The Jennifer Alexander Memorial Fund was formed to honor
the late Jennifer Alexander, a beloved member of ABT¹s corps de ballet.
Gifts to the Jennifer Alexander Memorial FFund are used to support the
Jennifer Alexander Dancer, recognizing recognizing a senior female dancer in
the corps de ballet who best represents the professionalism, perseverance
and generosity that Jennifer herself embodied.

Milewski joined American Ballet Theatre as an apprentice in
January 1996, and became a member of the corps de ballet in August of that
year. Her repertoire with the Company includes a lead D¹Jampe in La
Bayadère, Amour in Don Quixote, Clara in The Nutcracker, a featured role in
Sechs Tänze and the Italian Princess in Swan Lake.

Contributions to The Jennifer Alexander Memorial Fund can be
made to: Ballet Theatre Foundation, 890 Broadway, 3rd Floor, New York, NY
10003.

Cuts at ABT, but in benefits and salaries instead of dancers...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/arts/ ... T_BRF.html

Veronika Part has been promoted to Principal Dancer effective May 18, 2009 -- the opening of ABT's Spring Season at the Met. James Wolcott reports in his Vanity Fair blog:

Vanity Fair

This must be unwelcome news in these economic times - the lawyer who helped run the union ABT dancers belonged to from 1994-2007 stole more than $100,000 from the union:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/arts/ ... l?ref=arts

SOLOIST SASCHA RADETSKY TO RETURN

TO AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE


Sascha Radetsky will return to American Ballet Theatre as a
Soloist on January 1, 2010, it was announced today by Artistic Director
Kevin McKenzie.

Born in Santa Cruz, California, Radetsky began his ballet
studies in the San Francisco Bay area with Damara Bennett and Ayako
Takahashi. He studied on scholarship at the summer programs of the School
of American Ballet, American Ballet Theatre¹s School of Classical Ballet,
the San Francisco Ballet School and the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Vail,
Colorado. At age 15, he was invited to study in Moscow at the Bolshoi
Academy under men¹s teacher Pytor Pestov and subsequently at the Kirov
Academy in Washington, D.C. He toured with the Kirov Ballet throughout the
United States and internationally.

Radetsky joined American Ballet Theatre as an apprentice in
1995, became a member of the corps de ballet in 1996 and a Soloist in 2003.
His repertoire with the Company includes Lankendem and Birbanto in Le
Corsaire, Espada in Don Quixote, the Pastor in Fall River Legend, the second
sailor in Fancy Free, Hilarion and peasant pas de deux in Giselle, the
Jailer in Manon, Camille in The Merry Widow, the Cavalier and the
Nutcracker-Prince in The Nutcracker, Iago in Othello, the title role in
Petrouchka, the Champion Roper in Rodeo, Tybalt and Benvolio in Romeo and
Juliet, the Bluebird in The Sleeping Beauty, Benno and von Rothbart in Swan
Lake, Orion in Sylvia, the fourth movement in Symphony in C and leading
roles in Études, The Leaves Are Fading, Rabbit and Rogue and Within You
Without You: A Tribute to George Harrison. He created a leading role in
>From Here On Out. Radetsky starred in the movie Center Stage, directed by
Nicholas Hytner, in 2000. He is married to ABT Soloist Stella Abrera.

In September 2008, Radetsky joined Dutch National Ballet as a
principal dancer, where his repertoire included Albrecht in Giselle and
Masetto in Don Giovanni.

American Ballet Theatre has announced that there will be no Fall Season in 2010 because of the need to concentrate resources on the new production of "Nutcracker." Erica Orden reports in the Wall Street Journal.

Wall Street Journal

That really doesn't seem wise to me, to cancel a season because of a new production, but when has ABT ever done anything wise.