September 26 – 30, 2018

Featuring Serenade, Bolero, Les Sylphides, SOMBERISIMO, the Black Swan pas de deux, Seven Sonatas pas de deux, and Tarantella

In this section:

Artistic Director Julie Kent invited celebrated artists from the dance world to share the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater stage with our company. TWB Welcomes featured two distinct programs of extraordinary balletic dimension, showcasing the evolution of classical ballet over the last 100+ years.

Featuring The Washington Ballet Orchestra.

​Guest artists:

  • Katherine Barkman, principal dancer with Ballet Manila
  • Returning DC area native Connor Walsh, principal with Houston Ballet
  • Stella Abrera, principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre
  • Marcelo Gomes, former principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre

​Program A: Exquisite and Exotic
Serenade, Bolero, plus three pas de deux

Wednesday, September 26; Thursday, September 27; Saturday, September 29 (evening); Sunday, September 30 (evening)

Program B: Ethereal and Evocative
Les Sylphides, SOMBERISIMO, plus three pas de deux

Friday, September 28; Saturday, September 29 (matinee); Sunday, September 30 (matinee)

The Washington Ballet's Brittany Stone in George Balanchine's Serenade. Photo by XMB Photography.

The Washington Ballet's Tamas Krizsa with guest artist Stella Abrera in Alexei Ratmansky's Seven Sonatas. Photo by XMB Photography.

The Washington Ballet's Katherine Barkman and Alexandros Pappajohn in George Balanchine's Tarantella. Photo by XMB Photography.

The Washington Ballet's Eun Won-Lee with guest artist Connor Walsh in the Black Swan Pas de Deux. Photo by Victoria Pickering for IGDC.

The Washington Ballet in Annabelle Lopez Ochoa's SOMBREISIMO. Photo by Dean Alexander.

The Washington Ballet in Alexei Ratmansky's Bolero.

Serenade

Program A
Choreography by George Balanchine
Music by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Many people think there is a concealed story in the ballet. There is not. The only story is the music’s story, a serenade, a dance, if you like, in the light of the moon.

Balanchine

George Balanchine’s timeless Serenade is the first ballet he choreographed in 1934 after he arrived in America. This classic work, set to Tchaikovsky’s lyrical and dramatic Serenade for Strings in C Op. 48, continues to move audiences with its emotional and inherent narrative.

Bolero

Program A
Choreography by Alexei Ratmansky
Music by Maurice Ravel

…. the group as a moving, breathing organism. Emphasizing the importance of an ensemble is one of his greatest gifts…

The New York Times

A vibrant and playful work for six dancers This reflection on modern society and its pressures reveal our inner demons and struggle.

SOMBRERISIMO

Program B
Choreography by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa
Music by Banda Ionica, Titi Robin

The energetic cast tears into the eccentric mélange of physical virtuosity….

The Boston Globe

A ballet created quite simply for six men … and a bowler hat in an exploration of self-identity and set to swirling flamenco guitar and raucous Spanish rap.

Les Sylphides

Program B
Choreography by Michel Fokine
Music by Frédéric Chopin

A one-act romantic reverie that is in the repertory of nearly every company in the world.

Swan Lake - Black Swan (pas de deux)

Both Programs
Choreography by Marius Petipas
Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

This dramatic pas de deux of seduction is the show stopper in Swan Lake, Act III when Prince Siegfried falls under the beguiling spell of Odile, the Black Swan, and is tricked into forsaking his true love for her.

Seven Sonatas (pas de deux)

Both Programs
Choreography by Alexei Ratmansky
Music by Domenico Scarlatti

This intimate, abstract pas deux was created by one of the 21st centuries most sought after choreographers to express the beauty and fullness of Scarlatti’s music. Full of neoclassical elegance and sensitivity, the dance exposes uncertainty in relationships. Ratmansky’s work is not seen much in the United States. This ballet was hailed as “spellbinding” and “miraculous” in The Guardian.

Tarantella (C) The George Balanchine Trust (pas de deux)

Both Programs
Choreography by George Balanchine
Music by Louis Moreau Gottschalk

Quick, fast paced and full of tight technical virtuosity, this explosive pas de deux is a high-speed burst of non-stop energy and fun to the finish.

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