The American Ballet Theatre (ABT) Spring Met season schedule was announced today. Highlights include the Company Premiere of Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella on Monday, June 9 with Hee Seo in the title role and Cory Stearns as the Prince. ABT has performed the James Kudelka National Ballet of Canada version since 2006; the Ashton version is a welcome upgrade. The season also features four performances of a Shakespeare Celebration, which includes Frederick Ashton’s The Dream and Alexei Ratmansky’s The Tempest, Monday, June 30 through Wednesday, July 2. There will be revivals of Léonide Massine’s Gaîté Parisienne (Tuesday, May 20 for four performances through May 22) and Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon (June 2-7). The last time ABT performed Manon was 2007. Full length mainstays include Don Quixote (May 13-19), La Bayadère (May 23-29), Giselle (June 16-21), Swan Lake (June 23-28), and Coppelia (May 30-31 and July 3-5). I am interested in seeing Duo Concertant, a nice, cheerful Balanchine piece performed in the fall season by New York CIty Ballet in the Black & White program. Sleeping Beauty and Le Corsaire are getting a rest. Click on the screenshots below for schedule and casting; I highlighted noteworthy performances in blue boxes.
Click for larger image of ABT schedule and casting
Click for larger image of ABT schedule and casting
Guest artists will be Alina Cojocaru, principal dancer with English National Ballet, Maria Kochetkova, principal dancer with San Francisco Ballet, and Denis Matvienko, a guest artist with Mariinsky Ballet. Last season, Maria danced in Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake with Herman Cornejo, replacing the injured Alina. Natalia Osipova, who danced with ABT in the spring season for the past several years, is now with The Royal Ballet and is not listed in the ABT schedule.
Kochetkova and Herman will dance leads in Don Quixote as will Paloma Herrera and Ivan Vasiliev. Sara Lane and Herman will dance Theme and Variations along with Isabella Boylston and Daniil Simkin. Isabella is moving up as she is also scheduled to dance Giselle, Don Quixote and Swan Lake. Alina will dance in Swan Lake and Giselle. Coppelia features fresh faces as Misty Copeland will dance the lead role with Herman; Sara Lane is paired with Daniil, Gillian Murphy will dance with Jared Matthews, and Yuriko Kajiya with Joseph Gorak. Nice to see the soloists getting a chance to prove themselves. Unfortunately, Stella Abrera is not listed to dance any lead roles. She would have been great as Giselle as would Sara Lane.