Above photo: Gwen Vandenhoeck, BAE Winter Performance, 2016. The Ballet Academy East (BAE) Student Company will present its annual Winter Performance Thursday through Saturday at New York Live Arts (219 W 19th Street) with innovative repertory. While most ballet school performances stick to standard classics, BAE will present four new works created specifically for the school. It must be exciting for the students to tackle new choreography. The BAE Winter Performance features students of the Pre-Professional Division performing a world premiere by choreographer William Whitener set to music of Shostakovich, Khachaturian, Prokofiev and more, in Raymond Clarke’s Piano Music for Children. Jenna Lavin will present two new ballets – one, with music composed by César Franck, and the other, a work featuring a cast of forty-five dancers set to composer Edvard Grieg’s popular Holberg Suite. Rounding out the program is a presentation of a ballet by Chloe Harper, first presented as part of BAE’s Student Choreographic Workshop.
Tickets are available online and at 212.924.0077
Julia Dubno founded BAE in 1978 after a stint at Fokine Ballet School. Darla Hoover is the Artistic Director of the Pre-Professional Division. Darla danced at New York City Ballet from 1980-1991. In addition to her responsibilities at BAE, she is Associate Artistic Director of Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet and a répétiteur for the George Balanchine Trust. BAE faculty includes former and current dancers Charles Askegard, Maxim Beloserkovsky, Gonzalo Garcia, Wendy Whelan, and Cheryl Yeager. BAE alumni include NYCB’s Chase Finlay, Erica Pereira and ABT’s Puanani Brown and Hannah Marshall.
I reviewed the BAE Winter Performance last year and enjoyed watching the young students working with original choreography. I posted photos from the performance on my photography website notmydayjobphotography.com.
Program Order:
Sketchbook, choreographed by William Whitener
Battements de Coeur, choreographed by Chloe Harper
Intermission
Dans le Jardin, choreographed by Jenna Lavin
Holberg Suite, choreographed by Jenna Lavin