Party Pictures 10/28/03 - American Ballet Theatre, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Split Sides

American Ballet Theatre held its opening night Gala at City Center

The curtain call marking the opening of the fall season of ABT. Photo: JH.

Last Wednesday night the American Ballet Theatre held its opening night Gala at City Center with a salute to the centennials of George Balanchine and Sir Frederick Ashton. The evening was co-chaired by Muffie Potter Aston and Dr. Sherrell Aston, Julia and David Koch and Grace and Chris Meigher. Albert Kriemler of Akris was underwriting co-chair. Underwriting sponsors were Akris and Tri-State Maybach Commissioning Studios.

Platinum Benefactors were Albert and Suzanne Lord, Robin Neustein, Peg and Lewis S. Ranieri, Amy and Jay Regan and Bernard and Irene Schwartz. Benefactors for the evening were Linda Allard and Herbert Gallen, Mrs. Ward S. Hagan, Nancy Havens-Hasty and J. Dozier Hasty, Julia and David Koch, Cindy and John Sites and Carrao Varoli/Goldman, Sachs & Company.

Julia Koch in front of the Maybach outside City Center

Opening night program included Agnes DeMille’s “Three Virgins and a Devil,” Sir Frederick Ashton’s “Symphonic Variations,” “Diana and Acteon (Pas de Deux & Coda)” with Choreography by Agrippina Vaganova and staged by Rudolf Nureyev; Balanchine’s “Tchaikovsky Pas De Deux,” the company premiere of Christian Spuck’s “Le Grand Pas De Deux,” which was performed by Xiomara Reyes and Vladimir Malakhov and was the first comic ballet I have ever seen.

Miss Reyes was as hysterically funny as Lucille Ball or Carol Burnett performing the same program, in a (pink) tutu (carrying a pink plastic handbag and wearing black-rimmed glasses). Reyes and Malakhov had the audience guffawing with laughter; really really funny. The company also performed Balanchine’s “Theme and Variations,” music by Tchaikovsky.

The ballet is many things to many people. I love the ballet although I know little of what I’m watching. It is pure pleasure for me to see the dancers turn in stunning, sometimes astonishing (and even hilarious) performances in a theatre swelling with beautiful music. All very young (some barely out of teen-age) and passionate with dedication, my heart is with them all as they demonstrate their talents – the results of thousands of concealed hours of hard work – and create a beautiful evening. Everything is beautiful at the ballet, as the song goes. For that quickly fleeting hour and a half we are all in a sanctuary of joy, and peace, transported by the musicians, the poets and the dancers. How lucky some of us are to bear to witness to its truths.

This year the ballet company’s season has been extended from two to three weeks, running through November 9 and sponsored by Movado Watch Company, a leading benefactor.

Maxim Beloserkovsky, Irina Dvorovenko, and Kevin McKenzie

Grace Meigher, Nan Kempner, and Muffie Potter Aston

Kevin McKenzie and Martine Van Hamel

Anka Palitz

Barbara Gollust

Bettina Varoli

Cindy Sites

Julia Koch

Monique Meunier and David Hallberg

Julie Kent and Irina Dvorovenko

David Ford and Pamela Lynn Fielder

Guy Mognaz and Beverly D'Anne

L. to r.: Michael Melone and friends; Carmen Corella with ABT Chairman Lewis Ranieri; Fe Fendi.

Gemze Delappe and James Mitchell

Kevin McKenzie and Peter Lyden

Alan Cumming and friend

L. to r.: Eric Otto and Maria Ricetto; Chris Meigher; Dr. Sherrell Aston, Grace Meigher, Muffie Potter Aston, and Ed Fox.

Photographs by Billy Farrell/PMc

Merce Cunningham Dance Company's Split Sides: An Evening By Chance, a gala celebration

The Merce Cunningham Dance Company's Ashley Chen, Cheryl Therrien, Cedric Andrieux, Derry Swan, Jonah Bokaer, Jeannie Steele, Daniel Roberts, and Jennifer Goggans

On Tuesday, October 14, 2003, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company celebrated the culmination of its 50th Anniversary by presenting Split Sides: An Evening By Chance, a benefit celebration at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

The Gala was co-chaired by Harvey Lichtenstein and Patsy Tarr. Honorary co–chairs for the Fiftieth Anniversary included Mikhail Baryshnikov, Peter Brook, Alan H. Fishman, Betty Freeman, David D. Holbrook, Jacqueline Matisse-Monnier and Beverly Sills. Sponsors of the opening night benefit included American Express, Ketel One and Palm.

Daniel Squire and Holly Farmer

The evening began at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple at 317 Clermont Avenue at Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, with a seated dinner and opening remarks by John Rockwell of The New York Times. Followed by a stellar performance at Brooklyn Academy of Music by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company joined — live this one night only — by the bands Radioheadand Sigur Rós, performing the world premiere of Split Sides.

This new work included decor by Robert Heishman and Catherine Yass, costumes by James Hall, and lighting by James F. Ingalls. Also on the gala program was the New York premiere of Fluid Canvas (2002), with music composed and performed by John King, digital artwork by Marc Downie, Shelley Eshkar, and Paul Kaiser, costumes by James Hall and lighting by James F. Ingalls.

The post –performance party at 10:00pm, also held at the Masonic Temple, featured cabaret acts by friends of the Company. All of the collaborators joined guests and members of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in dancing to the beat of a DJ. The After-Party was initiated by the Company’s new Foot-in-the-Door: Young Friends of Merce Committee.