RICHMOND - Richmond Ballet's 2009-10 Season will be the busiest season in recent years for the State Ballet of Virginia. It will include the re-opening of the newly-renovated Carpenter Theatre at Richmond CenterStage, a return to The Joyce Theater in New York City and participation in the statewide event, MINDS WIDE OPEN: Virginia Celebrates Women in the Arts. The upcoming season also marks Stoner Winslett's thirtieth year as Artistic Director of Richmond Ballet.

Before the official season even begins, the Richmond Ballet will have its first performance in the Second City for an appearance at the Chicago Dancing Festival on August 18, where they will show Jessica Lang’s To Familiar Spaces in Dream. This relatively new performance series has taken Chicago by storm and has been hailed by critics as a must-see event. Among the companies who performed at the 2008 Festival were American Ballet Theatre, Joffrey Ballet and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago.

On September 12 and 13, along with the eight other producing resident companies of the new Richmond CenterStage complex, Richmond Ballet will perform at the grand opening of the new downtown performing arts venue that includes the newly-renovated, historic Carpenter Theatre. For the event, the Ballet will perform Windows IV, the final section of Artistic Director Stoner Winslett’s evening-length ballet Windows.

Following the CenterStage performance, Richmond Ballet will officially open the 2009-10 Season by hosting its second New Works Festival September 29 - October 4 in the Richmond Ballet Studio Theatre on Canal Street. Four choreographers will be invited to create original short pieces, 10-15 minutes in length, in a workshop setting. All four works will be presented on one program.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for the audience to witness the creative process, to see how ballets begin,” says Richmond Ballet Artistic Director Stoner Winslett. “Gina Patterson choreographed a section of her ballet, Silence, during the first New Works Festival in 2008 and then returned in spring of 2009 to complete the work. Audiences who saw both performances were able to see the development of the piece from the initial work-in-progress to the final, fully-produced version of the ballet.”

The company will kick off the Studio Series at Richmond Ballet Studio Theatre November 3-8 with the world premiere of a new ballet by Jessica Lang, whose work has gained increasing attention in ballet circles in recent years. This will be the fifth Richmond Ballet commission for Lang, who has created works for American Ballet Theatre II, Ailey II,Cincinnati Ballet and the Juilliard School, among others. The new Lang piece will be coupled with the revival of George Balanchine’s Apollo, which is the oldest surviving work of the master choreographer. Created in 1928, the work was Balanchine’s first public success. It also marked the first collaboration in what was to be a lifetime partnership between Balanchine and Igor Stravinsky, who conceived of and composed the score for the ballet.

December will find Richmond Ballet performing Stoner Winslett’s much-loved production of The Nutcracker at the Carpenter Theatre for the first time since 2001. The Ballet will return to the Carpenter in February for Valentine’s Day weekend performances of Malcolm Burn’s Romeo and Juliet. Richmond Symphony will provide live accompaniment for both performances.

Richmond Ballet will make its fourth New York appearance in five years at Manhattan’s Joyce Theater during the week of April 6 - 13, 2010. The company will present six Richmond Ballet-commissioned works by an international slate of choreographers. Richmond audiences will be afforded a preview of the New York programming during the Joyce preview performances at the Richmond Ballet Studio Theatre, which will have an extended run March 23 - April 1. The six pieces will be presented on two programs of three works each, just as they will be presented in New York.

The exciting season closes at home in the Richmond Ballet Studio Theatre with the revival of Stoner Winslett’s evening length work, Windows, for Studio 2. Windows was chosen to mark the occasion of Ms. Winslett’s thirtieth anniversary as artistic director of Richmond Ballet and also the statewide MINDS WIDE OPEN: Virginia Celebrates Women in the Arts. In conjunction with the performances, Richmond Ballet and the CenterStage Foundation will present a seminar on women in the arts, a portion of which will focus on the rarity of female artistic directors in American ballet companies.

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Richmond Ballet, The State Ballet of Virginia, is dedicated to the education, promotion, preservation and continuing evolution of the art form of ballet. Richmond Ballet strives to keep meaningful works of dance alive and to produce and foster new works that remain true to these values. Entering the 26th professional season, Richmond Ballet's mission is to “awaken and uplift the human spirit, both for audiences and artists.”

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For further press information contact:
Aaron Sutten, Director of Marketing and Communications
EMAIL: asutten@richmondballet.com; CALL: (804) 344-0906 x244

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