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RICHMOND BALLET TO MAKE DEBUT PERFORMANCE IN CHICAGO

6/10/2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 10, 2009

Media Contact:
Aaron Sutten
(804) 344-0906 ext. 244
asutten@richmondballet.com

RICHMOND - Richmond Ballet will travel to the Windy City this summer to appear at the highly acclaimed Chicago Dancing Festival on August 18. The company will perform Jessica Lang’s To Familiar Spaces in Dream and will share the stage that evening with Aszure Barton and Artists, Joffrey Ballet, Oregon Ballet and River North Chicago Dance Company. The invitation to perform at this much-heralded dance event offers The State Ballet of Virginia an important opportunity for national exposure and furthers the mission of the organization to “make a significant contribution to the art form on a national basis.”

The Chicago Dancing Festival began in 2007 with a free concert in the Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park. In a single evening, audience members were treated to performances by San Francisco Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Complexions Dance Company, among others. In 2008, the Festival expanded, offering three days of performances that included appearances by American Ballet Theatre, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Martha Graham Dance Company, Suzanne Farrell Ballet and Joffrey Ballet.

The 2009 Festival has grown into a four-day event and will feature performances by New York City Ballet’s Wendy Whelan and Chris Hall in Christopher Wheeldon’s “After the Rain;” Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Linda Denise Evans in Ailey’s classic solo, “Cry;” and American Ballet Theatre’s Hee Seo and Corey Stearns in the pas de deux from Le Corsaire. Also appearing at this year’s Festival: Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, Chicago Rhythm Project, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Houston Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Les Ballets Grandivas, Luna Negra Dance Theatre and Step Africa.

The driving force behind the free concert series is the Chicago Dancing Company, which is the brainchild of modern dance choreographer Lar Lubovitch and dancer Jay Franke. The mission of the organization is “to present a wide variety of excellent dance, enrich the lives of the people of Chicago and provide increased accessibility to the art form, thereby helping create a new audience.” Lubovitch and Franke hope to raise the national and international profile of dance in the city and promote Chicago as a dance destination.

Richmond Ballet commissioned the critically acclaimed To Familiar Spaces in Dream from Ms. Lang in 2005, and the work has proved to be one of the company’s most popular ballets. A Juilliard graduate and former Twyla Tharp dancer, Ms. Lang will also create a new ballet for the upcoming 2009-10 Season at Richmond Ballet. The new work will have its premiere in November 2009 at the Ballet’s Studio Theatre on Canal Street in downtown Richmond.

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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

Press photos available upon request