America's ballet stars
America's Ballet Stars
American ballet is great, even if young compared to Europe. Over the past century it has produced so many revolutions in choreography, given dance so many new directions and names, that its influence has spread everywhere. Can one imagine a ballet company that does not keep works by George Balanchine or Jerome Robbins, William Forsythe or John Neumeier in its repertoire? Can one imagine modern dance without Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey and Paul Taylor, Merce Cunningham and Twyla Tharp?
Our guests
25 March
American's Ballet Stars
Twelve ballet stars from America: an extraordinary event in Latvia’s cultural life.
This will be an unprecedented, historic evening. For the first time, Latvia will host twelve stars — twelve leading dancers of New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre, Houston Ballet, Joffrey Ballet and ABT Studio Company. They will appear on stage in a grand gala that would grace any world capital, offering audiences a rare chance to see — and understand — what American ballet is today.
So much dance happens in the United States that counting all existing ballet companies is nearly impossible — according to some sources, there may be around fifteen hundred. About 150 of them are considered major, stable and successful professional ensembles.
Yet there is no disagreement about the top ten. These are New York City Ballet — Balanchine’s home; American Ballet Theatre — the National Ballet Company of the United States (New York); San Francisco Ballet, Houston Ballet, Joffrey Ballet (Chicago), Pacific Northwest Ballet (Seattle), Boston Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Philadelphia Ballet and Washington Ballet. Most of them have their own schools and junior companies. Competition among dancers is enormous: the stage is contested not only by Americans, but by dancers from all over the world. Latvia, too, made a beautiful contribution: Mikhail Baryshnikov danced four seasons as a principal at American Ballet Theatre and then led it for 22 years as artistic director. His classmate from the Riga Choreography School, Alexander Godunov, was also a principal at ABT in 1980, and later performed in the United States and worldwide with his own company.
