February 25, 2011 By Callie Mounger
The Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts proudly welcomes back the return of the Russian National Ballet set to perform “Swan Lake” on March 4. The show will begin at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20 to $28 for various seating. Norm Easterbrook, the Ford Center director is responsible for booking the performers that come the Ford Center. He has been doing this kind of work for many years and knows and has worked with many agents.
“Traditional story ballets are very popular so Norm likes to book them at least every couple of years,” said Kate Meacham, Assistant Director of Marketing for the Ford Center for the Performing Arts. “Norm contacted CAMI to see if they were available and if coming to Oxford worked with their tour schedule.”
RNB is represented in the US by Columbia Artists Management. The Russian Ballet Theatre was founded in Moscow during the 1980’s, when many of the great dancers and choreographers of the Soviet Union’s ballet institution were exercising their newfound creative freedom.
“Swan Lake” is based on a German fairy tale and follows heroic young Prince Seigfried as he labors to free the beautiful swan maiden, Odette, from an evil sorcerer’s spell. The music is by Tchaikovsky.
“The Russian Ballet is a very disciplined, classically trained company. They send dancers to compete during the International Ballet Competition set every four years in Jackson, Ms. Their dancers are some of the best in the world,” said William D. Mounger, Chairman of the International Ballet Competition.
The Ford Center is eagerly awaiting the arrival of the ballet company. In preparation for the ballet, the Ford Center staff work diligently to make sure everything is perfect.
“When any artist comes there are technical preparations that need to be made. These include setting lights and for a dance performance, we usually put down a marley floor. Also, any set pieces and final light focus. In addition to the technical aspects, other preparations include arranging any hospitality (food, drink) listed in the contract and also all marketing efforts,” Meacham said.
“Our technical crew and the company crew work together to prepare for the performance. Our crew does as much as we can do prior to the day of the show. Everything else is done when the company arrives on the day of the show,” Meacham stated about the preparations for the day of the performance.
The dancers performing and their roles are listed below:
Prince Siegfried: Ruslan Mukhambetkaliev, Yuri Ostrovsky
Queen Mother: Yulia Ruchay
Von Rotbbart: Evgeny Rudakov, Samat Abdrakhmanov
The Princes Tutor: Dmitry Romanov, Evgeny Rudakov
Jester: Didar Sarsembaev
Pas de Troi: Maria Klyueva, Ekaterina Pankovskaya, Samat Abdrakhmanov, Marlen Alimanov
The Russian National Ballet has visited the Ford Center twice since 2008. Tickets are available by calling 662-915-7411 or by visiting the UM Box Office at the Student Union from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays or the Ford Center Box Office beginning at 10 p.m. the day of the show or by going to http://www.fordcenter.org.
Resources
Kate Meacham
William D. Mounger
601-982-0970
No comments:
Post a Comment