Huge Ballets Russes exhibit at National Gallery in Washington

The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC will be hosting a special exhibition, “Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, 1909-1929: When Art Danced With Music,” from May 12 to Sept. 2.
This is an expanded version of the "Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes" exhibition held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2010, including more than 50 additional pieces on loan from museums around the world, including Dansmuseet in Sweden and the National Gallery of Australia.
In addition, the Gallery will present an array of activities celebrating the dynamic Ballets Russes, including on-site ballet performances and instructional programs, an online brochure, lectures, concerts, and a symposium as well as film screenings, gallery talks, podcasts, an audio tour, and a variety of offerings in the Gallery Shops.

For more information:

http://www.nga.gov/press/exh/3413/index.shtm

I am looking into the possibility of a trip to Washington June 5 - 8 to see this exhibition plus the three programs of the Dance Across America festival: If you are at all interested, please contact me at toursenlair@gmail.com.
Program A (June 5)
Richmond Ballet Ershter Vals features music based on poems from the Jewish ghettos of World War II. The captivating choreography focuses the ballet on the moments of light that can be found in even the darkest of times, creating a penetrating message of hope.
Oregon Ballet Theatre presents James Kudelka's riveting Almost Mozart, which juxtaposes a gorgeous Mozart score with stunning moments of complete silence.
Boston Ballet brings Balanchine's complex and energetic Symphony in Three Movements, set to Stravinsky's music and marked by its turned-in movements and athletic sequences.

Program B (June 6)
The Sarasota Ballet brings Les Patineurs, in which Sir Frederick Ashton's choreography brings a skating rink to life on stage, complete with vivid scenes of couples skating hand in hand, the bravura "blue boy" dazzling the crowd, and beginners clinging onto the nearest support.
Pennsylvania Ballet offers the purity and angular architecture of Balanchine's The Four Temperaments, set to Paul Hindemith's commissioned score and inspired by the medieval belief of the four humors.
The Washington Ballet performs Edwaard Liang's dazzling Wunderland, known for its mesmerizing partnerings and performed to an alluring score by Philip Glass.

Program C (June 7)
North Carolina Dance Theatre's Rhapsodic Dances is a contemporary take on romantic, classical ballet with inspiration from Rachmaninoff's music.
From Texas, Ballet Austin Artistic Director Stephen Mills's enlightened and inspiring Hush, organically entwines dance with a spiralling score by Philip Glass.
Dance Theatre of Harlem (including First Position's Michaela Prince) returns to the stage after closing in 2004, bringing Robert Garland's urban/post-modern/neoclassical confection Return, which uses the music of Aretha Franklin and James Brown in a brilliant tribute to American social dances of the '60s and '70s.

If you love ballet, please check out my season of outstanding ballet trips by clicking here.

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