NEW BEGINNINGS
SUNRISE, SEPTEMBER 12, 2013
New York City Ballet Presents New Beginnings
a Short Film Created on Location at Four World Trade Center
As a Gift to the City of New York City
See New Beginnings at www.YouTube.com/nycballet
On Thursday, September 12, 2013, one day after
the 12th anniversary of 9/11, New York City
Ballet will release New Beginnings, a short film
that captures an extraordinary and moving
performance of Christopher Wheeldon’s After the
Rain filmed at sunrise on the 57th floor terrace
of Four World Trade Center in lower Manhattan.
With One World Trade Center (previously known as
the Freedom Tower) and the iconic New York City
skyline as a backdrop, two NYCB Principal
Dancers, Maria Kowroski and Ask la Cour, perform
an excerpt from Wheeldon’s poignant pas de deux
as dawn signals the beginning of a new day in New York City.
Created as both a testament to the resilience of
the human spirit, and a tribute to the future of
the city that New York City Ballet calls home,
New Beginnings will be released worldwide at
sunrise (6:34 a.m. EST) on Thursday, September 12
on the New York City Ballet YouTube channel at www.YouTube.com/nycballet.
“Like the rest of the world, everyone at New York
City Ballet was deeply affected by the events of
9/11. Now, 12 years later, as a revitalized World
Trade Center site begins to re-emerge, the New
York City Ballet would like to offer this film as
a gift to our great city,” said NYCB Ballet
Master in Chief Peter Martins. “Dance really is a
powerful universal language, and the New York
City Ballet is deeply honored to be able to
present this remarkable and touching performance
of Christopher Wheeldon’s After the Rain to
people both here in New York, and all across the globe.”
New Beginnings has been directed by Davi Russo,
was developed in collaboration with DDB New York,
and produced by Radical Media.
On September 11, 2001, the New York City Ballet
was on a European tour that had taken the Company
from Edinburgh, Scotland, to Athens, Greece, and
finally to Parma, Italy, where the Company was
scheduled to perform as part of the Verdi
Festival at the Teatro Regio that evening. As
news of the events unfolding at home in New York
began to make its way to the dancers of the New
York City Ballet, the sense of fear and loss
became more and more overwhelming, and Martins
ultimately decided to cancel that evening’s
performance.
“While we had come to Italy to
dance, there were still so many questions about
what was happening in New York, and still so many
family members and friends unaccounted for, that
it was simply not possible to ask the dancers to
perform that evening,” said Martins.
By curtain time, the entire sold-out audience had
arrived at the Teatro Regio, and stood in silence
and mourned with the Company and the rest of the
world as Martins addressed the audience to say
that while the Company could not perform that
evening, New York City Ballet would be back the
next night. “We came here to dance, it is what we
do, but our hearts are breaking and it is simply
not possible for us to perform this evening,”
said Martins from the stage of the theater. “But
we will be back tomorrow, and we will be honored
to perform for all of you then,” he said.
NYCB did perform at the Teatro Regio the
following evening, September 12, 2001, and now 12
years to the day, New York City Ballet offers New
Beginnings, which features an international team
of collaborators, including a director (Russo)
who was born and raised in New York City, a
British choreographer (Wheeldon), an American and
a Danish dancer (Kowroski and la Cour), and a
ballet set to a score by the Estonian composer
Arvo Pärt, which provides a moving backdrop to a
film of profound and powerful beauty.
That's so beautiful.....
ReplyDeleteindeed it is!
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