Dreamweaver Marketing News, PITTSBURGH DANCE COUNCIL PRESENTS BJM DANSE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact: Lily Rybarczyk, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Rybarczyk@TrustArts.org / 412-471-5196

THE PITTSBURGH CULTURAL TRUST ANNOUNCES

PITTSBURGH DANCE COUNCIL PRESENTS

BJM DANSE

APRIL 22, 2017 | 8:00 P.M. | BYHAM THEATER

Pittsburgh, PA – The Pittsburgh Dance Council, a division of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, presents BJM Danse onSaturday, April 22, 2017 at 8:00 p.m. at the Byham Theater, 101 Sixth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222. BJM Danse is the final presentation of the Pittsburgh Dance Council’s 2016-17 season.

Montreal’s acclaimed BJM Dance finds inspiration within a dance laboratory setting where innovative choreographic ideas are tested and brought to life through energizing and physically challenging works. Inspired by the innovative spirit of modern jazz, the repertory company is grounded in technique, vocabulary, discipline and aesthetic of classical dance. Blending the disciplines of classical and contemporary dance forms with theater, the circus, visual arts and new music, adds up to an ambitious repertoire that is unique to BJM Danse.

BJM has recently collaborated with a slate of well-known figures of contemporary dance, including the choreographers for the trio of works in this performance, Barak Marshall (Israel and USA), Adonis Foniodakis (Greece), and Itzik Galili (Amsterdam).

Informed by the frenetic pace of our everyday lives, Kosmos offers a release of tension, creating space to let go and experience a moment of joy. Showing the company’s outstanding range, Mono Lisa is an acrobatic duet with ballet underpinnings. The evening concludes with Harry, which integrates balloons and other props into a dance inspired by life’s conflicts and compromises.

Tickets ($25-$60) are available through these Pittsburgh Cultural Trust official ticket sources: www.TrustArts.org, by calling 412-456-6666, or in person at the Box Office at Theater Square, 655 Penn Avenue. A limited number of $10 tickets, orchestra level, are being offered for Pittsburgh Dance Council presentations at the Byham Theater, available on a first come, first served basis. Subscription packages are available for: $60-$285. Subscriptions can be purchased in 4 show packages, with prices starting at $40. To subscribe, call 412-456-1390. Groups of 10 or more tickets, please call 412-471-6930. For more information visit, www.TrustArts.org/dance.

Pittsburgh Dance Council
The Pittsburgh Dance Council joined Pittsburgh Cultural Trust as a programming division 2002. The mission of Pittsburgh Dance Council is to bring the best contemporary dance companies from around the world to the Cultural District. Each season, Pittsburgh Dance Council presents diverse, world-class contemporary works, including U.S. and world premieres.

Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has overseen one of Pittsburgh’s most historic transformations: turning a seedy red-light district into a magnet destination for arts lovers, residents, visitors, and business owners. Founded in 1984, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is a non-profit arts organization whose mission is the cultural and economic revitalization of a 14-block arts and entertainment/residential neighborhood called the Cultural District. The District is one of the country’s largest land masses “curated” by a single nonprofit arts organization. A major catalytic force in the city, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is a unique model of how public-private partnerships can reinvent a city with authenticity, innovation and creativity. Using the arts as an economic catalyst, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has holistically created a world-renowned Cultural District that is revitalizing the city, improving the regional economy and enhancing Pittsburgh’s quality of life. Thanks to the support of foundations, corporations, government agencies and thousands of private citizens, the Cultural Trust stands as a national model of urban redevelopment through the arts.  www.TrustArts.org

Follow us on Twitter @CulturalTrust, and like us on Facebook.

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About this Blog:  Dreamweaver Marketing Associates provides this blog as a service to the community, friends, clients and business associates.  Feel free to use this blog as a resource and also to send in your press releases.  Dreamweaver Marketing Associates is a full service marketing company that specializes in online and digital branding.  Run exclusively by Joanne Quinn-Smith, aka TechnoGranny and specializing in organic search content, like blogs, video and audio podcasts and searchable social media.  For additional information you can contact the host of this blog, Joanne Quinn-Smith at 412-444-5197.Podcasts that come under the umbrella of Dreamweaver Marketing are PositivelyPittsburghLive, TheTechnoGrannyShow ,MondayMorningMarketeer

Dreamweaver Marketing News, American Premiere of Deane’s "Romeo and Juliet"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Contact: Meghan Swartz Associate Director of Communications 412-454-9117 | mswartz@pittsburghballet.org 

PBT Premiere Romeo and Juliette 2017

Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Presents North American Premiere of Deane’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Marks PBT Season Finale April 21-23, at the Benedum

PITTSBURGH, PA (March 2017) – In the company’s 2016-2017 Season finale, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre (PBT) will present the North American premiere of Derek Deane’s dramatic “Romeo and Juliet” with the PBT Orchestra in five performances April 21-23, at the Benedum Center. The production features opulent costume and scenic designs by Roberta Guidi di Bagno, a native of Italy, and new lighting designs by Michael Korsch. Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Music Director and Conductor, Charles Barker will lead the PBT Orchestra in Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev’s famous score.

Deane originally choreographed his interpretation of Shakespeare’s tragic love story in 1998 for English National Ballet’s in-the-round production at Royal Albert Hall. In 1999, Deane recreated the production for the traditional proscenium stage, which is the version PBT will introduce to North American audiences this spring. Deane’s is a classic reading of Shakespeare’s story of star-crossed lovers designed in the decadent aesthetic of Renaissance Verona. Standout settings are the moonlit balcony scene and the eerie crypt with its somber procession of candle-bearing monks. Many credit Prokofiev’s score for cementing “Romeo and Juliet’s” place among the major works in the ballet repertoire. The intense, richly varied music is particularly famous for its character portraits and an emotional range that contains notes of both tenderness and brutality. Prokofiev composed the score in 1935, though it wasn’t performed as a ballet until 1938. Three suites and 10 piano pieces extracted from the score were the first to reach the public. 

Although it was intended for the Kirov ballet, “Romeo and Juliet” premiered instead in Brno, Czechoslovakia (now in the Czech Republic) in 1938. It didn’t debut in the Soviet Union until the Kirov staged it in 1940. NPR’s Ted Libbey, author of its “Listener’s Encyclopedia of Classical Music,” says “’Romeo and Juliet’ is one of the most beautiful scores of the 20th century, and certainly one of the greatest compositions for the ballet stage, on a par with the great Tchaikovsky ballets.” 

The nuance of the music and drama of the story set the scene for expressive dancing that demands both technical and emotional intensity from its performers. “I think Derek lends a certain authenticity to the dancing and the acting that make the drama  of this story very human and personal to the people dancing it,” said Terrence S. Orr, PBT artistic director.

 “His staging of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is sweeping and theatrical, but it also reminds us why the themes of this 16th-century story remain so relevant today.” “Romeo and Juliet’s” dancing follows its own character arc from the rapturous first encounter to their tragic reunion in the crypt. The choreography also capitalizes on the physicality of the male dancers in dueling scenes between the Montagues and Capulets and raises tensions with frenzied sword-fighting sequences. In addition to the character development of Romeo and Juliet, roles to watch include the fiery Tybalt and stony Lady Capulet, spotlighted in a heartrending reaction to the death of her nephew. Tickets for “Romeo and Juliet” start at $28, and are available at www.pbt.org, by calling 412-456- 6666 or visiting the Box Office at Theater Square. Groups of 8 or more can save up to 50 percent on tickets by calling 412-454-9101 or emailing groupsales@pittsburghballet.org.

Performance Times  Friday, April 21, 2017 – 8:00 p.m.  Saturday, April 22, 2017 – 2:00 p.m.  Saturday, April 22, 2017 – 8:00 p.m.  Sunday, April 23, 2017 – 12:00 p.m.  Sunday, April 23, 2017 – 4:30 p.m. 

About Derek Deane Derek Deane trained at the Royal Ballet School from 1970 to 1972 and was invited to join the professional company at age 18. He was promoted to soloist, principal and finally to senior principal dancer by 1982. He danced most of the major roles in the Royal Ballet’s classical repertoire and in works by the most important choreographers of the 20th century. He began choreographing during his performing career, creating ballets for the Royal Ballet, Sadler’s Wells Ballet and Birmingham Ballet. After retiring from the stage, he worked independently as an international teacher and choreographer and, in 1990, became resident choreographer and assistant director at Ballet di Roma in Italy. Deane returned to England and from 1993 to 2001 was artistic director of the English National Ballet (ENB). He premiered new productions of major classical works, including “Giselle,” “Swan Lake,” “The Sleeping Beauty,” “Paquita” and “The Nutcracker,” as well as his own original works. He pioneered ENB’s hugely successful “in the round” productions: His arena version of “Swan Lake” has been seen by over 750,000 people worldwide. His “Alice in Wonderland,” “Swan Lake” and “Strictly Gershwin” were at the time the highest-earning productions in the company’s history and had record-breaking attendance.

 He was awarded the Order of the British Empire for Excellence in Dance in 2000. Deane created three world premieres for PBT: “Hungry Heart . . . We All Have One!” (2004), “Simply Simon” (2005) and “Anything Goes!” (2006). In February, PBT reprised his “Alice in Wonderland” at the Benedum Center. His most recent work, “Hamlet,” had its world premiere at Shanghai Ballet in 2016

About this Blog:  Dreamweaver Marketing Associates provides this blog as a service to the community, friends, clients and business associates.  Feel free to use this blog as a resource and also to send in your press releases.  Dreamweaver Marketing Associates is a full service marketing company that specializes in online and digital branding.  Run exclusively by Joanne Quinn-Smith, aka TechnoGranny and specializing in organic search content, like blogs, video and audio podcasts and searchable social media.  For additional information you can contact the host of this blog, Joanne Quinn-Smith at 412-444-5197.Podcasts that come under the umbrella of Dreamweaver Marketing are PositivelyPittsburghLive, TheTechnoGrannyShow ,MondayMorningMarketeer