UMS Concert Program, July 15, 1984: Ann Arbor Summer Festival -- An Evening With Edward Villella And Dancers

Power Center For The Performing Arts Ann Arbor, Michigan

a Presented by
jnn Arbor the university
'utntncr MUSICAL SOCIETY
urnrntr OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
An Evening With Edward Villella and Dancers
EDWARD VILLELLA and
Sheri Little Kim Vickers Ric Abel
Paulo Manso de Sousa
Sunday Evening, July 15, 1984, at 8:00
Power Center for the Performing Arts
Ann Arbor, Michigan
A LecturePerformance
Introduction -Edward Villella At the barre -The Company
SHENANDOAH
Choreography: Edward Villella Music: Traditional
Sheri Little Edward Villella
INTERMISSION
SWAN LAKE, PAS DE DEUX
Choreography: George Balanchine, Music: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
after Ivanov and Petipa
Sheri Little Edward Villella
CONCERTO BAROCCO
(second movement pas de deux)
Choreography: George Balanchine Music: Johann Sebastian Bach
Kim Vickers Ric Abel
This performance is made possible, in part, by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
APOLLO
(variation)
Choreography: George Balanchine Music: Igor Stravinsky
Edward Villella
FANTASIES
Choreography: John Clifford Music: Ralph Vaughan Williams
Sheri Little Kim Vickers Ric Abel
Paulo Manso de Sousa
Miss Little, Miss Vickers, and Mr. Abel appear courtesy of Ballet Oklahoma. Mr. Villella is presented by Prodigal Productions, Inc., New York City, Marcia Preiss, personal representative.
You are cordially invited to view dance films, selected by Mr. Villella, immediately following this performance--to be shown at the Top of the Park (atop the adjoining parking structure), weather permitting.
About the Artist
Edward Villella has the distinction of being the most celebrated male ballet dancer that America has ever produced. At a time when male ballet dancing had not received the acceptance it holds today, he was known the world over for the supreme artistry and virility of his dancing. Indeed, his illustrious career did much to popularize the role of the male in American dance.
He was born in Bayside, Long Island, in 1936. After an injury while playing baseball, he was sent to his sister's ballet class, which his parents hoped would serve as a safer outlet for his natural athleticism. He entered the School of American Ballet, but at the age of 15 interrupted his dance training to com?plete academic studies and to pursue a degree at the New York Maritime Academy. He graduated with a varsity letter in baseball and the campus welterweight boxing championship.
In 1957 Edward Villella was invited to join the New York City Ballet, where he was immediately featured in such leading roles as the boy in Jerome Robbins' Afternoon of a Faun. Promoted to soloist in 1958 and elevated to principal status in 1960, he has been identified with many roles and ballets in that company's repertoire. Perhaps his most famous role was in the 1960 revival of Balanchine's 1929 masterpiece, Prodigal Son.
Mr. Villella was the first American male dancer to dance with the Royal Danish Ballet and the only American to be asked to dance an encore at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. He danced Stars and Stripes at President Kennedy's inaugural; has given command performances for Presidents Johnson, Nixon, and Ford; danced the role of Harry Beaton in Brigadoon on Broadway and on television; and performed frequently on the Bell Telephone Hour, the Ed Sullivan Show, and the Mike Douglas Show. In 1975 he won an Emmy Award for his CBSTV children's ballet, Harlequin, and has acted as narrator of the "Choreography by Balanchine" series for PBSTV. While a producerdirector for the "Dance in America" series for PBSTV, he directed Bournonville Dances.
In recent years Mr. Villella has been one of America's leading spokesman for the arts, and for dance in particular. He has served as a member of the National Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts Dance Advisory Panel, and the Committee for Cultural Affairs for the City of New York. In great demand as a lecturer and master teacher, Mr. Villella was the 198182 Visiting Artist at the U. S. Military Academy at West Point and the 1981 Ida Beam Visiting Professor at the University of Iowa. In 1985 he will be the Regents' Lecturer at the Irvine Campus of the University of California. He has received honorary degrees from Skidmore College, Fordham University, Siena College, and Nazareth College of Rochester.
Mr. Villella is currently the artistic director of Ballet Oklahoma and the artistic advisor of the New Jersey Ballet. His lectureperformance, "An Evening With Edward Villella and Dancers," tours annual?ly to theaters and colleges across the country. His participation in this Festival--as performer, lecturer, and master teacher--marks his Ann Arbor debut.