UMS Concert Program, April 21-22, 1992: Miami City Ballet --

Season: 113th
Concert: 37th and 38th
Power Center For The Performing Arts, Ann Arbor, Michigan

UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
MIAMI CITY BALLET
Edward Villella, Artistic Director
Timothy Duncan, Executive Director
Ottavio De Rosa, Music Director Jimmy Gamonet De Los Heros, Resident ChoreographerBallet Master
Elyse Borne, Principal Ballet Mistress
Richard Carter, Production and Facilities Director
Haydee Morales, Resident Costume Designer
Carlos Arditti, Resident Scenic Designer
Tuesday and Wednesday, April 21 and 22, 1992
Power Center for the Performing Arts, 8:00 p.m.
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Dominique Angel Marin Boieru Jennifer Brown Edward Cox Cornel Crabtree Laura Desmond Franklin Gamero Melissa Gerson Natalie Hauser Heather Her Sally Ann Isaacks
The Company
Todd Jost Myrna Kamara Oliver Kovach Erika Lambe Eve Lawson Michael Lineberry Christina Lombardozzi Iliana Lopez Paulo Manso de Sousa Marie Mayora Marielena Mencia
Mabel Modrono Maribel Modrono Kareen Pauld Yanis Pikieris Arnold Quintane Jacob Rice Deanna Seay Kendall Sparks Bruce K. Thornton Asya Verzhbinsky Brooks White
Deen Mandelstam
Apprentices Jennifer Polyocan
Mark Sean
The University Musical Society extends special thanks to Edward Villella, Miami City Ballet's
artistic director, for tonight's Philips Pre-concert Presentation.
Miami City Ballet's Ann Arbor residency is supported by Arts Midwest members and friends in
partnership with Dance on Tour, the National Endowment for the Arts.
Miami City Ballet Touring Representive: Marcia Preiss
Activities of the UMS are supported by the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs
and the National Endowment for the Arts.
37th and 38th Concerts of the 113th Season
Twenty-first Annual Choice Series
PROGRAM
Tuesday, April 21
APOLLO
Music by Igor Stravinsky Choreography by George Balanchine
Staged by Richard Tanner
Costume Design by Haydee Morales
Lighting Design by Randall Henderson
Franklin Gamero Iliana Lopez Myrna Kamara Sally Ann Isaacks Christina Lombardozzi Laura Desmond Heather Her
First performance by Miami City Ballet December 12, 1987, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Apollo has been made possible by a special gift from Southeast Banking Corporation Founda-
INTERMISSION
PAS DE DIX
Choreography by George Balanchine, after Marius Petipa
Music by Alexander Glazunov
Costume Design by Haydee Morales
Lighting Design by Randall Henderson
Natalie Hauser Marin Boieru
Marie Mayora Melissa Gerson Sally Ann Isaacks Deanna Seay Oliver Kovach Arnold Quintane Michael Lineberry Brooks White
First performance by Miami City Ballet on February 20, 1987, Miami.
Pas de Dix has been made possible by a major grant from Pan American World Airways.
Pause NOUS SOMMES
Choreography by Jimmy Gamonet De Los Heros Music by Marie-Joseph Canteloube de Malaret
Costume Design by Haydee Morales Lighting Design by Randall Henderson
Iliana Lopez Franklin Gamero
'"Bailero" from Chants D'Auvergne, First Series.
World premier performance by Miami City Ballet on April 22, 1987, Fort Lauderdale.
Nous Sommes has been made possible by a special gift from Burdines.
INTERMISSION
DANZALTA
Choreography by Jimmy Gamonet De Los Heros Music by Gordon Lowry Harrell
Set Design by Carlos Arditti
Set Execution by Scaena Studio
Costume Design by Haydee Morales
Townspeople executed by Miami Ballet Costume Shop
Lighting Design by James Leitner
Co-commissioned by the University Musical Society, University of Michigan; Hancher
Auditorium, University of Iowa; Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, University of
Illinois; and UCLA Center for the Performing Arts,
University of California.'
World premiere given by Miami City Ballet October 30, 1991, Fort Lauderdale; Ann Arbor premiere, April 21, 1992.
Marielena Mencia Yanis Pikieris
Maribel Modrono Mabel Modrono Laura Desmond Deanna Seay
Kareen Pauld Dominique Angel Heather Her Marie Mayora Asya Verzhbinsky Jennifer Brown Christina Lombardozzi Erika Lambe
Kendall Sparks Brooks White Oliver Kovach Edward Cox Michael Lineberry Jacob Rice Bruce Thornton Todd Jost
'The Danzului commission was supported, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts; additional funding provided by the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. Danzalta has been underwritten by Evelyn and Norman H. Cohan.
The performance of Apollo and Pas de Dix Balanchine ballets are presented by arrangement with the Estate of George Balanchine and have been produced in accordance with the Balanchine Style and Balanchine Technique. Service standards established and provided by the Estate.
Tuesday Ballet Notes
Apollo BalanchineStravinsky
Choreographed by Balanchine and first performed in Paris in 1928, Apollo features the god of music on the island of Delos, his place of birth. Under the tute?lage of the Muses of poetry, mime, and dance, the young god shows his aptitude for each art form, ultimately establishing that he is worthy of joining his father, Zeus, and the other gods residing on Mount Olympus.
Pas de Dix
Balanchine, after Marius Petipa
Glazunov
Alexander Glazunov's Ray-monda, a captivating and sug?gestive score Balanchine first heard as a student in Russia and used more than once, eas?ily advances ten couples through the permu?tations from pas de deux to pas de dix. The New York City Ballet premiered Pas de Dix at New York City Center on November 9, 1955.
Opening in stately cadences, four cou?ples establish the pomp of a ballroom setting. The intricate footwork of the girls, punctu?ated by stops and sedate turns, balances the boys' exuberant jumps and Balanchinian ec?centricities -knees together, feet apart, pigeon-toed. The ballerina and her cavalier alternate in leading the small ensemble through movements growing more dynamic until they become folk-like. Pas de Dix is big arms and much traveling. Finally all five couples advance in aggressive trajectories up?stage and downstage.
Originally, the music was used by Balanchine's early muse, the Russian chore?ographer Petipa, in his full-length ballet Raymonda. For Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, Balanchine and Alexandra Danilova reset their own version of the last act, the nuptial party of Raymonda and her count, Jean de Brienna -"a dance ballet that follows the narrative," according to Balanchine. "Except for one brief variation, all the music for Pas de Dix is taken from this same act, but there is no attempt here to approximate Petipa's original, which no one remembers accurately, anyway."
Balanchine's dance in the grand style of the nineteenth century demands presence as well as technique. His objective of making an "entertaining spectacle" is fulfilled in this charming homage to the classic Russian bal?let, with its tutus and tiaras, spritely solos, and lilting work en pointe.
Balanchine restored dignity to the clas?sics, following a period of new romanticism that, in its reaction to nineteenth-century rigidity, degenerated into frippery and marzi?pan embellishments. Sophistication and skill revived the past; in the tradition of the masters, Balanchine is the bridge.
Nous Sommes Gamonet De Los Heros Marie-Joseph Canteloube
If they detach themselves completely from their surroundings and focus on each other, Jimmy Gamonet De Los Heros tells his ballerina and her gen?tleman, the piece will succeed. The intensity of their intimacy is the emotional compass of this acrobatic ballet.
The audience sees a couple in flesh-col?ored tights on a low-lit stage with a black backdrop. A simple formula for a powerful dance. The two are always touching, whether
intertwined or for the dance's difficult part?nering. He might be lying on the floor and lifting her so that she can soar like a bird. Or, they might mesh for chiseled, languorous passages through haunting bits of Can-teloube's Songs of the Auvergne. The arresting outline is always there. They engage one another in mid-air, it seems, out of time and place.
The pleasures of Nous Sommes both distract from and derive from its technical demands. This romantic duet never sinks into banality or boredom, because its substance is more than the obvious allurements. The audience projects onto the couple a relation?ship, but what informs the dance is its anat?omy. Beyond provocative grace dwell spectacular lifts, partnering from the floor, off-balance promenades, and wrap-arounds, elements that create this demanding adagio.
"Sometimes people fall into the mis?taken notion that fast things are more diffi?cult than slow things," Gamonet explains. "And I think adagio form is one of the most difficult devices in choreography,because you're dealing with control, a lot of control." If the issue for the dancers is control, the test for the choreographer is sutaining potency through suspended movement and slow mo?tion.
Nous Sommes was premiered by Miami City Ballet in 1987. Two years later, it was still "wring[ing] bravos from the crowd," according to the Washington Post. The Boston Globe saw a duet "that never became just a string of tricks." Reviewers have pronounced it "luscious," "stunning," "effective," and breathtaking."
A visual treat, this ballet is as aesthet?ically compelling as it is sensuously enticing, as easy to watch as it is exacting to dance, as interesting as it is exhilarating.
Danzalta GamonetHarrell
Co-commissioned by the University Musical Society and three other university presenters.
Taking South American folklore as his point of departure and focusing on Andean marriage, Jimmy Gamonet De Los Heros has choreographed a vibrant, rich narrative dance. A corps of 20 -12 females, eight males -and a principal couple perform this three-part celebration of native
rites, crafts, and mores. The music, Gordon Lowry Harrell's 45-minute symphonic work commissioned by the ballet for this produc?tion, uses native instrumentation like the pan flute and inserts inventive vocalizations. At one point, a male singer punctuates the action with the lead man's point of view; at another, a woman gives voice to the ballerina's sentiments.
Four years in the making, Danzalta is the culmination of intense collaboration and of extensive travel and research by Gamonet, costume designer Haydee Morales, and set designer Carlos Arditti. In 1987, the Amer?ican Embassy invited the company to Ecuador to perform. During this and two subsequent trips, they studied the cultures of Ecuador and Gamonet's native country, Peru. They visited museums, saw performances, and met artists and musicians. They traveled through the rural villages in the Andes Mountains, taking pictures, attending gatherings, and talking to the people. When they returned, they read, studied photos, and went to more museums.
Gamonet decided to combine several countries whose characteristics merge in the mountain regions, in this way creating a ballet having a universal South American flavor. "Villages along the Andes have the same roots," Gamonet explains. "I used none of them, but abstracted from all of them."
Danzantes are ceremonial characters from Ecuador. These figures -nine feet tall and bedecked head to toe in ritualistic cos?tume that includes totem shapes, mirrors, stones, embroidery, feathers, and ribbons -are chosen each year at Corpus Christi to do a ceremonial dance. Gamonet's men, moving in Morales' intricate, colorful costumes with billboard-like extensions of appliqued fabric and high feathered hats, perform their ritual?istic dance during the wedding procession in the second section.
The ladies open the ballet to a Peruvian song written by Harrell. They dance back-dropped by Carlos Arditti's vivdly painted, human-sized cloth dolls, 90 of them, hanging in tiers and forming three panels across the back of the stage; the center panel a few feet in front of the side panels allows the dancers to enter from behind it. The gaiety, grandeur, and spirit-world dimension established by Arditti's dolls set the tone.
A South American artist named Os-valdo Vitteri paints applique on Indian dolls in his work; in part, this was the inspiration
for the sets. But the colossal wall, the panels -these were Arditti's, in conjunction with Gamonet's choreographic impulses.
And then you see the costumes. The palette is black and gold, the dancers in hats with multicolored ribbons, wide pleated black skirts bordered with satin ribbons, bright yellow underskirts, tulle petticoats, and ruf?fled blouses (but with tight bodices). "Typi?cal," Morales says, "but much more balletic." She gave them braids, necklaces, earrings. They introduce the principal lady, who wears gold with black and red. Ecuadorean music brings on the men in sashes and ponchos, and they introduce the groom. After a flirtatious greeting between the two, the ensemble pro?ceeds to the Last Fling. While four men lead the bride-to-be off to the side, her groom dances with the ladies.
The danzantes initiate the transition into Part II, the Marriage, with their Wed?ding Procession. This was Morales' greatest challenge. The costumes had to be properly elaborate -and very, very big. But the dancers also have to dance. "It's very tricky to make it work," Morales comments. "The hat is very high. A 45-inch pole comes from the shoulder. Even if their movement is very restricted, I have to allow Jimmy to do his choreography." They are covered in super-constructions composed of many different materials in keeping with the South Ameri?can ritual dances.
The bride and groom take their vows and the whole company breaks out in a joyous dance. "In Ecuador," the choreographer says, "the parents bring the bride and groom to?gether and bathe them with flowers and sponges." No baths in Gamonet's ballet, but he has set to music, featuring a male singer's slow, intimate, quiet pas de deux, which he calls the Consummation. Following is the View From the Hill, which leads to melan?cholic moments in a cantina, where man and wife dance to a female singing in both Span?ish and a Peruvian dialect, Quechua. She expresses the wife's feelings.
Part III brings together the entire en?semble for the Maypole Finale -a maypole dance with brightly colored satin ribbons, 16 of them, two inches wide and radiating from a pole 21 inches high. Following the celebra?tion, the husband and wife rejoin the ensem-ble.
In charting the courtship, betrothal, consummation, and marriage of an Andean
couple, Gamonet has employed different props that are reminiscent or directly related to games and objects of the villagers. The ropes the dancers use in the first section refer to alpaca hondas Peruvian ladies manipulate in some of their dances. Ecuadoreans use ribbons in the maypole dances. There are also shawls, baskets, and, of course, the poles. "I love it," says Morales. "It makes me experi?ment. It's also extremely colorful, different from what the classical pieces like Swan Lake
call for. It's one of the most special hallets I have created."
Danzalta has a social resonance that overtakes its conjugal focus, and Gamonet's choreography reflects this range. There is not as much partnering in this piece as audiences see in ballet. The orientation is toward the social group. There is a lot of corps work, the ensemble enacting the cyclical rhythms of Andean life and illustrating the wealth per?meating these enduring indigenous cultures.
Notts Sommes
PROGRAM
Wednesday, April 22 CAPRICCIO FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA ("RUBIES")
Choreography by George Balanchine Music by Igor Stravinsky"
Staged by Elyse Borne
Costume Design by Karinska
Costumes Executed by Haydee Morales
Women's Headpieces Designed by Maria Morales
Scene Design by Carlos Arditti Lighting Design by Randall Henderson
Natalie Hauser Marin Boieru Myrna Kamara
Heather Her Asya Verzhbinsky Laura Desmond Deanna Seay Christina Lombardozzi Melissa Gerson Kareen Pauld Erika Lambe
Oliver Kovach Brooks White Arnold Quintane Edward Cox
'Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra by arrangement with Boosey and Hawkes, Inc. First performance by Miami City Ballet May 4, 1990, West Palm Beach. Rubies has been made possible by a special gift from Texaco.
INTERMISSION
SQUARE DANCE
Choreography by George Balanchine Music by Vivaldi and Corelli
Staged by Victoria Simon Costumes Executed by Helen Rodgers Lighting Design by Randall Henderson
Mabel Modrono Brooks White
Deanna Seay Jennifer Brown Christina Lombardozzi
Dominique Angel Heather Her Erika Lambe
Todd Jost Arnold Quintane Oliver Kovach
Michael Lineberry Bruce Thornton Edward Cox
Square Dance has been made possible by a special gift from Southeast Bank.
Pause TCHAIKOVSKY PAS DE DEUX
Choreography by George Balanchine Music by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Staged by Victoria Simon
Costume Design by Haydee Morales
Lighting Design by Randall Henderson
Iliana Lopez Franklin Gamero
First performance by Miami City Ballet on October 17, 1986, Miami.
Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux has been made possible by a special gift from Mr. and Mrs. Irwin E.
Kott.
INTERMISSION
TRANSTANGOS
Choreography by Jimmy Gamonet De Los Heros
Music by Astor Piazzolla
Musical Arrangements for After Dark by Alfredo Munar Costume Design by Helen E. Rodgers Lighting Design by Randall Henderson
Out of Frame
Marielena Mencia Yanis Pikieris
Sally Ann Isaacks Myma Kamara Mabel Modrono
Maribel Modrono Dominique Angel Oliver Kovach Brooks White Jacob Rice
Paulo Manso de Sousa Arnold Quintane
Collapse
Sally Ann Isaacks Mabel Modrono Dominique Angel
Brooks White Paulo Manso de Sousa Jacob Rice
Some Time
Marielena Mencia Yanis Pikieris
Oops!! Maribel Modrono Paulo Manso de Sousa Mabel Modrono
Sola Marielena Mencia
Solo
Yanis Pikieris After Dark Sally Ann Isaacks Heather Her Brooks White Jacob Rice
Side By Side
Marielena Mencia Yanis Pikieris
Tangabile
Marielena Mencia Yanis Pikieris
Dominique Angel Jennifer Brown Sally Ann Isaacks Myrna Kamara Maribel Modrono Mabel Modrono Brooks White Oliver Kovach Paulo Manso de Sousa Arnold Quintane
Transtangos, signature piece of Miami City Ballet, was first performed by the company on Octo?ber 17, 1986, Miami.
Transtangos has been made possible by a special gift from the Miami Hispanic Heritage Festival Committee.
The performance of Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra ("Rubies"), Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, and Square Dunce Balanchine ballets are presented by arrangement with the Estate of George Balanchine and have been produced in accordance with the Balanchine Style and Balanchine Technique. Service standards established and provided by the Estate.
Wednesday Ballet Notes
"Rubies"
Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra ("Rubies") BalanchineStravinsky
4 J ubies" -often called
Br Capriccio -spotlights "k a tall female and her L dynamo partner. They tease one another and engage in provocative clashes and amorous contests as Balanchine exhibits a full array of what Deborah Jewitt called his "Stravinsky" steps: "the pin-up girl poses, the jutting hips, the legs that swing down and up like scythes, the paw-hands, the prances, the big, quick lunges, the flexed feet, the heel-walks." Bra?vura choreography and explicit interplay be?tween the principals reinforce the national quality of "Rubies."
A couple and a female soloist alternate in leading the ensemble in this flashy Balanchine bit of ballet business. Audiences who view it as the middle segment of the full-length Jewels are shocked awake after the quiet, flowing "Emeralds."
Each segment of Jewels has its own music and feeling. Balanchine said that the "Emeralds" score, by Gabriel Faure, reminded him of France. The third piece, "Diamonds," set to Tchaikovsky, evokes Russia. But this, the red jazzy one, is America.
An introduction to the jeweler Claude Arpels and subsequent visits to his store supplied Balanchine with a glimmer of an idea, really merely a title. As ever for this
first-rate musician known for his sophisticated selection of scores, analysis of the music was the springboard. Because the Capriccio sug?gested to Balanchine a fantasia, he and Stra?vinsky decided to use it here, making this one of more than two dozen works the two artists produced in their half-century collaboration.
The dance demands wit and colossal energy from the dancers, especially of the male who spends most of his time leaping and executing turns that are inversions of classical movements. In only 40 seconds of the 20-minute work, he must complete 100 steps, including strenuous elevations; side, back, and forward revolutions; and two turns in the air where he lands turning a corner.
With all its apparent looseness, humor, and energy, "Rubies" nonetheless represents a rite of passage for a ballet company. Just as Balanchine proved America's uncontested place in the world of ballet, presenting Balanchine -especially something like this, which reeks of character and mood as well as bravura performance -confirms the rank of a ballet company as world class.
Square Dance
Balanchine Vivaldi and Corelli
In the fall of 1957, after a year's absence from the New York City Ballet, George Balanchine returned and immediately choreographed four works, including Square Dance, laying to rest rumors that his career was winding down. The ballet is a test of endurance and virtuosity, combining
classical steps with the partnering style of the American square dance. Partnered with Pa?tricia McBride, it represents Edward Villella's first association with Balanchine. The music is from Vivaldi's Violin Concerti, Concerto Grosso in B minor, Corelli's Suite for Strings, and other works.
Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux BalanchineTchaikovsky
Originally composed in 1875-76 for Swan Lake, the music for this pas de deux was assumed lost until rediscovered in the Bolshoi Theater archives by Balanchine in 1953. His choreography for the piece was first performed by New York City Ballet in 1960.
Transtangos GamonetPiazzolla
Resident choreographer Jimmy Gamonet De Los Heros created this exuberant dance at the re?quest of Edward Villella for the debut performance of the Miami City Ballet on October 17, 1986, a premiere sponsored by the Miami Hispanic Heritage Festival Committee. Gamonet was asked for something with a Latin flavor. He gave that, and more.
The company's signature piece, Trans-tangos, is a fusion of classical vocabulary and
tango -its title is an abbreviation of "tran?sition to tango." But it also extrapolates Miami's Deco details, those dynamic vectors and acute angles. The look of the dance is colorful, chic, geometric, and diverse.
Although Gamonet's first source is the music -here, Piazzolla's zesty score -visuals from architecture and modern art to mathematics combine to produce dramatic geometries. Known for skillfully moving groups of dancers around a stage in compel?ling patterns, Gamonet has talked about his fascination with floor design and his suscep?tibility to his surroundings. The creative connections he made in Peru or in New York or Oklahoma are not those he makes in Miami, where the ocean, the skyline, and Art Deco help focus impressions initiated by the music.
Gamonet explains that his point of departure is the music, and he continues from there, taking the geometry as a springboard to many other influences and idioms. As he says, "1 don't like repetition." The choreographer's need for variety and seren?dipity satiate that same need in his audience.
Transtangos is flamboyant and sensual. It is beautifully structured, consisting of nine movements, starting with an out-of-frame opening in a salon. Saucy costumes and spectacular sets support the scintillating bal?let by the man the Washington Post said "showed...an instinctive feeling for dancerly rhetoric."
jimmy Gamonet De Los Heros
About the Artists
Edward Villella
Directed by Edward Villella, Miami City Ballet is the newest and fastest growing classical dance company in America. Since its inaugural performance in October 1986, the company has presented over 50 ballets, including more than 20 world premieres. Establishing the neo-classical aes?thetic are several of George Balanchine mas-terworks, most notably Prodigal Son, Apollo, and "Rubies." Numerous works have been created by resident choreographer Jimmy Garhonet De Los Heros, who works in the neo-classical style, at the same time bringing the company a unique Latin energy.
The 32 members of the ensemble come from major dance companies throughout the world, including the New York City Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, thejoffrey, Boston Ballet, Eliot Feld Ballet, Australia Ballet, Israel Ballet, and the Deutsche Oper Berlin, as well as dancers who have received their training from the School of American Ballet and the North Carolina School of the Arts, among others.
It is, however, the Balanchine influ?ence that is the basis of Mr. Villella's vision and style. The artists are rehearsed to perform not only with great speed, energy, and tech?nical clarity, but also with the combination of force and delicacy needed to interpret musical scores from Bach to Stravinsky.
The company has performed through?out the United States, as well as in Europe, England, Israel, Ecuador, and Guatemala.
Notable engagements include the Lyon, France, Biennale de la Danse, Wolf Trap Farm Park Festival, the Ravinia Festival, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, the Aspen Summer Dance Festival, the Chautauqua Festival, ArtPark, and the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts.
In South Florida, the company claims four home cities -Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, and Naples. Over 13,000 season subscribers see the company in regular series throughout the season. Special series of "DanceTalks" and "Ballet for Young People" are presented in the Lincoln Theater on Miami Beach, where the physical, human vocabulary of the dance is demonstrated and described. Every year, thousands of young people are treated to special performances, narrated by Mr. Villella.
During Miami City Ballet's current visit to Ann Arbor, its first, 1,000 area students -from grades 6 through 8 -also have the opportunity of "Discovering Dance" in a special presentation on Wednesday morning by Mr. Villella and members of the company. This collaboration between the Musical Society and Miami City Ballet is part of the ongoing UMS Youth Program, recog?nized two years ago with the Dawson Achievement Award for creative achieve?ment in arts administration. It follows last season's successful student presentation by the Joseph Holmes Chicago Dance Theatre, "Chance to Dance," also for middle school students.
Edward Villella is certainly America's most celebrated male dancer. The supreme artistry and virility he exhibited during his ca?reer did much to popularize the role of the male in dance.
Born in Bayside, New York, in 1936, Mr. Villella entered the School of American Ballet at age ten, but interrupted his dance training to complete academic studies. A graduate of the New York Maritime Acad?emy, he obtained a degree in marine trans?portation, lettered in baseball, and was a championship boxer. He returned to the School of American Ballet in 1955 and in 1957 was invited to join New York City Ballet. Promoted to Soloist in 1958 and then to Principal Dancer in 1960, he was identified with many ballets and roles in the New York City Ballet repertoire, among them Tarantella and the "Rubies" section of Jewels. He origi?nated the role of Oberon in Midsummer Night's Dream, and 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 perform with the Royal Dan?ish Ballet and the only American ever to be asked to dance an encore at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. He danced for President Kennedy's inaugural and for Presidents John?son, Nixon, and Ford. In 1975, he won an Emmy Award for his CBS television produc?tion of Harlequin and was producerdirector for the PBS series "Dance in America."
Edward Villella was recently awarded the 38th annual Capezio Dance Award; the Frances Holleman Breathitt Award for Excel?lence for his outstanding contribution to the arts and the education of young people; and the National Society of Arts and Letters Award for Lifetime Achievement, becoming only the fourth dance personality to receive the Gold Medal.
In 1981, Mr. Villella served as Ida Beam Visiting Professor at the University of Iowa and was Visiting Artist at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point from 1981-1982. In 1985, he was Regents Lecturer at the Irvine campus of the University of Cali?fornia. He has been awarded honorary degrees by Siena College, Fordham University, Skidmore College, Nazareth College, and Union College, and serves on the Board of Visitors of the North Carolina School of the Arts. In 1991, he was selected to join the
Board of Directors of the Wolf Trap Founda?tion for the Performing Arts, and he currently serves on the National Endowment for the Arts Advisory Panel and the School of Amer?ican Ballet Board of Directors.
From 1981 through 1986, Edward Villella was artistic director for both Ballet Oklahoma and the Madison Festival of the Lakes, and he is also artistic advisor to the New Jersey Ballet. In 1986, he founded Miami City Ballet and continues as artistic director.
Mr. Villella's new autobiography is now in bookstores, in which the artist vividly relates his growing-up years and particularly his long association with George Balanchine and the New York City Ballet. The reader is allowed to share the emotional, physical, and musical facets of bringing a role to life and can experience throughout the book Mr. Villella's passion for dancing.
These concerts mark Edward Villella's second visit to Ann Arbor, after appearing in the 1984 Summer Festival with The Edward Villella Dancers.
Resident choreographer and ballet master Jimmy Gamonet De Los Heros has achieved international success as a choreographer, be?ginning in 1979 when he re?ceived Gold Medals in both best performer and choreography categories in the National Choreographer Competition in his native Peru. He won a Silver Medal for choreogra?phy at the Dance Competition of the Amer?icas in Miami in 1983. Mr. Gamonet was lead dancer with the Peruvian National Ballet Company and Ballet De La Asociacion Choreartium de Lima, Peru, and also danced and choreographed with Ballet Oklahoma during its 1983-84 season. He has been a member of Miami City Ballet since its found?ing in 1986.
Mr. Gamonet recently collaborated with American composer Gordon Harrell on a specially commissioned original score for the ballet Danzalta. Among his other works are Nous Sommes, Concerto for La Donna, My Lady, Prokofiev Movements for Piano and Or?chestra, Miniatures, and Movilissimanoble, as well as Transtangos, the signature piece of Miami City Ballet.