July 2010.
This summer, when most companies are on break for a couple months, the dancers and staff of Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida are grabbing their passports and packing their bags, as they head to several different countries. Artistic Director, Vladimir Issaev, was the first to head off, going to Japan for three weeks, where he staged his own version of The Stone Flower, for Michiko Matsumoto, in Nagoya, Japan. The ballet is a completely new staging of The Stone Flower, and everything is being made especially for the production. The company will premier the ballet in early January of 2011.
While Issaev was busy in Japan, two dancers from the company traveled to Odense, Denmark, in order to help celebrate 25 years of Odense City Ballet. Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida dancers, Shannon Smith and Erin Simons-Brown, performed Issaev’s award-winning El Encuentro, to music by Albinoni, as part of the celebration. The dancers were there along with delegations from Germany, Mexico, and Poland, to represent their company, and to honor the Odense City Ballet’s director, Bogusia Gauden.
Artistic Director of Odense City Ballet, Bogusia Gauden, Beata Ksiazkiewicz, Director of Ballet Fouette in Poland, and Vladimir Issaev all graduated from the GITIS Institute of Moscow as Choreographers, then went on to head schools and companies of their own. Together, they co-founded the International Dance Festival, which is now in its 6th year. Troupes from Germany and Mexico have joined, and this summer the festival is being held in Guadalajara, Mexico at the beautiful Teatro Degollado. Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida is preparing to perform Issaev’s choreographic work Fuga con Pajarillo, to music by Aldemaro Romero, as well as the classical pas de deux from Don Quixote. The international exchange promotes growth in the dancers’ capabilities as young artists, as well as cultivating wonderful connections and bonds between each of the cultures.
Exciting travels are in the near future for Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida, with an already internationally diverse company broadening its horizon with international travels. With two trips already completed, the company is looking forward to making its tour to Mexico its biggest splash yet, before returning to Miami to begin the new season.
Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida
www.artsballettheatre.org
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