Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College concludes its 2010-2011 World of Dance series with the internationally acclaimed Russian National Ballet Theatre’s interpretation of Swan Lake on Sunday, April 17, 2011 at 2:00pm. 

With its fairy tale story of a beautiful princess, a passionate prince, and the evil spell that threatens their happiness together, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake was composed in 1875 as a commission by Vladimir Petrovich Begichev, the head of the Russian Imperial Theatres in Moscow.  Like The Nutcracker, Swan Lake was unsuccessful after its first year of performance.  Conductors, dancers and audiences alike thought Tchaikovsky’s music was too complicated and difficult to dance to.  The production’s original choreography by German ballet master, Julius Reisinger, was considered uninspiring and unoriginal.  After Tchaikovsky’s death, the ballet was reconceived by legendary choreographers Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov.  This version, most familiar to today’s audiences, has become one of the most beloved full-length ballets of all time. The Russian National Ballet Theatre was founded in Moscow during the transitional period of Perestroika in the late 1980s, when many of the great dancers and choreographers of the Soviet Union’s ballet institutions were exercising their new-found creative freedom by starting new, vibrant companies dedicated not only to preserving the timeless tradition of classical Russian Ballet but also invigorating this tradition with new developments in dance from around the world. The company, then titled the Soviet National Ballet, incorporated graduates from the great Russian choreographic schools of Moscow, St. Petersburg and Perm.  The principal dancers of the company came from the upper ranks of the great ballet companies and academies of Russia, and the companies of Riga, Kiev and even Warsaw.  Today, the Russian National Ballet Theatre is its own institution, with over 50 dancers of singular instruction and vast experience.  In 1994, the legendary Bolshoi principal dancer Elena Radchenko was selected by Presidential decree to assume the first permanent artistic directorship of the company.  Ms. Radchenko has focused the company on upholding the grand national tradition of the major Russian ballet works and developing new talents throughout Russia, with a repertory of virtually all of the great full-length works of Petipa: Don Quixote, La Bayadere, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Raymonda, Paquita, Coppelia and La Sylphide, as well as productions of, among others, The Nutcracker, Sylvia, and La Fille Mal Gardee.<more>

About Brooklyn Center for the Performing ArtsFounded in 1954, the mission of Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts is to present outstanding performing arts and arts education programs, reflective of Brooklyn’s diverse communities, at affordable prices.  Brooklyn Center’s presentations explore both the classical traditions and the boldest contemporary performances, embracing the world culture that defines Brooklyn.  Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts welcomes over 70,000 people to the 2,400 seat Walt Whitman Theatre each season, and boasts one of the largest arts education programs in the borough, serving schoolchildren from over 225 schools annually with its SchoolTime series. 

Major support for Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts’ World of Dance series is made possible with public funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.  Additional series funding is provided by National Grid, the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, and The Harkness Foundation for Dance. 

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts’ programs are made possible in part with public funding from the City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts.  Funding for the 2010-2011 season is provided by: Target; JP Morgan Chase; Con Edison; Macy’s Foundation; Brooklyn Community Foundation; TD Bank; the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation; Health Plus; and the Lila Acheson Wallace Theater Fund, established in the New York Community Trust by founders of The Reader’s Digest Association.  Additional support provided by CNG Publications, The Brooklyn Eagle, and WBGO.  Sheraton Brooklyn New York is the official hotel of Brooklyn Center’s 2010-2011 season.  Backstage catering is graciously provided by Applebee’s. 

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts gratefully acknowledges generous support from the Members of the Brooklyn Delegation to the New York State Assembly and Speaker Sheldon Silver; Members of the Brooklyn Delegation to the New York State Senate and Majority Conference Leader John L. Sampson; Members of the Brooklyn Delegation to the New York City Council and Speaker Christine C. Quinn; and Commissioner of Cultural Affairs Kate Levin.# # # 

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