| American Midwest Ballet Template:Requested move must be used in a TALKSPACE, e.g., Talk:Ballet Nebraska | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Name | American Midwest Ballet Template:Requested move must be used in a TALKSPACE, e.g., Talk:Ballet Nebraska |
| Previous names | Ballet Nebraska |
| Year founded | 2009 (Oct. 2010 debut) |
| Principal venue | Orpheum Theater Omaha United States  |
| Website | amballet |
| Artistic staff | |
| Artistic Director | Erika Overturff |
| Ballet Master | Matthew Carter |
| Other | |
| Associated schools | AMB Junior Company, Youth Repertory Ensembles |
American Midwest Ballet [1] , formerly Ballet Nebraska, is a professional ballet company located in Omaha, Nebraska. [2] The company's season typically consists of three mainstage productions including a full-length ballet, The Nutcracker , and a mixed-repertory annual production entitled Momentum. [3] The company also tours regionally and nationally, with yearly performances in Vero Beach, Florida. [4] [5]
Ballet is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread, highly technical form of dance with its own vocabulary based on French terminology. It has been globally influential and has defined the foundational techniques used in many other dance genres and cultures. Ballet has been taught in various schools around the world, which have historically incorporated their own cultures and as a result, the art has evolved in a number of distinct ways. See glossary of ballet.
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 10 miles (15 km) north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 40th-largest city, Omaha's 2018 estimated population was 466,061.
The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E. T. A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King".
On June 1 2018, the Company offically changed its name from Ballet Nebraska to American Midwest Ballet. A groundbreaking [6] for the company's new home, the Hoff Family Arts and Culture Center, was also held on that day. Eleven months earlier, the Company had first announced plans to change its name to American Midwest Ballet beginning in the 2018-19 season. The Company had accepted an invitation to become the resident dance company of the Hoff Family Arts and Culture Center, slated to open in 2019 in downtown Council Bluffs, IA.
Council Bluffs is a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States. The city is the most populous in Southwest Iowa, and forms part of the Omaha (Nebr.) Metropolitan Area. It is located on the east bank of the Missouri River, across from the city of Omaha. Council Bluffs was known, until at least 1853, as Kanesville. It was the historic starting point of the Mormon Trail. Kanesville is also the northernmost anchor town of the other emigrant trails, since there was a steam powered boat to ferry their wagons, and cattle, across the Missouri River.
The Company's annual production of Momentum , which features a series of shorter ballets that are different each season, is a multi-year recipient of the Omaha Entertainment and Arts Award (OEAA) for best dance production. [7] [8] [9]
Founder and artistic director Erika Overturff's original version of the holiday classic The Nutcracker is performed annually at the Orpheum Theater and on regional tours. [10] The Company collaborates with Joslyn Art Museum [11] by creating an original work each season inspired by a current work or exhibition at the museum. Other collaborators include Opera Omaha, [12] Omaha Symphony Orchestra, [13] Omaha Performing Arts and Arts Center at Iowa Western.
The Orpheum Theater is located at 409 South 16th Street in downtown Omaha, Nebraska. The Orpheum hosts programs best served by a more theatrical setting, including the Omaha Performing Arts Broadway Season, presented with Broadway Across America, and Opera Omaha's season. The theatre is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Joslyn Art Museum is the principal fine arts museum in the state of Nebraska, United States of America. Located in Omaha, it was opened in 1931 at the initiative of Sarah H. Joslyn in memory of her husband, businessman George A. Joslyn. It is the only museum in the state with a comprehensive permanent collection, and although it includes works from Paolo Veronese, El Greco, Titian, among others, its greatest strengths are the outstanding art collections of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries of American and European artists such as Pierre-Auguste Renoir and William-Adolphe Bouguereau.
Opera Omaha is a major regional opera company in Omaha, Nebraska. Begun in 1958, the professional company is widely known for the International Fall Festival events it held in the 1980s and 1990s, which garnered international attention and served as the U.S. and world premieres for a number of notable works. One of these performances, the 1990 U.S. premiere of the 1841 work Maria Padilla, was among the primary debuts for noted soprano Renee Fleming. "I’ve been calling all my singer friends and saying, 'You’ve got to sing for this company.'" Fleming said at the time. It has "a lot of vision." In 2007, the Toronto Star said "Opera Omaha has grown into one of the continent's most enterprising regional opera companies."
Company repertoire includes many full length ballets ranging from classics of the romantic period, such as Giselle and Swan Lake , and neo-classical work such as George Balanchine's Valse-Fantaisie , to more contemporary works, such as Winthrop Corey's Dracula and Snow White, Harrison McEldowney's Swing Swing Swing!, Oscar Antunez' A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Kennet Oberly's Alice In Wonderland. [14]
Giselle is a romantic ballet in two acts. It was first performed by the Ballet du Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique at the Salle Le Peletier in Paris, France on 28 June 1841, with Italian ballerina Carlotta Grisi as Giselle. The ballet was an unqualified triumph. Giselle became hugely popular and was staged at once across Europe, Russia, and the United States. The traditional choreography that has been passed down to the present day derives primarily from the revivals staged by Marius Petipa during the late 19th and early 20th centuries for the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg.
Swan Lake, Op. 20, is a ballet composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875–76. Despite its initial failure, it is now one of the most popular of all ballets.
The company has performed many original shorter ballets choreographed by Overturff and other renowned choreographers including Paul Boos [15] of The George Balanchine Trust, Peter Anastos, Jeff Satinoff. Edward Truitt, Mme. Tatiana Bechenova, former ballerina of the original Ballet Russe Col. de Basil who staged the 1909 ballet Prince Igor on the Company, and Ann Reinking who set a medley of work in the style of Bob Fosse on the Company. Other master works in the company's repertoire include Oskar Antunez' A Midsummer Night's Dream (2011, 2018), Folkine's The Dying Swan (2012, 2014), the Pas de trois des Odalisques and Medora variation from Joseph Mazilier's Le Corsaire (2014, 2017), Marius Petipa's Paquita (2015) and Blue Bird and Princess Florine pas de deux from The Sleeping Beauty (2017), Giselle (2015), George Balanchine's Valse-Fantaisie (2015), Swan Lake (2016).
Prince Igor is an opera in four acts with a prologue, written and composed by Alexander Borodin. The composer adapted the libretto from the Ancient Russian epic The Lay of Igor's Host, which recounts the campaign of Rus' prince Igor Svyatoslavich against the invading Cuman ("Polovtsian") tribes in 1185. He also incorporated material drawn from two medieval Kievan chronicles. The opera was left unfinished upon the composer's death in 1887 and was edited and completed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov. It was first performed in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1890.
