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Alberta Ballet's 2009-2010 Season: Ballet Redefined

* Due to the recent media release from the National Ballet  of Canada that they will no longer be touring Western Canada, we have removed the production of The Sleeping Beauty from our 2009/2010 season. Alberta Ballet has explored every possibility for replacing The Sleeping Beauty in our 2009-2010 Season. Unfortunately, as this was scheduled to be the first show in our season, opening only five short months later, and that we are committed to the highest calibre ballet, we have found it impossible to fill this hole left by the National Ballet of Canada cancellation.

Calgary/Edmonton, AB - Ballet was redefined today as Alberta Ballet Artistic Director Jean Grand-Maître and Executive Director Darryl Lindenbach today announced the 2009-2010 season.

Alberta Ballet's 2009-2010 season will highlight our internationally acclaimed roster of dancers in three major new creations. These world premieres will celebrate our commitment to ongoing collaborations and for this season, our partners are the Edmonton Opera, the Banff Centre, Cultural Olympiad Vancouver 2010, One Yellow Rabbit's High Performance Rodeo and the Calgary Philharmonic and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestras.

Once again we will be proud ambassadors of our province as we will tour Joni Mitchell's The Fiddle and The Drum across British Columbia and the western United States. We will give more than 60 performances in 12 different cities and offer our dancers a 47-week contract, the longest in our history. We will host one of the best Canadian dance companies, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, with Jorden Morris' Moulin Rouge the Ballet.

Our three year Shakespeare Cycle will conclude with an encore presentation of Jean Grand-Maître's intense and riveting Romeo and Juliet, set to one of the most brilliant scores ever written for ballet, by the great Sergei Prokofiev.

Magic returns this holiday season with our sparkling new production of The Nutcracker, choreographed by Edmund Stripe. After a sold-out world-premiere tour delighted audiences last year, additional scenery and new choreography will propel this Alberta holiday tradition to even greater heights. All performances of Romeo and Juliet and The Nutcracker will be conducted by Music Director Peter Dala.

In January, Alberta Ballet is honoured to be invited back to One Yellow Rabbit's High Performance Rodeo. For this special presentation, we will be offering an encore performance of Alberta Ballet Principal Dancer Yukichi Hattori's Tubular Bells choreographed to Mike Oldfield's lasting masterpiece, now brilliantly transposed for four pianos by Marcel Bergman. This marks the first time in the festival's history that a work will be revived.

In March, we welcome two emerging and powerful new voices on the international dance scene - having already successfully premiered new works in Europe, Japan and New York - Canadian Emily Molnar and Yukichi Hattori from Japan, will join forces with Edmonton Opera's Artistic Director Brian Deedrick. Together they will ignite the Jubilee Auditoria with a rare spectacle that will celebrate the fusion of classical vocal music performance with ballet.

This unique collaboration, featuring four of Alberta's largest performing arts organizations, will unite Alberta Ballet's 29 dancers on stage with a sextet of renowned classical vocalists. Emily Molnar's Songs of a Wayfarer, set to the mystical compositions of the great German composers Gustav Mahler and Yukichi Hattori's theatrically explosive staging of The Seven Deadly Sins by Kurt Weill will enthrall opera, music and dance lovers alike. Songs of a Wayfarer features costume design by David Boechler, lighting design by Pierre Lavoie set design by Scott Reid, and will be sung by mezzo-soprano Allyson McHardy. The Seven Deadly Sins features costumes by Japanese designer Ayako Maeda, lighting design by Pierre Lavoie and set design by Scott Reid. Singers will be baritone John Conlon, soprano Patricia O'Callaghan, tenor Stuart Howe, tenor Thomas Macleay and bass Uwe Dambruch. Both of these world premieres will be conducted by Peter Dala.

Finally, following our triumphant collaboration with Canadian music icon Joni Mitchell, we are honoured to announce a new creation to the music of the legendary Sir Elton John. Along with Artistic Director Jean Grand-Maître and a world-class design team, ELTON will offer audiences a contemporary ballet that will make Alberta history. This unadorned portrayal journeys into the psyche of one the most acclaimed artists of the past century and the landscapes that shaped his destiny. Don't miss your chance to be the first to experience this new world premiere. Costumes will be designed by Martine Bertrand, sets by Guillaume Lord, video projections will be by Adam Larsen, soundtrack by Claude Lemelin and lighting by Pierre Lavoie.

Alberta Ballet's 2009-2010 Ballet Redefined season will continue to make the province proud and to thoroughly entertain and challenge our audiences with groundbreaking performances acclaimed around the world.

Alberta Ballet's 2009-2010 Season


Romeo and Juliet
Calgary: October 22 - 24, 2009
Edmonton: November 6 - 7, 2009

The Nutcracker
Edmonton: December 10 - 13, 2009
Calgary: December 18 - 26, 2009

Tubular Bells
Calgary: January 7 - 10, 2010

Royal Winnipeg Ballet's Moulin Rouge the Ballet
Edmonton: February 19 - 20, 2010
Calgary: February 25 - 27, 2010

The Seven Deadly Sins & Songs of a Wayfarer
Calgary: March 25 - 27, 2010
Edmonton: April 9 - 10, 2010

ELTON
Calgary: May 6 - 8, 2010
Edmonton: May 11 - 12, 2010

All performances take place at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton and the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Calgary. Tubular Bells performances will take place at The Grand Theatre.

Subscription renewals are currently open until May 15 and general subscriptions go on sale at that time. Subscriptions start at $114 for adults. Single tickets for all performances will go on sale August 4. Subscriptions and single tickets are available through Alberta Ballet's Box Office at 403.245.4549, or purchase online at albertaballet.com this fall. Tickets for Tubular Bells are available through One Yellow Rabbit.

About Alberta Ballet:
Alberta Ballet, a not-for-profit organization, is Canada's third-largest ballet company. Since its formation in 1966, with its cutting-edge repertoire and talent led by Artistic Director Jean Grand-Maître and Darryl Lindenbach, Executive Director, Alberta Ballet has remained at the forefront of the national and international arts scene. One of the only arts organizations in Canada to call two cities home, Alberta Ballet is proud to be a community leader both on and off the stage.

Media contact:

Samantha Garner, Marketing & Communications Coordinator
P: 403-245-4222 ext. 529 | E: samanthag@albertaballet.com