Category Archives: Press Releases

Cincinnati Ballet proudly presents Septime Webre’s Alice (in wonderland), Nicolo Fonte’s Carmina Burana, Alejandro Cerrudo’s Extremely Close, and the second year of the dynamic Bold Moves Festival — PLUS return of The Kaplan New Works Series, The Nutcracker, and the annual Family Series

CINCINNATI, OH (March 3, 2022) – Cincinnati Ballet is pleased to announce today the repertoire slated for the 2022-2023 Season. The Season opens September 8 – 18, 2022 at the Aronoff Center’s Jarson-Kaplan Theatre with The Kaplan New Works Series. Experience innovative dance including a world premiere from Cincinnati choreographer and DANCEFIX phenom Heather Britt and a Cincinnati premiere by award-winning British choreographer Cathy Marston. The Kaplan New Works Series also features premieres from Cincinnati Ballet dancers Daniel Baldwin, Taylor Carrasco, and Melissa Gelfin De-Poli.

Audiences can look forward to a double bill full of power and purpose at Music Hall’s Springer Auditorium November 4 – 6, 2022 that features the return of Nicolo Fonte’s Carmina Burana and Alejandro Cerrudo’s visually captivating Extremely Close. Carmina Burana will be accompanied by live music from the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the May Festival Chorus. Carmina Burana is based upon a rediscovered manuscript dating back to the 11^th century that was found by a Bavarian librarian in a monastery in 1803. Twenty-four of the poems were then set to music by Carl Orff in 1936. Nicolo Fonte illuminates the evocative score bringing these poems to life in new and unexpected ways.

Part art installation and part movement drama, Cerrudo’s Extremely Close creates a sense of restlessness throughout as dancers negotiate their way through a perpetually shifting environment. Propelled by changing landscapes, Cerrudo weaves a mesmerizing spell of movement punctuated by fleeting moments of intense intimacy with music by composers Philip Glass and Dustin O’Halloran. The piece evokes a haunting and irrevocable sense of separation, that sometimes home is the brief connective peace you find before the world shifts again.

2023 will begin with a trip down the rabbit hole and the long-awaited return of choreographer Septime Webre’s wildly popular ALICE (in wonderland). Don’t be late for this important date at Music Hall, February 10 – 19, 2023. Cincinnati audiences fell in love with ALICE when it was last performed during our 2014-2015 Season. Webre’s colorful, humorous interpretation of Lewis Carroll’s trippy story is a visual feast with spectacular sets and over-the-top costumes, accompanied by a buoyant score from composer Matthew Pierce performed with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Follow the White Rabbit into Springer Auditorium and meet the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat but watch out for the Red Queen or it’ll be off with your head!

Cincinnati Ballet’s annual Family Series returns to the Aronoff Center, April 13 -16, 2023 with a tale as old as time, Beauty and the Beast. The hour-long, narrated ballet, performed by Cincinnati Ballet Second Company – CB2 dancers is the perfect introduction to dance, even for the youngest members of your family. With choreography from Pamela Robinson Harris and Peggy Dolkas, it also features Professional Training Division dancers and young performers from Cincinnati Ballet Otto M. Budig Academy. Tickets for the performance start at just $20 and include fun lobby activities at the theater.

Join us for Cincinnati Ballet’s immersive dance experience — Bold Moves Festival –at the Aronoff Center, June 9 – 18, 2023. With two diverse programs, the Festival is truly a bold exploration of dance that features multiple works from world-renowned choreographers, including Cincinnati Ballet resident choreographer Jennifer Archibald’s SIT, Val Caniparoli’s Ibsen’s House, William Forsythe’s In the middle, somewhat elevated, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Written and Forgotten and Garrett Smith’s Façades. The production also includes a to be determined work that will be programmed by Cincinnati Ballet’s incoming Artistic Director Jodie Gates. William Forsythe’s In the middle, somewhat elevated was commissioned by Rudolf Nureyev and created for the Paris Opera Ballet in 1987 and was hailed immediately as a masterpiece and has become Forsythe’s most famous ballet worldwide as it redefined the direction of contemporary ballet. Jennifer Archibald’s SIT was a fan favorite when it premiered during New Works in the 2014-2015 Season. With movement that challenges Company artists to push outside their comfort zones, it was both a dancer and audience favorite. Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Written and Forgotten is a dynamic and colorful reverie about the perception of the world through the eyes of a child. Garrett Smith’s Façades revised ballet uses abstracted Baroque references to address ideas of reflection.  Val Caniparoli’s Ibsen’s House is a tour de force ballet takes on Victorian repression through five female characters from plays by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen.

Subscriptions on sale now for the 2022-2023 Season. For more information visit cballet.org.

Cincinnati Ballet 2021-2022 Season Sponsors:

• Victoria Morgan’s 25^th Anniversary Season presented by PNC
• Rhonda & Larry A. Sheakley, Margaret and Michael Valentine, ArtsWave, Mercy Health, Louise Dieterle Nippert Musical Arts Fund, Ohio Arts Council, The Austin E. Knowlton Foundation

About Cincinnati Ballet
Since 1963, Cincinnati Ballet has been the cornerstone professional ballet company of the region, presenting a bold and adventurous array of classical, full-length ballets and contemporary works, regularly with live orchestral accompaniment. Under the artistic direction of Victoria Morgan, Cincinnati Ballet has become a creative force within the larger dance community, commissioning world premiere works and exploring unique collaborations. With a mission to enrich, expand, and excel in the art of dance through performance, a high-caliber academy, and impactful education and community engagement in local to global communities, Cincinnati Ballet reaches beyond the stage in programs that allow every person in the region to be part of the continued evolution of dance. To that end, Cincinnati Ballet presents exhilarating performances, provides extensive education and community engagement programs, and offers top-level professional ballet training at Cincinnati Ballet Otto M. Budig Academy.