Spotlight on American Dance Theatre

American Ballet Theatre returns to Northrop nearly 5 years to the day after performing Giselle at our grand reopening in 2014. Principal Dancer Isabella Boylston, who debuted her Giselle during that grand opening weekend, will dance the leading role in Songs of Bukovina.

Songs of Bukovina, choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky to Leonid Desyatnikov’s music, is loosely based on Ukranian folk songs and is set in the village of Bukovina in Eastern Europe’s Carpathian Mountains. The scene is a village festival, possibly a wedding.

Jerome Robbins was a great admirer of Russian ballet stars Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov who had established new careers in America after they defected. He created Other Dances for the two stars in 1976, as a tribute to their incredible artistry. It remains a showcase for the purity and beauty of classical technique.

In the Upper Room by Twyla Tharp is a nine-part performance of charged energy and momentum. The choreography is so intense that Dance Magazine noted the dancers performing appear to be “almost superhuman.”