“The company looks better than ever, if that’s possible, dancing clearly and tightly across the repertoire.”
Miami City Ballet
Lourdes Lopez, artistic director
Berkeley Symphony Orchestra
Gary Sheldon, conductor
| BALANCHINE | The Four Temperaments (music: Hindemith) |
| JUSTIN PECK | Heatscape (music: Martinů) |
| ALEXEI RATMANSKY | Symphonic Dances (music: Rachmaninoff) |
Famed for its dedication to the repertory, style, and technique of George Balanchine, Miami City Ballet returns to UC Berkeley for the first time in over a decade. The company is directed by former New York City Ballet principal Lourdes Lopez, among the last dancers of her generation to have worked with Balanchine himself, and its Berkeley program this season places the master choreographer’s epic 1946 masterwork The Four Temperaments in conversation with recent commissions. Justin Peck’s Heatscape is an energetic romp danced before a mural by street artist Shepard Fairey, and Alexei Ratmansky’s Symphonic Dances, set to Rachmaninoff, evokes a delirious, dreamlike state. “Symphonic Dances is a choreographic and visual feast…it’s endlessly interesting and outrageous—and one of Ratmansky’s most fascinating creations” (Critical Dance).
Patron Sponsors: Ivan and Maris Meyerson