August 28, 2001
Contact: Susan Gwynne
(805) 893-2098
e-mail: gwynne-s@sa.ucsb.edu
UCSB dance professor Frank W.D. Ries
delivers lecture, “Balanchine and Ballet”
Summary Facts:
- Frank W.D. Ries
- Professor of Dance and Dramatic Art
- “Balanchine and Ballet”
- slide and video lecture
- an entertaining preparation for Miami City Ballet’s performance of Balanchine’s masterwork Jewels
- explains Balanchine’s place as the premier ballet choreographer of the 20th century
- Sunday, October 7
- 4 pm / SB Museum of Natural History
- Free event
- For information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at 893-3535
UCSB faculty member and dance historian Frank W.D. Ries prepares us for the Miami City Ballet’s performance of George Balanchine’s three-part masterwork Jewels with an entertaining and informative lecture on Sunday, October 7 at 4 pm at the SB Museum of Natural History. This free event (suitable for adults to 12 year-olds), featuring slides and video, will describe the genesis of Jewels and establish Balanchine’s lasting effect on dance. The Washington Post claims: “[Balanchine] is to ballet what Tiger Woods is to golf: so far above the competition as to be playing a different game.”
The Miami City Ballet’s performance of Jewels, presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and The Lobero, will occur a week later on Sunday, October 14 at 7 pm in the Arlington Theatre. The New York Times has hailed Miami City Ballet as “one of the great successes of late 20th century American ballet.” Tickets are $45, 35 for the general public and $25 for UCSB students, in limited availability. $100 patron seating includes a private post-concert reception with the artists. Tickets for the ballet are available at UCSB Arts & Lectures Ticket Office and the Arlington Ticket Agency and may be ordered by calling 893-3535 or 963-4408.
The Sunday, October 7 talk, “Balanchine and Ballet,” will focus on the master’s career and aesthetic. Frank Ries will provide examples from various Balanchine ballets and offer a deeper analysis of Jewels. He will show how Balanchine drastically changed ballet by moving it away from story ballets to abstract work. Ries is one of numerous international researchers who are investigating Balanchine’s work in and for London revues, Broadway shows and Hollywood musicals. Ries is focusing on Hollywood. This effort—initiated by the Balanchine Trust in New York City—will culminate in a catalogue and exhibit entitled “Popular Balanchine.”
Frank Ries has served as Chair of the Department of Dramatic Art and Director of the Dance Division at UCSB. His course “History and Appreciation of Dance” is one of the most popular and well-attended classes at UCSB. Ries studied dance under Marina Svetlova, Sir Anton Dolin, John Kriza and Maryon Lane of the Royal Ballet. He has performed in the U.S. and Europe and has choreographed musicals, revues, and operas. His degrees include B.A. and M.A. Honours degrees from Cambridge University, England and a M.S. in ballet and Ph.D. in theatre from Indiana University.
Ries’ has published in Dance Magazine, Dance Scope, Ballet Review and Dance Chronicle. His book, The Dance Theatre of Jean Cocteau, was published by UMI Press. His reconstruction of the Costeau/Nijinska ballet Le Train Bleu for the Oakland Ballet made the front cover of Dance Magazine, was praised by The New York Times for “shrewd sophistication,” and was named “The Best Ballet of 1989” by The San Francisco Chronicle. He serves as a member of the faculty of the UC Intercampus M.A. in Dance History.
Presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures.
For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.
Editor: For photos, please call
Susan Gwynne at (805) 893-2098.