Ballet Theatre Company presents "The Tales of Peter Rabbit, Les Sylphides, and more"

Ballet Theatre Company (BTC) of West Hartford, Connecticut, presents its 15th annual spring performance season on Saturday May 4, 2013 at the Hoffman Auditorium. The featured work is the premiere of “Tales of Peter Rabbit”, a one-act ballet based on the children’s stories of Beatrix Potter. Under the artistic direction of Roman Baca, the ballet has additional choreography by Ruth Vesenka Lewis, Carolyn Paine and Kate Sulikowski. Costume design and execution is by Catherine Savino. Taylor Gordon and Aaron Atkins, who danced the lead roles in “Gwendolyn the Graceful Pig” in 2012, return to create the characters of Peter Rabbit and Mr. McGregor. Meaghan Doherty joins them in the role of Mrs Rabbit. All three dancers dance with New York’s Exit 12 Dance Company as well as in BTC’s Nutcracker. BTC’s junior company and twenty five additional children from Ballet Theatre Academy will be performing as well. Also on the program is “Les Sylphides”. The classic “white” ballet, originally choreographed by Michel Fokine in 1909 is a romantic reverie and is considered to be the first classical ballet without a storyline. It is set to the music of Chopin. Dancing the lead roles are: Aaron Atkins, Meaghan Doherty, Lisa Fitzgerald, Taylor Gordon, Paige Grimard and Chloe Slade. Filling out the corps de ballet are eight dancers from BTC II, an ensemble of BTC’s most advanced students. The BTC II dancers will also perform “Allegro Classico”, choreographed by Tracy Dorman and set to the music of Mendelssohn. Rounding out the program is “Peaceable Kingdom”, a contemporary ballet choreographed by Ruth Vesenka Lewis. “Peaceable Kingdom” was presented as a work-in-progress at the Hill-Stead Museum in February to highlight an exhibit of bronze animal sculptures by Antoine-Louis Barye. Peaceable Kingdom features professional dancers from Dimensional Dance Company: Matisse Madden, Janet Simone Parks and Arien Wilkerson. BTC II dancers from West Hartford are: Hayley Eicher, Alison Greene, Kelsey Hammond, Lydia Henning, Clara Howard and Mollie Petrizzo. Other BTC II dancers are Margot Paul and Megan Leary of Berlin. Six dancers BTC Junior Company dancers from West Hartford are: Amy Hidalgo, Susannah Major, Isabelle LeConche, Maya Rose, and Olivia Lucas. Also from West Hartford and performing in “Tales of Peter Rabbit” are: Nandini and Vrinda Anand, Abigale Bassett, Tessa Hill, Mirielle Keough Crane, Morgan Miele, Azul Sofia Montiel, Lia Nichols, Ruochen Ouyang, Camille Perry, Ava and Sophia Radmanovich, Akina Rigby, Fatima Rodriguez, Isaura and Natalia Rolon, Samantha Rychling, Lily Schulman, Helena Shenk, Dasha and Isaac Shipman, and Sarah Stone-Zelman. Ballet Theatre Company is supported in part by the United Arts Campaign of the Greater Hartford Arts Council and the CT Office of the Arts, Department of Economic and Community Development, Fund for Greater Hartford, Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation, Ensworth Charitable Trust, and J. Walton Bissell Foundation. Ballet Theatre Company is a 501c-3 not-for profit organization. Performances: • Saturday May 4 at 1:00 PM • Saturday May 4 at 5:30 PM Location: Carol Autorino Center for the Arts and Humanities on the University of Saint Joseph Campus, 1678 Asylum Avenue, West Hartford , Connecticut, 06117 For tickets call 860-570-0440 or visit dancebtc.org $30, seniors - $25, children 12 and under - $20 Press Contact: Tracy Dorman, tracy@dancebtc.org Photos by Tracy Dorman: ~“Les Sylphides” ~"From the vegetable garden in The Tales of Peter Rabbit”. Pictured center front – Sarah Stone-Zelman as a radish, back left – Natalia Rolon as the French Bean, back right – Isaura Rolon as the lettuce.