Avant Chamber Ballet Presents Star-Crossed

Avant Chamber Ballet presents Star-Crossed: Romeo & Juliet + Swan Lake Act 2, February 17-18 at Moody Performance Hall. The program is a triple bill including George Balanchine’s Walpurgisnacht Ballet, the premiere of Katie Puder’s Swan Lake Act 2, and Paul Mejia’s Romeo & Juliet. Live orchestra will accompany this evening of ballet masterpieces telling tales of romance and enchantment, true love and sacrifice.

“I am thrilled to start 2024 with such an amazing program including live orchestra. Any ballet company in the world would be proud of the repertoire program like this one,” said Artistic Director Katie Puder.

Balanchine once famously said “ballet is woman,” and in Walpurgisnacht Ballet he sends 24 women soaring across the stage with wild abandon. Walpurgisnacht Ballet was choreographed for a 1975 production of Faust by the Théâtre National de l’Opéra, danced by the Paris Opéra Ballet. The Walpurgisnacht scene occurs at the beginning of the opera’s last act, when Mephistopheles brings Faust to watch the traditional celebration on the eve of May Day when the souls of the dead are released to wander at will. Although the ballet does not depict Walpurgisnacht per se, it does build on a sense of joyful revelry with the well-known score by Gounod.

Perhaps the best-known classical ballet of all time, Swan Lake premiered over a century ago in Russia and remains timeless because of the range of human emotions expressed through dance and Tchaikovsky’s luminous score. This poetic work resonates with melancholy and hope and features breathtaking choreography staged by Katie Puder from the original choreography. Get drawn into the story of Odette, a princess-turned-swan and the heroic Prince Siegfried in a drama-packed one-act work.

Paul Mejia’s romantic and tragic Romeo & Juliet is the perfect way to celebrate Valentine’s Day. This timeless story is brought to life by Tchaikovsky’s famous Fantasy-Overture and told from the viewpoint of Juliet as memories from her final hours. It is one of Mejia’s most loved ballets over his acclaimed choreographic career. The ballet premiered in Guatemala in 1977 and the leading character of Juliet has been danced by famous ballerinas such as Suzanne Farrell, Lucia Lacarra, and Maria Terezia Balogh.

Tickets for Star-Crossed now on sale at www.AvantChamberBallet.org