Toni Pimble’s Carmina Burana To Open 55th Season Kansas City Ballet at Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
Encore of Ben Stevenson’s End of Time and Kansas City Premiere of Lynn Taylor-Corbett’s Mercury will round out Program
Kansas City Ballet will open its 55th season Oct. 12 through Oct. 21, 2012 with a robust, large scale production of Carmina Burana choreographed by Toni Pimble whose earlier 2010 work Concerto Grosso was received with unalloyed enthusiasm by Kansas City audiences.
Pimble, the Founding Artistic Director of Eugene Ballet Company in Oregon, said about her production, “Carmina Burana is a great piece—medieval poems of monks and itinerant scholars writing with passion about life. A full company of dancers, 80 chorus members, children’s choir, soloists and orchestra come together to perform the ballet. The work opens with a man cast on the wheel of fortune while a single man dances the agony of fate. As the work progresses it covers life’s experiences from darkest fears to great hope and joy.”
Also on the program will be Ben Stevenson’s ardent pas de deux End of Time as well as the Kansas City premiere of Lynne Taylor-Corbett’s Mercury.
Set to Carl Orff’s heart pounding score, Carmina Burana is consistently one of the most popular works in every ballet companies’ repertory.
Artistic Director William Whitener stated, “The sheer scale and power embodied in Carl Orff’s masterwork, Carmina Burana, is our way of celebrating both the 55th season of the Kansas City Ballet and the second season in our splendid new home, the Muriel Kauffman Theatre. Toni Pimble, the esteemed choreographer, has nimbly joined dancers and singers in this vigorous, lyrical production. I have chosen Ben Stevenson’s poignant, award-winning pas de deux, End of Time, and Lynne Taylor-Corbett’s vivacious ballet, Mercury, to round out the program. Mercury was originally created for the New York City Ballet’s Diamond Project in 1992. All three choreographers are contributing to the development of ballet in this country and it is a pleasure to present their works as part of my final season as the artistic director of Kansas City Ballet.”
Carmina Burana is one of the most requested ballets by Kansas City audiences—a thrilling tapestry of dancers, singers, and orchestra. This large-scale production features all 28 members of Kansas City Ballet; the Kansas City Symphony, under the direction of Kansas City Ballet Music Director Ramona Pansegrau; and 84 members of the Kansas City Symphony Chorus prepared by Charles Bruffy; 20 member children’s chorus from Liberty High School prepared by Rika Heruth; and three soloists: soprano Sarah Tannehill, baritone Chris Carr, and tenor Casey Finnegan. Carmina Burana shares the evening with Lynne Taylor-Corbett’s complex and inventive Mercury, a ballet in five movements drawn from five symphonies by Franz Joseph Haydn.
Fall Performances
October 12-21, 2012 | Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts | Music performed by Kansas City Symphony
Presenting one new production, one Kansas City premiere and one popular return from three of ballet’s most dynamic and innovative choreographers. Sponsor: BMO Harris Bank
Mercury Choreography: Lynne Taylor-Corbett Music: Franz Joseph Haydn
End of Time Choreography: Ben Stevenson Music: Sergei Rachmaninoff
Carmina Burana Choreography: Toni Pimble Music: Carl Orff
Fri., Oct. 12 7:30 p.m.
Sat., Oct. 13 7:30 p.m.
Sun., Oct. 14 2 p.m.
Fri., Oct. 19 7:30 p.m.
Sat., Oct. 20 7:30 p.m.
Sun., Oct. 21 2 p.m.
Tickets are available by calling the Ballet Box Office at 816-931-2232 or online at www.kcballet.org where patrons may “select their own seats.”
