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This production will be presented at the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center.
Three ways to celebrate love – with three short ballets and a nod to Valentine’s Day. After a stunning debut at the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center in 2023, the company returns to KPAC with works by the incomparable George Balanchine, innovative choreographer Brian Enos and the dynamic duo of Gen Horiuchi and composer TOYA (with live accompaniment).
George Balanchine’s Square Dance: In love with all things American, Balanchine takes the intricate patterns of a typical square dance and re-imagines them for his own ballet work that nods to the common roots of the two styles. Incorporating classical ballet, 17th century court dance and country dancing in an effervescent whole.
Brian Enos’ In Reel Time: A contemporary work that’s very rhythmic and strikingly beautiful.
Gen Horiuchi’s St. Louis Blues: A creatiion with composer and longtime collaborator Toya that evokes the mood of the blues era. With accompaniment by a New York-based jazz ensemble.
MORE ABOUT SAINT LOUIS BALLET
Saint Louis Ballet is the region’s only professional ballet company. Under the direction of former New York City Ballet principal dancer Gen Horiuchi, its 21 classically trained dancers are selected in a competitive national audition and come to St. Louis from training programs and ballet companies throughout the world. The company’s repertoire includes full-length ballets such as Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote, Coppelia, Romeo & Juliet and Giselle as well as contemporary work from renowned choreographers such as George Balanchine, Gerald Arpino, Christopher d’Amboise, Brian Enos, Amy Seiwert, Jessica Lang, Twyla Tharp, Tom Gold, Emery LeCrone, Nilas Martins, and Peter Martins In addition to a season of fully mounted productions, Saint Louis Ballet operates a ballet school, professional training program, and conducts an outreach program, Pointe to Succeed, to bring underserved students to live performances.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Gen Horiuchi has been the artistic director of the Saint Louis Ballet Company and School since 2000. He has created over 20 original works for the company and has spearheaded the growth of the School based in Chesterfield. Raised in Tokyo, Japan by parents who were professional ballet dancers, he won the prestigious Prix de Lausanne, the international ballet competition in Switzerland in 1980 (and since 1993 has been a judge for the competition). He then received a scholarship to study at the School of American Ballet. In 1982, he was invited by George Balanchine to join the New York City Ballet, where he became a principal dancer in 1989. He’s danced on Broadway in Song and Dance and was also Mr. Mistoffelees in the musical CATS, both on Broadway and in London's West End. He choreographed the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan in 1998. In 2004, he was honored in New York City with the Seventh Cultural Bridge Award together with Harold Prince, (director of Phantom of the Opera). He has directed the Aoyama Ballet Festival in Tokyo with artists in major companies from around the world. And since 2010, he has been directing Gen Horiuchi’s Ballet USA each summer in Osaka, Japan where he sets his own choreography on professional dancers and brings guests like Miyako Yoshida, former Royal Ballet principal, to dance alongside him to sold out houses.
