Dances Patrelle presents the World Premiere of Francis Patrelle’s GILBERT & SULLIVAN, The Ballet!

May 12 – 15, 2011

Dances Patrelle presents the World Premiere of Francis Patrelle’s GILBERT & SULLIVAN, The Ballet!, an evening-length work featuring live music and singers, as well as characters from Gilbert and Sullivan favorites, from May 12-15, 2011 at Dicapo Opera Theatre, 184 E. 76th Street, NYC.  Tickets are $20-35 and are available at 212-868-4444 or www.smarttix.com.

Following the performance on May 14, Dances Patrelle will host a Salsa Party Benefit at The Great Hall at St. Jean Baptiste Community Center, 184 E. 76^th Street, NYC.  The benefit will provide an opportunity to meet and mingle with the dancers, as well as to partake in a professional salsa lesson.  Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres will be served, as well as a raffle drawing.  For tickets and more information, email [email protected].

GILBERT & SULLIVAN, The Ballet! is a fun-filled look at the staging of three favorite comic operas, as Patrelle's choreography highlights the joys, trials and rewards of a life in the theater. Sir William Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan battle over casting, bond over music, and get ripped off by their producer as a marvelous cast of dancers, singers, and musicians bring The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado and HMS Pinafore to life.  Dancers include: Jesse Marks of Colorado Ballet and Ballet X; Alexander Brady of Twyla Tharp's Movin' Out and Come Fly Away; Julie Voshell, also of Movin' Out; Amy Brandt of Suzanne Farrell Ballet; Therese Wendler of Ballet International; and John-Mark Owen of Ballet NY and American Repertory Ballet.  Select students from premier ballet schools in the NYC area will also be featured, with Music Director Warren Helms, Set Designer Gillian Bradshaw Smith, Costume Designer Rita B. Watson, Lighting Designer David Grill, and co-creation of the original story by award-winning novelist Justin Allen.   The company will present a special Family Matinee performance - a version of GILBERT & SULLIVAN, The Ballet! featuring a meet and greet with characters from the show for younger audience members on Sunday at 2pm. Performances:  Thursday and Friday at 7:30pm; Saturday at 2pm and 7pm; and Sunday at 2pm (Family Matinee).  Appropriate for all ages.

Dances Patrelle (dP) is a dynamic professional ballet company that presents two annual seasons in New York — the timeless holiday tradition, The Yorkville Nutcracker, and a spring repertory season, featuring world premieres and classic Patrelle favorites.  Mr. Patrelle’s body of work includes over 50 world premiere ballets choreographed for Dances Patrelle, and spans an incredibly wide range of styles, from his beloved American Songbook collection, to such contemporary classics as Romeo and Juliet, Madame X, Macbeth and Rhapsody in Blue.  Heralded by Lynn Garafola in Dance Magazine as a choreographer with “a personal vision…classical because it is rooted in metaphor and symbolic language [and] populist because of its legibility and broad cultural resonance,” Patrelle has also cultivated a long-time collaboration with composer Patrick Soluri, commissioning four original scores including last year’s Fancy Nancy.  Known for attracting the great talent of each generation, Dances Patrelle is pleased to count ballet stars Marcelo Gomes, Maria Riccetto, Donald Williams, Lourdes Lopez, Jock Soto, Merrill Ashley and prima ballerina Cynthia Gregory among its past and present dancers.  For over 20 seasons, Dances Patrelle has tapped into the human experience, connecting intimately with the audience and continuously reinventing dramatic dance.