"Lincoln Kirstein believed that there could be an American audience for ballet. And he was right." So declares Peter Martins, Ballet Master in Chief, of the New York City Ballet's new production of Sergei Prokofiev's classic score, Romeo and Juliet. Commissioned to celebrate the centennial birthday of New York City Ballet co-founder Lincoln Kirstein, Martins's Romeo and Juliet opens on 1 May at NYCB's annual spring gala and is the centerpiece of the 2007 spring season.Kirstein, along with George Balanchine, co-founded NYCB and established the School of American Ballet. Martins's new production features not only the dancers of NYCB but also students and faculty from the SAB. "The organizations that were nearest and dearest to Lincoln were New York City Ballet and the School of American Ballet," notes Martins, "so it seemed only fitting to honor his centennial with a production that unites and celebrates both of these organizations." Following in the steps of Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1962), Martins's new Romeo and Juliet is the second Shakespearean classic to be developed into a full-length ballet for NYCB. "I've wanted to do this for years," Martins adds. "It was Lincoln who [originally] encouraged me to create The Sleeping Beauty (1991), and knowing how much that production meant to him, I hope he would have been equally pleased with the addition of this timeless story, and Prokofiev's glorious score, to our repertory."Romeo and Juliet continues for 13 additional performances that feature sets and costumes created by Danish painter Per Kirkeby.Romeo and Juliet2+pic.2+ca.2+bcl.tsx.2+cbn/6.3+cnt.3.1/timp.perc.glock.xyl/2hp.pf.cel.man/str;banda: 4hn, 6 tpt, thn, barhn, 2tba, 4perc
