Metropolitan Ballet commemorates 100 years of Ballets Russes

Dancers for the Metropolitan Ballet rehearsed Monday for an August 7-8, 2009 production: "Ballets Russes 100 Year Festival," a tribute to the legendary Parisian troupe directed by Serge Diaghilev 100 years ago. The festival will take place at O’Shaughnessy Auditorium on the College of St. Catherine Campus in St. Paul, Minnesota. Nina Novak, featured in the movie Ballets Russes, is scheduled to host the two-day affair. Music will be done by the Kenwood Symphony Orchestra, with Yuri Ivan conducting. The works to be performed include include "Les Sylphides," "Le Spectre de la Rose," "Blue Bird," "The Fairy Doll," "The Dying Swan," "Polovtsian Dances" and one contemporary piece, Vaslav Nijinsky’s "Last Dance."

The Metropolitan Ballet, based in the Twin Cities, was founded in 2002 by Erik Sanborn and includes members of the Metropolitan Ballet Academy. The ballet masters for the company are Tatiana Berenova (former prima ballerina at the National Academic Bolshoi Ballet Theatre of The Republic of Belarus and the Moscow Renaissance Ballet) and Venezuelan-born Ramon Thielen (a principal dancer at The Dance Theater of Harlem).