Posts
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jessica Meldrum
May 26, 2021
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., May 26, 2021 — Grand Rapids Ballet, Michigan’s only professional ballet company, today announces its 2021-22 Season, Moving Forward, featuring a return to live, in-person performances at DeVos Performance Hall and Peter Martin Wege Theater, among others.
The Moving Forward season offers something for everyone, featuring classical ballet favorites and contemporary creations. The complete season includes Grand Rapids Ballet’s outdoor “Summer Series,” “Off the Canvas,” “The Nutcracker,” “Cinderella,” “Jumpstart 2022,” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” with “Serenade.”
“My vision for the 21-22 Season aims to showcase a wide variety of ballets that appeal to any number of people, even if you’ve never seen ballet before,” said James Sofranko, artistic director at Grand Rapids Ballet. “We have definitely missed the live connection with the audience and are looking forward to being back in a live performance space. It’s what we do best, and it’s what we’ve trained to do.”
The season begins with two outdoor performances taking place in August. The first program will take place downtown at Studio Park, on Aug. 14, and the second features a return to Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park on Aug. 31.
Grand Rapids’ favorite holiday seasonal tradition, “The Nutcracker,” returns to DeVos Performance Hall with dancers performing before beautiful sets imagined by Chris Van Allsburg, designed by Eugene Lee. Dancers adorn the stage to Val Caniparoli’s choreography for the beloved annual tradition with live accompaniment from the Grand Rapids Symphony to Tchaikovsky’s magical score.
2022 also marks an important milestone as Grand Rapids Ballet celebrates 50 years of lifting the human spirit through the art of dance. Our 50th Anniversary spans two seasons, kicking off in February 2022 with family-favorite “Cinderella,” choreographed by Ben Stevensen, accompanied by the Grand Rapids Symphony. The classic fairytale journeys alongside Cinderella as her dreams are turned to reality by her Fairy Godmother before she dances the night away with her Prince at a dazzling ball.
Company dancers also are accompanied by Grand Rapids Ballet School’s students transforming into fairies, butterflies, and mystical characters in Shakespeare’s comedic tale, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” During this performance, Grand Rapids Ballet will pay homage to George Balanchine, performing the timeless, classical work, “Serenade,” with music by Tchaikovsky, known as his first ballet made in America.
Grand Rapids Ballet’s Junior Company, under the direction of Attila Mosolygo, will perform “Aladdin,” as our talented young dancers share the story of an impoverished boy, living in Agrabah, who falls in love with the beautiful Princess Jasmine.
Tickets and Season subscriptions will be available to the public later this summer. 2021-22 Season Subscription renewals will open to current subscribers on June 7. Additional program details and performance dates and times can be found at grballet.com/2122season.
###
About Grand Rapids Ballet:
Grand Rapids Ballet, Michigan’s only professional ballet company, celebrating its 50th Anniversary in 2022, is committed to lifting the human spirit through the art of dance under the leadership of James Sofranko as artistic director, Glenn Del Vecchio as executive director, and Attila Mosolygo as director of Grand Rapids Ballet School and its Junior Company. Grand Rapids Ballet continues a rich history marked by steady growth, a commitment to excellence, and strong community support.
Author: Jessica Meldrum
Originally published on Cultured.GR by Steve Sucato
After seven years with the Grand Rapids Ballet, Barker is taking on a new adventure on the other side of the globe.
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*nqIuZBjGuAsKmHV1jJTxOA.jpeg)
Patricia Barker (front) with her Grand Rapids Ballet dance troupe. Image courtesy Grand Rapids Ballet.
Former Pacific Northwest Ballet star and current artistic director of Grand Rapids Ballet (GRB), Patricia Barker, will become the Royal New Zealand Ballet (RNZB)’s twelfth artistic director and only the second female director in its 64-year history. She takes over from current RNZB artistic director Francesco Ventriglia on June 19, 2017. Ventriglia will stay on as a choreographer for the company.
Barker says the application process involved her submitting a strategic overview with a sample production plan. She met with RNZB’s search committee via video conference calls and spent three days at the company’s home in Wellington where, in addition to meeting and talking with the organization’s board and staff ─ including fellow American executive director Frances Turner ─ she had a question and answer session with RNZB’s dancers.
“It’s exciting: they have an excellent reputation, wonderful reviews, and a great spirit and energy in the studio,” says Barker.
According to Barker, RNZB was looking for a unique identity for their 36-member company and she feels she can create that for them.
“All the works I did at Grand Rapids Ballet definitely gave us a unique identity. I look at each transition as an exciting change, building on an organization’s successes that came before while looking toward the future,” says Barker. “We did that in Grand Rapids and I think I can do that here.”
With a 13 million dollar budget and a history of international touring, Barker says she is ready to apply what she has learned in her career at Pacific Northwest Ballet, as a dancewear entrepreneur, and at Grand Rapids Ballet to moving RNZB forward.
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/600/1*bQWDOCUgQ0cfB9r3V5TgLg.jpeg)
Patricia Barker has been at the Grand Rapids ballet for seven years. Image courtesy Grand Rapids Ballet.
With their 2018 season already set, Barker says she will be initially working on programming for 2019 as well as getting to know the dancers and the organization. With that advanced planning in place along with seasonal differences in when RNZB performs, it will allow Barker to also stay on as artistic director at Grand Rapids Ballet during the coming 2017–18 season.
“It’s nice because their [New Zealand’s] summer is our winter and there will be opposite weeks of work,” says Barker. “I can do a lot remotely and be in Grand Rapids for the opening of productions.” She also says she still plans on staging a few ballets on the company.
GRB’s 2017–18 season, which includes “From Russia With Love,” which is a program of highlights from “Sleeping Beauty,” “Swan Lake,” “Giselle,” “Esmeralda,” and “Don Quixote;” their annual “The Nutcracker” production re-imagined by “Polar Express” author Chris Van Allsburg; two repertory programs celebrating diversity with world-premiere works by some of today’s most influential choreographers; and the world-premiere of choreographer Penny Saunders’ Oscar Wilde inspired ballet “The Happy Prince and other Wilde Tales,” will now act as a farewell celebration of Barker’s seven years with the GRB, taking it from a relatively unknown regional troupe to one with a national presence.
“I am an adventurous individual with one more adventure in me,” says 54-year-old Barker on moving to the other side of the world. “I am so proud of what we created at Grand Rapids Ballet, the platform for choreographers, especially women choreographers. And the prolific amount of works we have done has been incredible. Also, the development of talent, including local talent, has been wonderful to be a part of. The fun thing about going somewhere else is bringing all that I have learned and experienced here and applying it there.”
- Call us at 616-454-4771
- 341 Ellsworth Avenue SW
Grand Rapids, MI 49503