Brooklyn Ballet to Present 2007 Season on March 2-4
at Kumble Theater for the Performing Arts 

- Includes works by Lynn Parkerson, Caridad Martinez and George Balanchine -

Brooklyn, N.Y. – Brooklyn Ballet, known for the contemporary vision it brings to the treasured art form of ballet, will perform its imaginative mix of dance forms at the Kumble Theater for the Performing Arts. Highlights will include the New York stage premieres of “Brooklyn Caprice,” choreographed by artistic director Lynn Parkerson, and “Articulos Femeninos,” by resident choreographer Caridad Martinez, as well as a pas de deux from a George Balanchine work.

Performances will take place at the Kumble Theater on Friday, March 2, at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, March 3, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, March 4, at 3 p.m. Tickets are $40, $25; $15 for students and seniors. The Kumble Theater is located at Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus, near the intersection of Flatbush and DeKalb Avenues.

“Brooklyn Caprice” features converging interpretations of classical and contemporary ballet and pop-and-lock and break-dance movement styles, with accompanying music from baroque to reggaeton, including an original score by Jim Papoulis. The community-oriented dance company, under the direction of Parkerson, who has sought to make ballet accessible to a wider audience, has presented the work in storefronts, museums, parks, schools and streets. The acclaimed choreographer received a Paul Robeson Award for Artistic Excellence and Community Service in 2006.

“Articulos Femeninos (Feminine Articles)” is a multimedia dance piece that was presented in Mexico last year.  Caridad Martinez, who trained under Alicia and Fernando Alonso at Escuela Nacional de Arte in Cuba, created it as a response to a skywriting art installation of the same title by conceptual artist Jessica Sofia Mitrani. The work makes reference to feminine articles, “ the,” “a” and “an,” as distinguished from masculine ones in languages including Spanish. Text, gesture and the feminine interplay, and the dance is performed against a film backdrop, a documentation of Mitrani’s ephemeral installation.

A Balanchine pas de deux is from “Four Temperaments,” courtesy of the Balanchine Trust, and staged by former New York City Ballet dancer Deborah Wingert. Also on the program are Martinez’s “Duo” and a new Parkerson work-in-progress, choreographed in collaboration with Baroque specialists Thomas Baird and Patricia Forelle, with a hybrid score by Jim Papoulis and Nicola Matteis (1640-1714).

For more information, call the Kumble Theater box office at (718) 488-1624 or visit www.kumbletheater.org or call Brooklyn Ballet at (718) 246-0146.

Long Island University opened its Brooklyn Campus in 1926, welcoming a diverse population at a time when other major universities enforced quota systems against racial and ethnic minorities. Located at the corner of Flatbush Avenue Extension and DeKalb Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn, the Campus is accessible to all major bus and subway routes and the Long Island Rail Road.