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Every year a premiere

Ballet Gala returns with an impressive international lineup
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By Brooke Edge
For The Prague Post
January 9th, 2008 issue

Wayne-Hu/Prague Ballet Gala, 2008
This year's lineup includes the Hong Kong Ballet's Faye Leung.
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Wayne-Hu/Prague Ballet Gala, 2008
Desmond Richardson
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Prague Ballet Gala

When: Friday, Jan. 11, at 7:30
Where: State Opera
Tickets: 150–1,800 Kč, available through Bohemia Ticket and at the venue

With the dollar continuing its precipitous decline, round-trip airfare to New York City and concert tickets will put a serious dent in your bank account. But if you’d like to take in the talents of Desmond Richardson, whom The New York Times called “majestic” and “one of the great modern dancers of his time,” you won’t have to go any farther than the State Opera Jan. 11.
That’s the date of the third annual Prague Ballet Gala, being staged once again by Jana Kurová and her colleagues at Prague International Ballet. They’re giving Czech dance fans a treat to start the new year, enlisting Richardson and nearly a dozen other international guest artists for a one-night performance of classical ballet.
Kurová founded Prague International Ballet in 2005 as a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the level of ballet education and performance in Prague. From her years in the professional dance world, both as a renowned prima ballerina with the Czech National Theater Ballet and since retiring her pointe shoes as an international master teacher and judge of dance competitions, Kurová gleaned that the best means of learning is by example. However, she found the opportunities for viewing professional dance in her home country to be quite limited.
For this reason, Prague International Ballet’s primary focus is the annual production of Prague Ballet Gala. The event’s goal is to give Czech ballet lovers — most importantly, the young dancers among them — a chance to see and study not just homegrown dancers, but those who have been educated and shaped by dance experiences abroad. The performance, Kurová says, “unites dancers from all over the world and shows us the latest and the brightest of the ballet world.”
As always, the evening will include performances of “special ballet masterpieces by distinguished choreographers of past centuries.” It’s Kurová’s belief that, just because a work has been performed for generations, that doesn’t mean it can’t be presented in a fresh way. By witnessing interpretations of sometimes-familiar ballets, she hopes that Czech dancers in training can grow their own notions of innovative ballet.
“The strength of a gala performance is based on its exclusiveness, which [is expressed] in the excerpts of various works,” Kurová says. “It benefit[s] mainly from the experience of the performers.”
In previous years, Prague Ballet Gala has featured dancers from Argentina, Brazil and myriad countries throughout Europe. This year, Kurová’s handpicked lineup reaches further abroad, bringing representatives from London’s Royal Ballet, the National Ballet of Canada, Hong Kong Ballet and the Complexions Contemporary Ballet.
Richardson serves as co-founder and artistic director of Complexions, a progressive multicultural ballet company based in New York City. As a former member of two international dance powerhouses — Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and American Ballet Theater — Richardson will bring a distinctly Stateside flair to this year’s Prague Ballet Gala with his performance of Lament, choreographed by Complexions co-founder Dwight Rhoden.
Another highly anticipated appearance is that of Zdeněk Konvalina, a native of Brno. Following a gold medal win at the 2001 Helsinki International Ballet Competition, Konvalina relocated to Texas to join the Houston Ballet. Today he is a principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada, and will perform Danses Grecques as part of Prague Ballet Gala.
From homegrown artists returning with lessons learned abroad to foreign dancers displaying how it’s done where they’re from, Prague Ballet Gala’s 2008 edition promises to be a singular night of inspiration and excellence.
“Every year it is different,” Kurová says. “And every year it’s a world premiere.”

Brooke Edge can be reached at features@praguepost.com


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