New Jersey Ballet will present the first New Jersey World Dance Day Celebration on Saturday, April 29 at The Community Theatre, Morristown. The company, featuring New Jersey Ballet’s international troupe of artists from 10 nations, is ideally suited to take part in the UNESCO worldwide event.

World Dance Day was created in 1982 by Conseuils de Dance Internationale (CID), an agency of the UNESCO, to focus attention on the art of dance. The date – April 29 – was chosen to honor Jean Georges Noverre (1727-1810), an early Ballet Master at the Paris Opera, Noverre is credited with adding story, acting and emotional content to the dance form – in effect, creating ballet as it exists today.  

“A worldwide event that brings attention to the art of dance is one of the most exciting programs of the year,” said New Jersey Ballet Director Carolyn Clark. “We are grateful to the F. M. Kirby Foundation for helping to make this performance possible.”

New Jersey Ballet will celebrate World Dance Day with a sampler of the varied styles that flourish in ballet. The program pieces are influenced by popular forms of dance performed in dance clubs and market squares by people all over the world. The program will include Grand Pas Espagnol, a splendid restoration of the Spanish style by the late Benjamin Harkarvy and excerpts from Let’s Go South, a wonderfully playful jazz ballet by internationally renowned choreographer Robert North.

Also on the program, Johan Renvall’s flash-and-dazzle Tango is set in a smoky dance club.  Like Let’s Go South, the work showcases an easy blend of ballet and contemporary culture that is equally accessible to balletomanes and people who have never set foot in a theatre.

Folk dance influence is evident in a pair of solos from Eastern Europe. The spectacular Gopak is an aerial display of virtuosity based on a traditional Ukranian dance. The dance of the princess from SwanLake combines regal bearing, swanlike grace and a strong Russian influence. 

Rounding out the program are a pair of pas de deux that evoke the future and the past. Belong is a sinuous, sensuous pas de deux from What To Do Till The Messiah Comes by Canadian choreographer Norbert Vesak, with electronic music by Syrinx. The other is from Spartacus, a contemporary masterwork by Russian Yuri Grigorovich, about the slave who led a rebellion against Imperial Rome.

Every year, an international figure in the world of dance is invited to send a message setting the tone for the celebration. This year’s keynote statement is from His Majesty Norodom Sihamoni, King of Cambodia. Before being elected to the throne in 2004, the king earned a Masters degree from the Musical Art Academy in Prague and taught classical dance in Paris.

 “Dancing requires neither pen nor paintbrush. Only one instrument is necessary, the human body. Every motion is imbued with dance. To move is to dance.” The king’s message (at the end of this item) discusses spiritual aspect of dance and ends with a call for a rebirth of tolerance throughout the world.

Founded in 1958, New Jersey Ballet has long been an integral part of the state’s cultural landscape.  The company performs classical and contemporary works in 9 venues across the state, reaching approximately 150,000 people each year. For more than 30 years, New Jersey Ballet has given hundreds of thousands of public school students their first introduction to dance, and inspired in many a lifelong appreciation of the arts. The company has carried the banner of New Jersey arts to audiences from Bergen to Cape May, and also out of state and internationally. New Jersey Ballet is proud and honored to have been designated a Major Arts Institution by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts for “artistic excellence, substantial programming, and broad public service.”

New Jersey Ballet’s World Dance Day Celebration will be the first such event in New Jersey. The evening is being sponsored in part by The F. M. Kirby Foundation. New Jersey Ballet’s extensive schedule is made possible in part by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and by other generous corporate, foundation, and individual contributions. The Company has been designated a major arts institution by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts for “artistic excellence, substantial programming, and broad public service.”  For more information and a complete performance schedule, please visit New Jersey Ballet’s Web site at www.njballet.org.

New Jersey Ballet
World Dance Day Celebration
Saturday, April 29, 8PM
The Community Theatre, Morristown
Tickets: $40, $30, $20
Call the Box Office at 973-539-8008 or
New Jersey Ballet 973-597-9600
Order online at www.communitytheatrenj.org
Sponsored by the F. M. Kirby Foundation

Message From His Majesty Norodom Sihamoni King of Cambodia

Dancing requires neither pen nor paintbrush. Only one instrument is necessary, the human body. Every motion is imbued with dance.  To move is to dance. Dance exacts the utmost dedication of body, mind, and soul.  Only the truly committed can pursue this demanding path.  Such ascetic discipline molds the character as well as the body, and the rewards of such devotion are a hundred-fold.  No freedom can approach that obtained by the mastery of the spirit over the body. To us Khmers, dance in its most elaborate form is a means to draw us closer to the gods. Thus, dance becomes prayer. It becomes an indispensable ritual for the world to move forward, transcending us to the divine and raising us to supernatural heights. On International Dance Day, may the dancers of the Royal Ballet of Cambodia intercede for us all. As we dance, may we strengthen everywhere the noble practice of tolerance, so crucial to all of humanity in this year of 2006.

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