American Repertory Ballet Presents AN EVENING OF PREMIERES Tonight, 10/6

American Repertory Ballet will be performing a program of company premieres – An Evening of Premieres – tonight, October 6, 2012 at 8:00pm. The program will feature a new work by Resident Choreographer Mary Barton, Ann Marie DeAngelo's Blackberry Winter, and a major revival of Gerald Arpino's Viva Vivaldi.

Applauded for its gutsy revival of Gerald Arpino's Confetti during the 2011-2012 Season, ARB's premiere of Viva Vivaldi promises to be performed with equal gusto. Viva Vivaldi is a quick-footed ballet full of bravura and unique charm set to Antonio Vivaldi's Concerto in D for Violin, Strings and Cembalo.

ARB Resident Choreographer Mary Barton takes from her years as a Joffrey Ballet dancer a reverence for classical line along with more contemporary aesthetics, creating original neoclassical works through the lens of her vibrant choreographic imagination. Her new work for An Evening of Premieres promises to incorporate her uniquely narrative choreographic voice and acute sense of musicality.

Fellow Joffrey Ballet alum Ann Marie De Angelo's work Blackberry Winter was originally created in 1999 for a choreography workshop for Ballet Pacifica, now The National Choreography Initiative. The music for Blackberry Winter, composed by Conni Ellisor, is the only classical concerto written for the mountain dulcimer. It mixes folk melodies with a classical chamber orchestrA. Ellisor had classical training at Julliard, and over 15 years in the commercial music business. Her work has graced virtually all genres of contemporary American music.

The colloquialism "blackberry winter" describes a late spring frost necessary for a rich blackberry harvest. "A blackberry winter is unexpected yet fruitful" De Angelo explains. "So, as a metaphor for change, it tells us that with a little faith, we can expect a richer harvest."

"Cultivating a body of work that equally prioritizes female and male voices is paramount to ARB and vital to the field," says ARB Managing Director Christine Chen. "It has been a pleasure for us to be able to support and display the work of strong female choreographers such as Ann Marie DeAngelo, with whom we worked with last year on the Career Transition for Dancers' Gala, in addition to our own Resident Choreographer Mary Barton.

"By presenting major revivals of Gerald Arpino's often under-appreciated but wonderfully exhilarating work," she continues, "ARB demonstrates its unique voice in the world of dance, and in many ways, takes up the torch of Robert Joffrey and Arpino's vision - preserving their legacy here on the east coast after the Joffrey Ballet relocated to Chicago.

"Under Artistic Director Douglas Martin, American Repertory Ballet has been building a strong body of classically-based, fresh, American choreography through the kind of commissions and revivals which will be on full display at An Evening of Premieres."