Joffrey Ballet Concludes Season with SPRING DESIRE, 4/25-5/6

Edwaard Liang was born in Taipei, Taiwan.  He was raised in Marin County, California, and began his ballet training at the age of five at Marin Ballet.  In 1989, Liang entered the School of American Ballet.  He joined New York City Ballet in the spring of 1993, and that same year he was a medal winner at the Prix de Lausanne International Ballet Competition and the Mae L. Wien Award.  He was promoted to Soloist in 1998.  Liang danced with NYCB until 2001, when he joined the Broadway cast of Fosse, performing a leading principle role.  In 2002, Liang became a member of acclaimed Nederlands Dans Theater 1, where he danced, choreographed and staged ballets.  After returning from Holland, Liang returned to NYCB from 2004 to 2007.  Liang has also performed as a Guest Artist with various companies including the Norwegian National Ballet and Complexions.  He currently works in New York City as an independent choreographer.

Jerome Robbins is world renowned for his work as a choreographer of ballets as well as his work as a director and choreographer in theater, movies and television.  His Broadway shows include On the Town, Billion Dollar Baby, High Button Shoes, West Side Story, The King and I, Gypsy, Peter Pan, Miss Liberty, Call Me Madam and Fiddler on the Roof.  Among the more than 60 ballets he created are Fancy Free, Afternoon of a Faun, The Concert, Dances At a Gathering, In the Night, In G Major, Other Dances, Glass Pieces and Ives, Songs, which are in the repertories of New York City Ballet and other major dance companies throughout the world.  His last ballets include A Suite of Dances created for Mikhail Baryshnikov (1994), 2 & 3 Part Inventions (1994), West Side Story Suite (1995) and Brandenburg (1996).  In addition to two Academy Awards for the film West Side Story, Robbins has received four Tony® Awards, five Donaldson Awards, two Emmy® Awards, the Screen Directors' Guild Award and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award.  Robbins was a 1981 Kennedy Center Honors Recipient and was awarded the French Chevalier dans l'Ordre National de la Legion d'Honneur.  He passed away in 1998.

The Joffrey Ballet's "Spring Desire" program runs from Wednesday, April 25 through Sunday, May 6 at the Auditorium Theatre.  The complete performance schedule is as follows:  Wednesday, April 25, 7:30 pm; Friday, April 27, 7:30 pm; Saturday, April 28, 2:00 pm and 7:30 pm; Sunday, April 29, 2:00 pm; Thursday, May 3, 7:30 pm; Friday, May 4, 7:30 pm; Saturday, May 5, 2:00 pm and 7:30 pm; Sunday, May 6, 2:00 pm.

Single tickets range from $25 to $149 and are available for purchase at The Joffrey Ballet's official Box Office located in the lobby of Joffrey Tower, 10 E. Randolph Street, as well as the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University Box Office, all Ticketmaster Ticket Centers, by telephone at (800) 982-2787, or online at www.ticketmaster.com.  

For more information on The Joffrey Ballet and its programs visit joffrey.org.