Limelight · Ballet

Kings of the Dance

Kings of the Dance is not a single ballet but a mixed-repertory gala evening — described in the source as a "four night dance extravaganza" — that premiered February 23, 2006 at New York City Center, produced by Ardani Artists and Segerstrom Center for the Arts under producer Sergei Danilian. It assembled a roster of leading male ballet stars, including Angel Corella, Johan Kobborg, Ethan Stiefel and Nikolay Tsiskaridze, each performing a separate work or solo drawn from different choreographers and different scores, rather than dancing a single choreographed narrative.

What is danced

The program is a collage of six named pieces, each with its own choreographer, composer, and lead dancer, and the article gives no description of steps, holds, or technique for any of them — only titles, credits, and music. The Lesson (La Leçon), made by Flemming Flindt in 1963 to music by Georges Delerue, is a pre-existing dramatic narrative ballet placed on the bill. FOR 4 (pièce d'occasion), a 2006 Christopher Wheeldon work made for this program to Schubert's Death and the Maiden, is listed as a new commission rather than a revival. Four further items are billed as 'New York premiere solos': an Afternoon of a Faun (Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune) staged by Tim Rushton on Johan Kobborg to Debussy; Wavemaker, made by Nils Christe on Ethan Stiefel to a John Adams score; We Got It Good, made by Stanton Welch on Angel Corella to music by Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington; and a Carmen solo by Roland Petit to Bizet, danced by Nikolay Tsiskaridze.

Context

The article does not describe the broader dance landscape of 2006, but the structure it does document — a touring, star-driven gala assembling major male principals from different companies onto one bill, each performing a signature or newly built solo — matches the commercial 'ballet superstar' gala format that grew prominent in the 2000s international touring circuit. Kings of the Dance combined archival repertory (Flindt's 1963 Lesson, Petit's Carmen) with brand-new commissions (Wheeldon's FOR 4), a mixing of eras that is itself part of the format's identity.

Staging history

According to the article, Sergei Danilian went on to produce four more editions of Kings of the Dance with different dancer line-ups, including David Hallberg, Marcelo Gomes, Guillaume Côté, Ivan Vasiliev, Denis Matvienko, Leonid Sarafanov, Jose Manuel Carreño, Joaquin De Luz and Roberto Bolle. The project toured to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Rostov-on-Don, Krasnodar and Ufa in Russia, to Kyiv and Odesa in Ukraine, to Riga, Tallinn, Buenos Aires, London, Los Angeles, and back to New York multiple times.

How to watch it

Because the evening is an anthology, attend to it piece by piece rather than as a through-line: note which works are archival stagings restaged onto a new dancer (The Lesson, Afternoon of a Faun, Carmen) versus which were built fresh for this bill (FOR 4, Wavemaker, We Got It Good). Each solo is effectively a showcase vehicle tailored to display a specific principal's technique against a chosen score, so the interest lies in the contrast between pieces rather than in any single unifying vocabulary.

Structure

  1. The Lesson (La Leçon)
    A 1963 Flemming Flindt narrative ballet to Georges Delerue's music, included on the bill.
  2. FOR 4 (pièce d'occasion)
    A 2006 Christopher Wheeldon piece made for this program, danced to Schubert's Death and the Maiden.
  3. Afternoon of a Faun (Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune)
    A New York premiere solo staged by Tim Rushton on Johan Kobborg to Debussy's score.
  4. Wavemaker
    A New York premiere solo made by Nils Christe on Ethan Stiefel to music by John Adams.
  5. We Got It Good
    A New York premiere solo made by Stanton Welch on Angel Corella to music by Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington.
  6. Carmen
    A Roland Petit solo to Bizet's Carmen music, danced by Nikolay Tsiskaridze.

Structure read from an encyclopaedia article, not from a libretto or score we hold. Confirm against a programme before treating the numbering as authoritative.

Credits

  • composer: Duke Ellington

Questions

Who choreographed Kings of the Dance?
There is no single choreographer. The 2006 program combined works by Flemming Flindt, Christopher Wheeldon, Tim Rushton, Nils Christe, Stanton Welch and Roland Petit, each contributing one piece or solo.
What music is used in Kings of the Dance?
The bill used several different scores: Georges Delerue for The Lesson, Schubert's Death and the Maiden for FOR 4, Debussy for the Afternoon of a Faun solo, John Adams for Wavemaker, Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington for We Got It Good, and Bizet for the Carmen solo.
Where and when did Kings of the Dance premiere?
The article states it premiered February 23, 2006 at New York City Center, produced by Ardani Artists and Segerstrom Center for the Arts under producer Sergei Danilian.
Was Kings of the Dance performed again after 2006?
Yes. Sergei Danilian produced four further editions with different rosters of male principals, touring to cities across Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, plus Buenos Aires, London, Los Angeles and New York.
This entry was written from “Kings of the Dance” on English Wikipedia (revision 1318148584), used under CC BY-SA 4.0. The link points at the exact revision this text was written from, so it shows the words we actually used rather than whatever the article says today. Credits and premiere data come from Wikidata (CC0), cited per field.
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