DALLAS (March 30, 2010) – On Saturday, April 3, TITAS, in association with the AT&T Performing Arts Center, will present its 16th annual Command Performance at 7 p.m. at the Music Hall at Fair Park. The 2010 Command Performance features ten dance stars representing renowned dance companies American Ballet Theatre, Morphoses, San Francisco Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the Dutch National Ballet. These extraordinary dancers will perform a blend of Pas de Deux and contemporary works.

Over the course of two acts, Command Performance includes 11 pieces: White Swan Pas de Deux, performed by Paloma Herrera and Ethan Stiefel (American Ballet Theatre); Apollo Pas de Deux, performed by Gillian Murphy and David Hallberg (American Ballet Theatre); Alonzo King’s Splash, featuring Drew Jacoby and Rubinald Pronk (Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company and Dutch National Ballet); Carmen Habanera, choreographed and performed by Yuan Yuan Tan (San Francisco Ballet); Alvin Ailey’s A Song for You, performed by Clifton Brown (Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater); an excerpt from Twyla Tharpe’s Sinatra Suite, performed by Sarah Lane and José Manuel Carreño (American Ballet Theatre); Christopher Wheeldon’s Rhapsody Fantaisie, performed by Drew Jacoby and Rubinald Pronk; Giselle Pas de Deux, performed by Sarah Lane and José Manuel Carreño; Black Swan Pas de Deux, performed by Gillian Murphy and David Hallberg; and Don Quixote Pas de Deux, performed by Paloma Herrera and Ethan Stiefel.

The evening will also feature the world premiere of Among the Stars, a new work choreographed by Jessica Lang and performed by Yuan Yuan Tan and Clifton Brown. This piece was made possible by a commission from TITAS, in association with Charles Santos and with support from the Strelizia Foundation.

Tickets for the April 3rd performance range from $15 to $180 and can be purchased via phone at 214.880.0202, in person at the AT&T Performing Arts Center Box Office at the Winspear Opera House, 2403 Flora Street (Monday through Saturday, 10 am – 6 pm; Sunday 11 am – 4 pm), or online at www.attpac.org. For information on sponsor tickets, which include performance tickets to the La Fete du Ballet gala dinner with the artists, please contact TITAS directly at 214.528.6112.

Command Performance sponsors include Heritage Auction Galleries, Mid-America Arts Alliance, Texas Commission on the Arts, City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs, American Airlines, National Endowment for the Arts, Lexus, Aloft Hotel, Neiman Marcus and the Streliza Foundation.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Paloma Herrera was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and began her training at the age of seven, and graduated with the highest honors from the Institute of Arts at the Colon Theater. At 14, Paloma was a finalist at the XIV Varna International Ballet Competition, Bulgaria. In 1991, she moved to New York and continued her studies at the School of American Ballet, where she was given the lead in Balanchine´s Raymonda Variation.  After six months, she joined American Ballet Theatre.  She was promoted to Soloist two years later.  In l995, age 19, she became the youngest Principal Dancer in ABT history. Roles include: Don Quixote, Romeo and Juliet, La Bayadère, Swan Lake, Le Corsaire, Coppelia, Giselle, and Sylvia. Contemporary ballets: Apollo, The Prodigal Son, Fancy Free and Without Words. Lead roles have been created for her by Twyla Tharp, Nacho Duato and James Kudelka, and she has worked with Jiri Kylian and William Forsythe. Guest Artist appearances include, among others, New York City Ballet, Kirov Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, Tokyo Ballet and National Ballet of Cuba. Paloma was selected as one of 30 Artists whom The New York Times critics chose “as among those most likely to change the culture for the next 30 years.”  She won the International Prize Gino Tani, in Rome, Italy. In 1999, Dance Magazine Reader Survey chose Paloma as one of “The Top Ten Dancers of the Twentieth Century.” She was chosen as “Leader of the Millennium” by TIME and CNN, and won the Konex Platinum Prize, as the “Ballerina of the Decade 1989-1999; “the Maria Ruanova Award (2000) and Clarin Prize (2003), in Argentina.  She was nominated for the Benois Prize in Moscow and the Nuinsky Award from The Monaco Dance Forum (2000).  In 2001 she received the New York Immigrant Achievement Award as “outstanding immigrant whose contributions to America have greatly enriched our Nation.”  In 2008 she received the Gold Medal on the Arts from The Kennedy Center, in Buenos Aires.

Ethan Stiefel, born in Pennsylvania, is a Principal Dancer with American Ballet Theatre and Dean of The School of Dance at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Ethan began his dance studies in Madison, Wisconsin. He was awarded a full scholarship at the School of American Ballet, where he studied with Stanley Williams. He also studied under Mikhail Baryshnikov at ABT's School of Classical Ballet. At 16, Ethan joined the New York City Ballet, and quickly rose to Principal Dancer. He was also a Principal Dancer with Zürich Ballet and joined ABT in 1997. Repertoire includes leading roles in nearly all of the full-length classical ballets, works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Michel Fokine, William Forsythe, Lar Lubovitch, Nils Christe, Paul Taylor, Mark Morris, Jiri Kylian, August Bournonville, Bob Fosse, Antony Tudor, Christopher Wheeldon, Eugene Loring, Peter Martins, Nacho Duato, Frederick Ashton and Twyla Tharp. Guest appearances include London’s Royal Ballet, Kirov Ballet, Australian Ballet, Zürich Ballet, Munich Ballet, Hamburg Ballet, National Ballet of Canada and Teatro Colon. He starred in the feature film Center Stage, and returned to play the role of Cooper Nielsen in Center Stage 2-Turn It Up. Ethan’s television and video credits include The Dream, Le Corsaire, Die Fledermaus and the documentary, Born to be Wild. He has been a guest teacher for the American Ballet Theatre II, American Ballet Theatre's Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, The National Ballet of Canada and The Royal Ballet School. Ethan recently choreographed a new version of The Nutcracker for UNCSA. In 1999, His Royal Highness Crown Prince Albert of Monaco presented Ethan with the Statue Award of the Princess Grace Foundation.  He received the prestigious Dance Magazine Award in 2008, was a juror for the Prix de Lausanne in 2001 and served on the selection committee for the 2010 International Ballet Competition held in Jackson, Mississippi.

Yuan Yuan Tan, born in Shanghai, China, trained at Shanghai Dancing School and Stuttgart’s John Cranko School. She joined San Francisco Ballet as a soloist in 1995 and became a principal dancer in 1997. She has danced lead female roles in Tomasson’s Giselle, Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, Nutcracker; Tomasson/Possokhov’s Don Quixote; Morris’ Sylvia; and Lubovitch’s Othello. She created roles in Tomasson’s The Fifth Season, Chi-Lin, Silver Ladders, and 7 for Eight; Possokhov’s Magrittomania, Damned, and Study in Motion; Wheeldon’s Continuum and Quaternary; and Welch’s Tu Tu. Her repertory includes Ashton’s Thaïs Pas de Deux; Balanchine’s Symphony in C, Theme and Variations, Concerto Barocco, Prodigal Son, and Apollo; Duato’s Without Words; Robbins’ In the Night, Dances at a Gathering, and Dybbuk; and Makarova’s Paquita. Tan received a gold medal and the Nijinsky Award at the 1st Japan International Ballet and Modern Dance Competition (1993) and in the 5th International Ballet Competition in Paris (1992). A frequent guest artist, Ms. Tan headlined “Yuan Yuan Tan and Eight Ballet Stars,” a gala in Nara, Japan (2003), and “Yuan Yuan Tan and Friends” Gala in Shanghai in 2000. Additional honors include an invitation to the White House in 1999 and The Bud magazine City of Heart award in Shanghai in December 2007. She was featured in Vogue magazine in April 2003 and was named a “Hero of Asia” in the Asian edition of Time in October 2004. Recent guest appearances include a 2006 charity concert in Shanghai and a performance of the full-length ballet Magpie Bridge a benefit promoting harmony between China and Japan.

Clifton Brown (Goodyear, AZ) trained at various schools including Take 5 Dance Academy, Ballet Arizona, New School for the Arts and The Ailey School, where he was a student in the Ailey/Fordham B.F.A. Program in Dance. Mr. Brown is a recipient of a Donna Wood Foundation Award, a Level 1 ARTS award given by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, and was a 2005 nominee in the U.K. for a Critics Circle National Dance Award for best male dancer. In 2007, Mr. Brown received a Bessie award in recognition of his work with the Ailey company. He has performed with Earl Mosley’s Diversity of Dance and as a guest artist with the Miami City Ballet. Mr. Brown joined the Alivin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1999.

Sarah Lane, born in San Francisco, California, began her dance training in Memphis, Tennessee at the Memphis Classical Ballet. When her family moved to Rochester, New York, she continued instruction at the Draper Center for Dance Education. At 16, she received a full scholarship to the Boston Ballet’s Summer Program. In 2000 and 2001, she was awarded first place and the Capezio Class Excellence Award at the North American Ballet Festival. Sarah was the Silver Medalist, the highest medal in the Junior Division, at the Jackson International Ballet Competition (2002). During the competition, she flew to Washington, D.C. to perform at the Kennedy Center as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts. That same year, she won the Bronze Medal at the Youth America Grand Prix Competition. Sarah joined American Ballet Theatre as an apprentice in 2003 and became a member of the Company’s corps de ballet in 2004 promoted to Soloist in 2007. Her roles with the Company include a Shade in La Bayadère, Blossom in Cinderella, Amour and a flower girl in Don Quixote, Anne in Christopher Wheeldon's VIII, the Flames of Paris pas de deux, the Two of Diamonds in Jeu de Cartes, the Chinese Dance in The Nutcracker, the Youngest Sister in Pillar of Fire, one of Juliet’s friends in Romeo and Juliet, Sinatra Suite, Princess Aurora, Princess Florine and the Fairies of Charity and Joy in The Sleeping Beauty, the Polish Princess and a Little Swan in Swan Lake, a Goat in Sylvia, Theme and Variations and roles in Désir, Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes, Glow – Stop, In The Upper Room, Kaleidoscope, and Seven Sonatas. Sarah was a recipient of a 2008 Leonore Annenberg Fellowship in the Arts, and was a 2007 Princess Grace Award recipient.

José Manuel Carreño was born in Cuba, where he received his training at the Provincial School of Ballet and the National Ballet School. He won the Gold Medal at the New York International Ballet Competition in 1987 and the Grand Prix at the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi in 1990. He has appeared extensively in Europe, Latin America and the United States. José joined English National Ballet in 1990 and in 1993 joined The Royal Ballet as a Principal Dancer. José joined American Ballet Theatre as a Principal Dancer in 1995. His repertoire includes the Bluebird in The Sleeping Beauty, Oberon and Puck in The Dream, the Prince and the Gopak in The Nutcracker, Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew, Apollo, Ballet Imperial, Solor in La Bayadère, Franz in Coppélia, Conrad, Ali the Slave and Lankendem in Le Corsaire, Basilio in Don Quixote, the third sailor in Fancy Free, Albrecht in Giselle, Fate in HereAfter, Des Grieux in Manon, Danilo in The Merry Widow, the Cavalier in The Nutcracker, the pas de deux Diana and Acteon, Esmeralda, Grand Pas Classique, Other Dances and Sinatra Suite, Sergei in On the Dnieper, the Man From the House Opposite in Pillar of Fire, the Warrior Chieftain in the Polovtsian Dances, the Son in Prodigal Son, the leading male role in Push Comes to Shove, Jean de Brienne in Raymonda, Romeo and Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, Prince Désiré in The Sleeping Beauty, Misgir in The Snow Maiden, Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake, the second movement in Symphony in C, the Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Theme and Variations, the first and second variations in Variations for Four, Without Words, and roles in Clear, Études, Overgrown Path, Petite Mort and Rabbit ad Rogue. He created a leading role in Within You Without You: A Tribute to George Harrison and Pièce d'Occasion with Herbie Hancock.

Gillian Murphy was raised in Florence, SC and received her high school education and advanced dance training at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. As a teenager, Gillian was awarded the Prix de Lausanne Espoir, and she joined American Ballet Theatre in 1996. After being honored with the Princess Grace Foundation Award, Gillian was promoted to Soloist in 1999 and to Principal Dancer in 2002. Gillian's repertoire includes leading roles in Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Manon, La Fille Mal Gardee, Sylvia, Cinderella, Le Corsaire, Giselle, Raymonda, La Bayadere, Romeo and Juliet, Othello and Sleeping Beauty. She starred as Odette/Odile in ABT’s television production of Swan Lake, seen throughout the world and available on DVD. Her other television credits include ABT’s Le Corsaire; Washington Opera’s Die Fledermaus; The Balanchine Foundation’s video of Stars and Stripes and Donizetti Variations and the feature film Center Stage. Gillian has been prominently featured in ABT's shorter works by George Balanchine, Twyla Tharp, Jerome Robbins, Jiri Kylian, Antony Tudor, William Forsythe, Martha Graham, Lar Lubovitch, Paul Taylor, Frederick Ashton and Agnes de Mille. She appeared in world premieres by Benjamin Millepied, Stanton Welch, Jorma Elo, Peter Quanz, Natalie Weir, John Neumeier, Robert Hill, and Twyla Tharp. Gillian has appeared as a guest artist throughout the United States and the world, dancing in Germany, Italy, Hungary, Spain, Greece, Canada, Mexico, Chile, China and Japan. In 2008, she made her debut with the Kirov Ballet, and recently guested as a ballerina in La Gioconda with the Metropolitan Opera. She is a proud charter member of the concert ensemble, Stiefel and Stars and participated as both a mentoring dancer and assistant to the director for five summers of an exclusive training program, Stiefel and Students, at a special facility on Martha's Vineyard. For three summers, Gillian also directed a summer training program for dancers aged 12 to 14, Dreamcatchers, and she enjoys coaching young dance students in her spare time.

David Hallberg, a Principal Dancer of American Ballet Theatre, has danced all the leading roles in the classical repertoire including Swan Lake, Giselle, Don Quixote, La Bayadere, Le Corsaire, The Nutcracker, Cinderella, La Sylphide, Raymonda, Fredrick Ashton’s' Sylvia and Kenneth MacMilllan’s Romeo and Juliet.  He dances a large repertoire of shorter works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Kurt Jooss, Antony Tudor, Mark Morris, Twyla Tharp, Lar Lubovitch, Jiri Kylian, Michel Fokine, Frederick Ashton and William Forsythe. He has created roles in Twyla Tharp’s Rabbit and Rogue and Alexei Ratmansky's, On The Dnieper and Seven Sonatas. Guest engagements include James in La Sylphide in a new production by Johan Kobborg in Tokyo. Mr. Hallberg has also appeared with the Royal Swedish Ballet, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Kiev Ballet, the Washington Ballet to name a few. Mr. Hallberg has been a member of the ensemble, Kings Of The Dance, performing in Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Los Angeles and New York. His repertoire included Frederick Ashton's Dance of the Blessed Spirits, which was originally created on Sir Anthony Dowell, who staged the ballet on Mr. Hallberg especially for this tour. Mr. Hallberg is the first dancer after Sir Anthony to perform this work.  Mr. Hallberg was a recipient of the Princess Grace Fellowship and the Chris Hellman Dance Award for 2002-2003 and received a nomination from the Benois de la Danse Award in 2006 and in 2010. Born in South Dakota, Mr. Hallberg began his formal ballet training at 13 with Kee Juan Han at the Arizona Ballet School. In 1999 he attended the Paris Opera Ballet School. Mr. Hallberg attended American Ballet Theatre’s New York Summer Intensive in 1999 and 2000 and was an ABT National Training Scholar for both of those years. Mr. Hallberg joined ABT II in September 2000 and then American Ballet Theatre as a member of the corps de ballet in April 2001; was promoted to Soloist in January 2004 and Principal in May 2005.

Drew Jacoby, born in Boise Idaho, was hailed "guest dance goddess" by Ballet-Dance Magazine. She went on to study at School of American Ballet, San Francisco Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet. She began her professional career at age 17 in San Francisco with Lines Ballet, where she was a principal dancer and had numerous original works created on her by Alonzo King. In 2005 she was invited on Sylvie Guillem's Japan tour, where she performed principal roles alongside dancers from the Royal Ballet and Paris Opera Ballet. She won a 2005 Princess Grace Award and in 2006 was voted Dance Magazine's "It Girl." In 2007, she moved to New York City to begin her freelance career marketing herself independently from a ballet company. She has performed works and been created on by acclaimed choreographers including, George Balanchine, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, William Forsythe, Christopher Wheeldon, Lar Lubovitch, Dwight Rhoden, Mia Michaels, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and Lightfoot Leon. In 2008 she co-founded her independent partnership, "Jacoby & Pronk," with former Dutch National Ballet star Rubinald Pronk. The duo was featured on the August 2009 cover of Dance Magazine, and have received rave reviews in many leading dance publications. They made a collection of films together with fine art photographer Alvin Booth, entitled "Les Beau est Toujours Bizarre," which premiered at American Dance Festival's 2009 Dance on Camera Film Festival. Jacoby and Pronk have guested with Dutch National Ballet and Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company, as well as engaging in their own projects all over the world. In July 2010 they will have performances at the prestigious Jacob's Pillow Festival with guest dancers from Netherlands Dance Theatre and American Ballet Theatre. Drew currently resides in New York City, but travels extensively to perform at galas, festivals, and to appear as a guest artist with several leading companies. She is in the midst of launching a media website called DancePulp which will feature HD video interviews of the world's top dance industry professionals.

Rubinald Rofino Pronk was born and raised in The Hague, Netherlands. He received his training at the Royal Conservatory of Dance and joined the Dutch National Ballet at 16, where he danced as a soloist and performed works by several leading choreographers such as William Forsythe,  Jiri Kylian , George Balanchine, Martha Graham, Frederic Ashton, Mia Michaels , Paul Lightfoot & Sol Leon, to name a few.  In 2006, he joined Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson’s Complexions Contemporary Ballet in New York City, where he toured extensively and performed works by Dwight Rhoden and Ulysses Dove. His awards include the prestigious Alexandre Radius Prize for the best dancer of Holland and two nominations for the VSCD “Silver Swan” award for best performance of the year. Elsevier Magazine named him “Holland’s sexiest ballet dancer ever.”  Rubi is now part of Jacoby & Pronk  and also  guest artist with Dutch National Ballet and other companies.

Jessica Lang (Commissioned Choreographer) has created and restaged her choreography on companies including Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Colorado Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Richmond Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Washington Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, ABT II, Ailey II, Hubbard Street 2, Ballet de Monterey, and New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute, among others.  Lang has choreographed in universities including The Juilliard School, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, The Ailey School/Fordham BFA Program among many others and is on the faculty at the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at American Ballet Theatre.  She has received unique commissions from the Dallas Museum of Art for its Henri Matisse exhibition as well as The Juilliard School for its Centennial Celebration Concert.  In 2008 Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts presented An Evening of Works by Jessica Lang performed by Richmond Ballet marking her triple bill premiere in NYC.  Currently, ABT Principals Irina Dvorovenko and Maxim Beloserkovsky are performing her work Splendid Isolation III in ballet galas around the world including for ABT’s opening night gala at the Metropolitan Opera House in 2008.  Commercially, Lang has choreographed for BMW International Industrials as well as for Cirque du Soleil when she served as the evaluator for their NYC auditions.  She has also received numerous grants from the NEA in sole support of her creations as well as a Choo San Goh Award. In the spring of 2010 Lang will premiere her work Crossed for Joffrey Ballet and Solo in Nine Parts for Kansas City Ballet, and her critically acclaimed work To Familiar Spaces in Dream will be performed at the Joyce Theater in NYC.  Lang’s choreography will also be featured in the upcoming music video, Clap Your Hands, for Australian pop singer, Sia. Lang is a graduate of The Juilliard School and a former member of Twyla Tharp’s company, THARP!  She lives in New York City. www.jesslang.com

About TITAS:
TITAS was co-founded by Tom Adams and Gene Leggett in 1982 to provide opportunities for North Texas communities to experience the best American and international music, dance and performance art through performances, cultural presentations and educational and community outreach activities. TITAS has presented more than 380 performances and is committed to programming that brings new discoveries to audiences, including Portugal’s Fado superstar Mariza and New York’s East Village Opera Company, as well as more established artists such as Steve Reich, Monterey Jazz Festival 50th Anniversary Tour, Dianne Reeves and American Ballet Theatre. As a result of the tremendous diversity that TITAS presents on stage, the TITAS audiences are highly diverse both ethnically and demographically. TITAS is currently under of the leadership of executive director Charles Santos. For more information, visit www.titas.org.

About the AT&T Performing Arts Center:

The AT&T Performing Arts Center, a new multi-venue Center for music, opera, theatre and dance will open in October 2009, completing the 25-year vision of the Dallas Arts District. The Center will provide multi-state-of-the-art facilities woven together by an urban park covering more than ten acres to create a dynamic cultural destination that will be unparalleled in the world. The Center will feature the following:

• The Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, designed in a modern horseshoe configuration, will seat 2,200 (with capacity up to 2,300), designed by Foster + Partners.
• The Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre will serve as a gateway to the Dallas Arts District from the downtown Dallas business center and will seat 600, designed by REX/OMA, Joshua Prince-Ramus (partner in charge) and Rem Koolhaas.
• The completely new Annette Strauss Artist Square will be the Center’s outdoor entertainment venue, designed by Foster + Partners.
• The City Performance Hall will provide main stage production space for many of Dallas’ smaller performing arts organizations, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.
• The Elaine D. and Charles A. Sammons Park will unify the venues within a lush urban oasis and will create a dynamic cultural destination in downtown Dallas, designed by Michel Desvigne.
• Two underground parking areas that will accommodate more than 850 vehicles.

The Dallas Fort Worth Lexus Dealer Association is the title sponsor of the Center’s Lexus Broadway Series, the official vehicle of the Center and its resident companies, the official valet sponsor and the naming rights holder for the Center’s two underground parking areas. More information on the AT&T Performing Arts Center is available at www.attpac.org.

Contact:

Maria May
AT&T Performing Arts Center
214.978.2834
maria.may@attpac.org