Connecticut’s professional ballet company returns to Elim Park with Ballet Under the Stars featuring classical and contemporary works performed by the company’s distinguished soloists.
Narrated by Artistic Director Brett Raphael, the program will include classical duets from ‘Swan Lake’ and ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and contemporary ballets premiered in the 2024-2025 season.
Connecticut Ballet was founded in 1981 by choreographers Brett Raphael and Luk de Layress. Its official debut took place (under the company’s former title, Ballet Today) at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. In her New York Times review, Anna Kisselgoff called it ‘a very promising troupe.’ The company became a resident performing company at Stamford Center for the Arts in 1986. In 2005, the company expanded performances to Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts and now calls Hartford its home base. In 2008, the company initiated a popular annual BALLET UNDER THE STARS series, providing free performances across the state. Striving for continuous artistic growth, Artistic Director Brett Raphael has made the commissioning of new works by today’s choreographers a hallmark of the company’s repertoire alongside stagings of the great story ballets. Now numbering 100+ works, the repertoire spans the gamut from masterworks by Bob Fosse to George Balanchine to commissioned works from Darrell Grand-Moultrie to Lila York and Joseph Locarro. The company has performed at the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival, New York’s Riverside Dance Festival, Cape Cod Performing Arts Festival, Harbourfront Festival in Toronto, Grand Central Station in New York City, Goat Island Dance Festival in Newport, Rhode Island, and many other venues. The list of guest artists who have appeared with the company reads like an encyclopedia of dance luminaries.
