SPRINGFIELD – The St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre will present Swan Lake at the University of Illinois at Springfield's Sangamon Auditorium on Wednesday, January 16, 2008, at 7:30 p.m.
With 56 dancers, full sets, and magnificent costumes, this is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's masterpiece ballet as you've never seen it before. First performed in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1877, Swan Lake has become the world's most famous, and indeed loved, classical ballet.
The St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre was founded in 1966 as the first Theatre of Ballet in Russia, under the management of the People's Artist of Russia, Professor Peter Gusev. Since then, the high traditions of Russian ballet have been passed on to a younger generation of artists, both Russian and foreign.
This production is sponsored by Alterna-Care and presented in cooperation with the Springfield Ballet Company.
Tickets for Swan Lake are $36 or $31 and are on sale now. To order tickets, visit www.SangamonAuditorium.org or call the Sangamon Auditorium Ticket Office at 217/206-6160 or toll free at 800-207-6960. Tickets can also be purchased in person at the Ticket Office, which is open Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
A free pre-show discussion will be held at 6:45 p.m. in the Studio Theatre on the lower level of the Public Affairs Center. The discussion will be hosted by Julie Guttas, artistic director of the Springfield Ballet Company, and Yuri Petukhov, artistic director of the St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre.
Sangamon Auditorium is located at the University of Illinois at Springfield and hosts more than 120 performances annually. Also home to the Illinois Symphony Orchestra and Springfield Ballet Company, it is the only auditorium of its kind and size in the Springfield area, with a seating capacity of 2,018. Sangamon Auditorium continues to fulfill its mission of presenting and supporting varied cultural and educational professional arts activities to audiences in Springfield, Sangamon County, and the surrounding areas. The auditorium administrative offices can be reached at (217) 206-6150 or by e-mail at onstage@uis.edu.
