American Ballet Theatre is finally coming back to St. Louis. The premier ballet company will perform two shows on July 14, Bastille Day, as part of an eight-city national tour titled ABT Across America. The tour marks ABT’s return to live performances after a devastating year for the performing arts. And for St. Louisans, it’s the first opportunity to see ABT’s main company live in more than 25 years.
Founded in 1939, American Ballet Theatre (ABT) is one of the nation’s oldest ballet companies. ABT Across America harkens back to its earliest tours in the 1940s and ’50s, caravanning 20 dancers plus 28 staff and crew in an old-school bus-and-truck tour. They will travel a total of 3,100 miles, toting a custom-built stage that folds out of a semi truck and performing in public parks and parking lots across the U.S.
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“ABT is one of the great arts organizations in the country,” says Tom Ridgely, artistic director of the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, which is hosting the event at Shakespeare Glen in Forest Park. “Having them come to St. Louis was an exciting idea from the very beginning.” The single day of performances is tucked neatly between St. Louis Shakes’ productions of King Lear and Othello.
How did St. Louis come to be one of the eight tour stops? “Two words: Susan Sherman,” says Ridgely. Sherman, a local arts advocate and fundraiser, has previously served on the board of directors for American Ballet Theatre. She heard about the tour from her sister-in-law, who works in ABT’s press office.
“St. Louis was one of the spots ABT wanted to go, because we have a very dense dance audience here,” Sherman says. COVID-19 restrictions slowed the process down and greatly reduced the scope of the tour, which was originally slated for 20-some cities. When a date was finally set, Sherman rallied a group of individual donors. And with a major contribution from the Whitaker Foundation, they raised enough money to secure the two-show engagement in just two weeks.
“We’re billing it as a gift to St. Louis,” Sherman says. “We wanted to provide dance lovers with an enriching experience with a world-class company.” She lauded the diversity of the program as having something for everyone. La Follia Variations is on the bill, created by former New York City Ballet principal Lauren Lovette and set to Francesco Geminiani’s 17th-century violin concerto. Pieces by Jessica Lang and Darrell Grand Moultrie celebrate jazz music. And for ballet diehards, a classical pas de deux is the cherry on top of the evening.
The Shakespeare Festival has dabbled with presenting dance in the past. In 2019, they teamed with the Big Muddy Dance Company, Nine PBS, and Jazz St. Louis for a performance of Duke Ellington’s Such Sweet Thunder.
“Ballet is poetry in motion,” Ridgely says. “There’s something about the heightened language of Shakespeare and the heightened movement of ballet that seem to go really well together. And what a beautiful backdrop it will be.”
Groups of up to six people can reserve pods with designated spots on the grounds of Shakespeare Glen. In addition to the performances, the Center of Creative Arts (COCA) arranged master classes for dancers of all levels. Intermediate and advanced pre-professional classes will be offered at COCA’s studios. Young dancers enrolled at the Boys and Girls Club of Greater St. Louis: North Grand Club will also take a class with an ABT dancer on the day of the shows.
COCA co-artistic director and native St. Louisan Antonio Douthit-Boyd says ABT is an important example for local dancers of color. “ABT has taken the steps to ensure that Black and brown bodies are seen in the company,” says Douthit-Boyd. Douthit-Boyd and his husband, co-artistic director Kirven Douthit-Boyd, are committed to making sure the student body at COCA reflects the diversity of St. Louis. “It’s important for the community to see all different shades of ballerinas on the stage. This is the perfect time to see what ABT is doing and for St. Louis to be a part of it.”
In addition to the value for his dance students, Douthit-Boyd is excited by the benefit ABT brings to St. Louisans at large. He sees the event as part of the city’s renewed enthusiasm for dance as the pandemic subsides. “We want to bring great dance and arts to the Midwest,” he says. “We want to make sure people know dance is alive and well.”
Sherman agrees, and is energized by the positive national attention this event will bring to St. Louis. “It’s going to be a win for the city,” she says. “We are a cultural destination, and we’re really going to shine.”
American Ballet Theatre performs at 5:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on July 14 at Shakespeare Glen. All performances and master classes are free to the public, but reservations are required. For tickets and information about the performances, visit stlshakes.org/abt or call 314-287-3348. Each COCA master class is limited to 14 participants. To register, visit cocastl.org.
