Sir Frederick Ashton, the founding choreographer of Britain’s Royal Ballet, was one of the most beloved and prolific ballet choreographers in recent history. Despite his demise in 1988, his legacy lives on as we celebrate his 100th birthday with an all-Ashton program in the spring of 2004.
The comic farce of “A Wedding Bouquet,” based on a written work of Gertrude Stein, exposes the absurdity found in a provincial French wedding. In contrast, the ice-skating inspired charm and pyrotechnics of “Les Patineurs” and the cool beauty of “Monotones I&II” display the excellence of the Joffrey dancers in non-narrative ballets. “Monotones I&II” has been described as a “supreme example of the neoclassical style… a mystic poem to which the dance lover will wish to return again and again.”
