About the Company

The Suzanne Farrell Ballet, now a full-fledged company produced by the Kennedy Center, made its debut during the Kennedy Center's Balanchine Celebration performing Divertimento No. 15 in the fall of 1999. "Its (The Suzanne Farrell Ballet) rendition of Divertimento No. 15 was rapt, lyric, gloriously unified in tone and filled with moments in which dancers were at thrilling risk, reaching beyond their capabilities; they're certain to become more than they or we dreamed they might be," raved Tobi Tobias of New York Magazine. The company again performed in early 2001 at Seven Days of Opening Nights at Florida State University, where, at the beginning of the 2000 academic year, Ms. Farre7ll accepted a tenured professorship in the Dance Department. That exclusive engagement included the company premiere of Balanchine's Variations for Orchestra.

Prior to a northeast tour, The Suzanne Farrell Ballet opened the Kennedy Center's ballet season in the fall of 2001 with nearly two weeks of performances in the Eisenhower Theater - featuring no less than six company premieres. The company was again seen at the Kennedy Center in the fall of 2002, performing, among other works, company premieres of Balanchine's Chaconne, Raymonda Variations, Who Cares? and Canadian choreographer Anthony Morgan's A Farewell to Music.

Following an extensive Fall 2003 U.S. tour that, for the first time, took them to the West Coast, the company opened the Kennedy Center's 2003-2004 ballet season with a full week of performances in the Eisenhower Theater. The week included performances of Mozartiana, Serenade, Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux and "Tempo di Valse" from George Balanchine's The Nutcracker as part of the 2003 Kennedy Center Tchaikovsky Festival, plus The Balanchine Couple. In June 2005 the company collaborated with The National Ballet of Canada to present the first staging of Balanchine's Don Quixote in more than 25 years. The evening-length ballet was created by George Balanchine specifically for Ms. Farrell.

The Suzanne Farrell Ballet kicked off the 2005-2006 ballet season at the Kennedy Center with a stellar all Balanchine program featuring Duo Concertant, La Source, La Valse and the "Contrapuntal Blues pas de deux" from Clarinade. In the summer of 2006 the company performed at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival as well as at the Edinburgh International Festival with the European premiere of Balanchine's Don Quixote.

The company returns to the Kennedy Center Opera House in June 2007 with two programs, which include Balanchine's Scotch Symphony (Mendelssohn), Slaughter on Tenth Avenue (Rodgers, orch. Kay), and Mozartiana (Tchaikovsky), and Béjart's Scène d'amour from Romeo and Juliet (Berlioz) - and the Washington, D.C. premieres of two newly restaged works which have not been seen in forty years: Balanchine's Divertimento Brillante (Glinka) and the adagiofrom Concierto de Mozart (Balanchine).