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Metropolitan Repertory Ballet

Wednesday, June 4, 2003

Once again The Tribeca Performing Arts Center, which recently hosted the “Tribeca Film Festival”, is a major sponsor of the ballet. The program was divided into two acts. During the first act the Leonid Farber School of classical ballet showcased its advanced and pre-professional students. Excerpts from the ballet “La Bayadere” and original pieces of classically based

choreography were presented. For the entire first act, a CD was used. Leonid Farber was a principal dancer, choreographer and company director in Kiev and in Russia. He now is the director and proprietor of two large ballet academies in Brooklyn and Staten Island. Leonid and Leonora Volpe collaborated on many productions as well as a new academy for the arts in Manhattan. Their June gala was their starting point.

The second act consisted of The Metropolitan Repertory Ballet presenting a tribute to “Sinatra and Swing”. The ballet was a combination of classical ballet with ballroom dancing (en pointe) to the music of some of the greatest American composers, such as Glen Miller, Cole Porter and Hoagy Carmichael. His concept for this piece was to have the stage resemble a café or ballroom, as depicted in many of the films of the “Swing Era”.

To achieve this highly stylized look, the orchestra performed on stage with the dance. Six main dancers were involved. The Farber School provided a corps de ballet for “Stardust”. Their singer, Alex Donner, has just performed weekly this past fall at the prestigious Carlyle Hotel Lounge and received excellent reviews from several major publications including the New York Times. Celebrities attended included Janet Villella (former principal dancer with the New York City Ballet), among others.

I was very impressed with the degree of synchronicity to which the ballerinas, from the youngest to the oldest, performed. It was obvious that they were trained by a master ballet dancer. The costumes were gorgeous, and lit up the stage with a dazzling array of colors. The music was most enjoyable—the young musician-to-be performed superbly. One of my favorites was fifteen-year-old soprano who sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”. I thought she truly has the seed of a great performer. The “descending height” boys also performed wonderfully (they kind of reminded me of one of those singing group from the 50’s-60-s), as did Mr. Charles Ursitti, who is the producer.

In the second part, the “big” band played extraordinarily beautifully, and reminded me of those good old days back in the thirties (too bad I wasn’t born until the mid sixties)—but I learned enough about those days from a variety of different sources. I found the stage layout of that of a café to be most creative, and very nostalgic. The combination of ballet and ballroom dancing to thirties big band music I found to be one of the most clever creations in the arts today. Bravo!!

I would especially like to acknowledge some of the performers, starting with Leonora Volpe, who’s dance performance exhibited a most magnificent spectacle of creativity and grace. Leonid Farber, who’s ballet school devoted an enormous commitment to these kids in order to get them where they are today (and, by the way, Mr. Farber informed me that there’s very little money to be made in this industry—teaching ballet is done “for the passion of it”). Ms. Volpe’s performing partner, and Principal Dancer, Mr. Irek Muchalski, Richard Owen (the Conductor of the big band), Charles Ursitti, the producer, who superbly demonstrated different talents (singing, and restaurant hosting, for example), and all of the other performers/entertainers, who, no-doubt, devoted and enormous amount of time and effort in their preparation for the performance.

I had the pleasure of interviewing some of the people from the event. I first spoke with Ms. Leonora Volpe, who is a Prima Ballerina, and the daughter of Camilla Volpe, a World Champion Ballroom Dancer and founder of the Metropolitan Repertory Ballet—11 years ago. She told me that she loved to dance since she was a baby, and was inspired by “Sleeping Beauty”. Her company has performed at different concert halls, such as Merkin Concert Hall on Broadway, in other states like Michigan and New Jersey and other states throughout the country. Ms. Volpe does have aspirations of her dance company performing all over Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East. Ms. Volpe, incidentally, was an asthma victim in her childhood, but was fortunate enough to overcome the severity of it. Best of luck to you and your dance company!

Abbey H. Muneer is the Executive Director of H.A.D. Organization of New York City, Inc., a world-famous athlete, author and, above all, a humanitarian. Abbey will write articles about charity events, benefits, fundraisers and galas which are raising money for humantiarian causes. If you are interested in having Abbey and one his staff members cover one of your charity events, benefits, fundraisers or galas, feel free to notify us one week in advance, at LNEvents@hadofnyc.org, or telephone us at (718) 507-7616, between the hours of 8:00am and 8:00pm e.s.t. and ask to speak to Abbey or Maria. If you would like more information, or would like to have Liberty News Online Magazine consult your next charitable event, please feel free to visit our website, at http://www.hadofnyc.org/store/success.html, email us at humanitarians@hadofnyc.org, or telephone our hotline, at (718) 507-7616, between the hours of 8:00am and 8:00pm e.s.t. (U.S.A.)