Kings of the Dance was a four night dance extravaganza starring:
Angel Corella, American Ballet Theatre Ethan Stiefel, American Ballet Theatre
Johan Kobborg, The Royal Ballet, London Nikolay Tsiskaridze, The Bolshoi Ballet
And guest stars:
Alina Cojocaru, The Royal Ballet, London
Gudrun Bojesen, The Royal Danish Ballet
Kings of the Dance had its premiere February 23, 2006 at New York City Center.
The program consisted of:
Flemming Flindt's The Lesson (La Leçon) (1963) to music by Georges Delerue Christopher Wheeldon's FOR 4 (pièce d'occasion) (2006) to Franz Schubert's Death and the Maiden
New York premiere solos:
Afternoon of a Faun, (Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune) made by Tim Rushton on Johan Kobborg to the music of Claude Debussy Wavemaker, made by Nils Christe on Ethan Stiefel to music by John Adams We Got It Good, made by Stanton Welch on Angel Corella to music by Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington Carmen, made by Roland Petit to the music of Georges Bizet, danced by Nikolay Tsiskaridze Kings of the Dance was co-produced by Ardani Artists and Segerstrom Center for the Arts in February 2006, Sergei Danilian, Producer
Sergei Danilian produced four more programs under title of the Kings of the Dance with different set of dancers including David Hallberg, Marcelo Gomes, Guillaume Côté, Ivan Vasiliev,
Denis Matvienko, Leonid Sarafanov, Jose Manuel Carreño, Joaquin De Luz, Roberto Bolle. Mr. Danilian presented Kings of the Dance project in Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Rostov on Don, Krasnodar, Ufa), in Ukraine (Kyiv, Odesa), in Latvia (Riga), in Estonia (Tallinn), Buenos Aires, London, Los Angeles as well as few times in New York.
Reviews
NY Times, John Rockwell, February 23, 2006
Village Voice, Deborah Jowitt, March 3, 2006 Ballet.co Magazine, Anjuli Bai, February 2006