America’s National Ballet Company® will take to the road this summer, traveling by bus and truck to eight U.S. cities and arriving in St. Louis on Wednesday, July 14. A group of St. Louis Arts leaders including Susan Sherman, former America Ballet Theatre (ABT) board member, COCA-Center of Creative Arts and St. Louis Shakespeare Festival will present ABT Across America for two performances at 5:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on July 14 outdoors at Shakespeare Glen, Forest Park Tickets are free and may be reserved now at St. Louis Shakespeare Festival’s website, stlshakes.org/abt. Covid safety precautions will be observed.

In addition, there will be two ballet masterclasses, taught by two ABT dancers, which will take place for dancers on July 14 at COCA – one for Intermediate Dancers (10 – 11:30 a.m.) and one for Advanced Dancers (12-1:30 p.m.). To be Covid-compliant, each class is limited to 14 students. Reservations can be made at cocastl.org or by clicking here. In addition to the masterclasses at COCA, the ABT dancers will hold a private Beginner Masterclass for summer campers at the North Grand Boys & Girls Club.

ABT Across America builds on ABT’s history of cross-country tours in the 1940s and 1950s. 20 ABT dancers and 28 support crew will travel across 14 states, for a total of 3,100 miles, performing outdoors for socially distanced audiences in public parks and parking lots. These unique performances will take place on a custom-built 40’ x 76’ stage that folds out of an 18-wheeler truck. 

Each 50-minute show will be performed without an intermission. Repertory for ABT Across America will feature Lauren Lovette’s La Follia Variations, a work for eight dancers set to music by Francesco Geminani, Jessica Lang’s Let Me Sing Forevermore, a pas deux blending ballet and jazz vocabulary set to songs sung by Tony Bennett, Darrell Grand Moultrie’s Indestructible Light, a celebration of American jazz music, and a classical pas de deux from ABT’s extensive repertoire.                                                     

Dancers scheduled to participate in the ABT Across America tour include Lauren Bonfiglio, Jacob Clerico, Michael de la Nuez, Carlos Gonzalez, Kiely Groenewegen, Sung Woo Han, Catherine Hurlin, Anabel Katsnelson, Kanon Kimura, Melvin Lawovi, Tyler Maloney, Joseph Markey, Abbey Marrison, Hannah Marshall, Betsy McBride, Duncan McIlwaine, João Menegussi, Chloe Misseldine, Cory Stearns, and Devon Teuscher.