Ballet Hartford's Awakening Festival in Bushnell Park August 30; Free for Entire Community
2024-08-21
Ballet Hartford is excited to announce the return of its annual Awakening Festival, a free performance in Bushnell Park, scheduled for Friday, August 30, 2024, at 6:30 PM. This year’s festival promises a vibrant showcase of diverse dance styles and innovative choreography.
Started in the summer of 2021, the Awakening Festival has become a cherished tradition, bringing together the community to enjoy the artistry of dancers and other creative professionals. This year’s festival will not only feature diverse dance performances but also live on-site art from Ballet Hartford Resident Visual Artist Aubrey Feliciano and original poetry, to accompany two of the evening’s performances, by local poet Heather Bachman.
The Awakening Festival got underway this week with the start of a ten-day intensive, designed for both students and professionals to work with choreographers to prepare for the performance. This provides an opportunity for dancers – local and from out-of-state – to rehearse new repertoire created specifically for the festival. The dancers will perform the new works on the tenth day (August 30) in the open-air festival hosted by Hartford’s historic Bushnell Park.
"We invite our audience to come once again and join us for an evening of refreshment and beauty through the arts," said Leyna Doran, the founder of Awakening Festival and current Executive Director of Ballet Hartford. "Each year we are thrilled by the increasing number of out-of-state participants joining the program, a testament to the festival's growing reputation and reach."
The festival will highlight the work of choreographers including:
Claire Kretzschmar, Artistic Director of Ballet Hartford and former soloist with New York City Ballet
Steve Rooks, Former Principal dancer with Martha Graham Dance Company, and current Chair of Dance at Vassar College
Ashley Taylor, Freelance Choreographer from New York City
Leyna Doran, Executive Director of Ballet Hartford
Hannah Bush, Company Manager of Ballet Hartford
The evening will also feature a dance class onstage for young audience members to participate in at 6:00 PM, highlighting the family-friendly nature of the event.
The Awakening Festival is the launch of an exhilarating season for Ballet Hartford, which will feature the highly anticipated “Nutcracker Short & Suite,” an enchanting adaptation of the classic holiday ballet (November 24), Ballet Harford en Plein Air (October 5), Behind the Ballet at the Hill-Stead (November 16) and A Ceremony of Carols (November 30). In addition, following the success of last year’s debut of “A Ceremony of Carols,” Ballet Hartford will embark on a multi-state tour, the most extensive in its history, for this year’s holiday season.
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.
Local News
