On Second Thought

By Henry C. Mayer

Louisville Ballet

The Louisville Ballet has replaced its long-standing season subscription with a new and varied membership program. Individual memberships now cost only $25, but if you are fifty-five or older or a student, tickets are only $15. A ticket to The Nutcracker is the exception at $20. Ballet Circle and Orchestra Gold tickets are $25 while Ballet Circle Box seats cost $35. (Add $5 for The Nutcracker .)

Membership "perks" include pre-performances meetings and dialogues with Artistic Director Alun Jones and post performances meetings and conversations with dancers. Jones had this to say: "we want to include our audience beyond what they see on the stage. Knowing the stories behind a production and talking with the dancers about a performance really enhances the theater going experience."

For more information, just call the membership office 502-583.-2623,

The schedule for Company's 49th season is as follows:

The Sleeping Beauty, September 7-9; Firebird, Lark Ascending, Soft Stillness And The Night And Five Ruckert Songs, October 26-28; The Nutcracker December 15-27; Lilac Garden, Lucy and Variations For Piano And Orchestra, February 1-3, 2002; Cinderella, March 8-10; Don Quixote, April 26-28.

Please note carefully - there will be no Thursday evening performances: Friday and Saturday evenings will start at 7:30 p.m. All performances will take place in Whitney Hall, at the Kentucky Center for the Arts. Programs are subject to change.

Dancers Dale Brannon and Claire Turman Greenlee have retired. Brannon had spent twenty years with the Louisville Ballet as dancer and choreographer while Greenlee's tenure was 10 years.

The company's present roster includes: four Principal Dancers; one First Soloist; six Second Soloists; seven members of the Corps de Ballet; six Apprentices and thirteen trainees.

U of L School of Music Tidbits

The Fall program at the University of Louisville School of Music has been announced. Highlights include the Faculty Gala, set for September 14. Kim Cherie Lloyd will direct the U of L Symphony of September 23 while guest artist Richard Goode will present a piano concert on October 23.

In November, Cambodian artist Chinary Yung will be the featured guest at the New Music Festival, November 1-3 and the Graewmeyer Award inner for Music, Pierre Boulez, will lecture on November 19.