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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:125%"><span style="font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn""><b>For
Immediate Release<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:125%"><span style="font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn""><b>Media
Contact: Dan Kilbane, 216.513.3654, kilbanedan@yahoo.com<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:125%"><span style="font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn""> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:125%"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn""><b>Verb Ballets Returns
to Tremont for Arts in August<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:125%"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn""><b>Free, Outdoor
Performances<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:125%"><span style="font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn"">Friday, August 28, and Saturday,
August 29, 2009 at 8:30 p.m.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn""> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn""><u>August
18, 2009, Cleveland, OH</u><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>--
Verb Ballets, Cleveland’s National Repertory Dance Company, returns to Lincoln
Park in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood on Friday, August 28 and 29, 2009, at
8:30 p.m., for the neighborhood “Arts in August” programming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The free, outdoor program features the
summer 2009 World Premieres “Lady Be Good” and “Scent”; the company premiere
“Urban Study”; the return of “Elegaic Song”; and a special surprise preview of a
fall 2009 work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Admission is free
for this event; audience members are encouraged to arrive early and to bring
blankets or chairs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Rain date is
Sunday, August 30 at 7:30 p.m.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>Lincoln Park is located between West 14<sup>th</sup>, West 11<sup>th</sup>,
Kenilworth and Starkweather Avenues in the Tremont neighborhood, Cleveland,
Ohio 44113.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn""> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn""><i>Dance
Magazine</i></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn"">,
in 2004, named Verb Ballets one of “25 to Watch,” and in February 2008 bestowed
more kudos on the company by naming Verb Ballets one of 5 “Great Tiny Troupes”
in America.<span style="color:red"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn""> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn"">The repertory for these performances
includes the following:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn""> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<pre><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn""><b>Lady Be Good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></b></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn""><i>World Premiere</i></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn"">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Choreographer and champion ballroom dancer Gary Piece sets a feisty ballroom piece on the Verb Ballets company set to the music of George Gershwin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Ballroom dance popularity has soared in the last several years, thanks to the TV reality competition series “Dancing With the Stars,” and here Verb Ballets brings their special take on the phenomenon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></pre>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn""> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn""><b>Urban
Study.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></b></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn""><i>Company
Premiere</i></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn"">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Choreographer Ginger Thatcher,
currently in charge of restaging the works of Lar Lubovitch and a former
company member of Cleveland San Jose Ballet, returns to Cleveland with her
classical ballet piece, which had its world premiere at Oregon Ballet Theatre
in 2002. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn";
color:black"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn""><b>Elegaic
Song.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></b></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn""><i>Revival. </i></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn""><b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></b></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn"">(1968)<b> </b></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn"">Ohio Ballet
Founder Heinz Poll’s timely piece for eight dancers is dedicated to the
innocent victims of war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“Elegiac
Song,” restaged by former Ohio Ballet company member Jane Startzman, was the
first work Heinz Poll created in Northeast Ohio, and was rooted in the
choreographer’s memories of wartime Germany. The imagery of grieving women is
inspired by Käthe Kollwitz’s drawings. The haunting music by Shostakovich
evokes an aura of sorrow and fear. The movement vocabulary, indebted to Martha
Graham, is tailored to the abilities of eight teenage girls who took Poll’s
intensive ballet workshop at the University of Akron. The premiere performance
in 1968 marked the debut of the Chamber Ballet, the jewel-like little company
that was later renamed Ohio Ballet. The premiere was lighted by Thomas Skelton,
the world-renowned lighting designer who served as the associate director until
his death in 1994.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For this
performance, the lighting design is by Trad A Burns.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn""> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn""><b>Scent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></b></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn""><i>World Premiere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></i></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn"">This new solo for one female dancer is
choreographed by Troy McCarty, who most recently choreographed for Verb Ballets
at our Cleveland Public Theatre DanceWorks show in the spring.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn""> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn"">Verb’s
Tremont performances are presented by Tremont West Development Corporation,
ParkWorks and Cleveland City Councilperson Joe Cimperman. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn""> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn"">The
Verb Ballets company includes Danielle Brickman, Ashley Cohen, Erin Conway
Lewis, Antonio Deberry*, Leisa DeCarlo*, Antwon Duncan, Katie Gnagy, Sunita
Joshi*, Gary Lenington, Catherine Meredith Lambert, Jennifer Moll, Brian
Murphy, and Juriys Safonovs {* intern}<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn""> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span class="normtext1"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn"">Major sponsors of Verb Ballets include </span></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn"">AHS Foundation,
The Bascom Little Fund, Millie L. Carlson, Change For Charity, Cuyahoga Arts
and Culture, The Cleveland Foundation, The George Gund Foundation, Kulas
Foundation, The Laub Foundation, Lubrizol Foundation, The McGregor Foundation,
John P. Murphy Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Ohio Arts
Council. Additional individual sponsors <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; "><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn"">include<b>
</b></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn"">Chuck
and Ann Ennis, Norma and Jeffrey Glazer, David R. Pierce, Alan Miles Ruben, and
Robert M. Shwab.</span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span class="normtext1"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn""> <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn"">Additional
sponsors include Baumgarten & Company, LLP; Cedar Hill Communications;
FITWORKS; GlobeNewswire, Inc.; WCLV and WCPN, and Wireless Village, and Citadel
Communications.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText" align="left" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:6.0pt;margin-left:0in;text-align:left"><span class="normtext1"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn"">V</span></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn"">erb Ballets is now
beginning its eighth season under the leadership of Chief Executive and
Artistic Officer Dr. Margaret Carlson, an energetic staff and its dedicated
Board of Trustees, who have established Verb Ballets as Cleveland’s premiere
dance repertory company. Verb Ballets was named one of “25 to Watch in 2004” by
<i>Dance Magazine</i></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Frutiger LT Std 57 Cn"">,
the country’s leading news magazine covering dance, and recently the magazine
bestowed more kudos on the company by naming Verb one of 5 “Great Tiny Troupes”
in America. Verb Ballets discovers, collects, interprets and stages
choreography that matters to the region and to the world of dance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As a curator of expressive movement
that is globally connected and nationally respected, Verb Ballets has a mandate
to support and foster emerging talent, present excellence in contemporary
choreographers and revive and honor modern dance classics<span style="color:black">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A</span>dditional
information may be found at <a href="http://www.verbballets.org/"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">www.verbballets.org</span></a>. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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