Bringing Ballet to Brooklyn: The Metropolitan Repertory Ballet

FRIENDS: (R-L) Marge Champion, Donald Sadler, Louise Kerz, and Jennifer Berghaus smile at the March 5th benefit. (Jonathan Weeks/The Epoch Times)

NEW YORK—The Metropolitan Repertory Ballet is maintaining its founder’s focus of preserving and developing the classical art of ballet, while creating an entirely new genre of dance—ballet/opera. The company is best known for its 1994 Carnegie Hall debut of La Traviata with this new style. The performance was choreographed by Victor Litvinov, director of the state ballet in Kiev, Ukraine.

“Others have tried but it takes a very high level of skill to choreograph dance and song,” said artistic director Leonora Volpe.

The future is still uncertain, but Volpe remains passionate.

“Dancing is like a heartbeat” she said. “During the years between the 50’s to the 70’s ballet was the most popular form of stage art.”

The third largest ballet in New York, the Metropolitan Repertory Ballet, was started in 1992 by Leonora’s late mother, Camilla Volpe.

Leonora is the last to have danced under the direction of Igor Youskevitch—considered to be one of the greatest male dancers of the twentieth century. When Volpe speaks of her art and the state it is in, the passion she feels for it becomes evident. Interest in the art of dance has waned in recent decades despite celebrity involvement and charitable events.

There is still hope for the classical arts. Head of the Federation of Italian Americans (FIAO), Frank Nacarato, is funding the “32nd Street Anniversary Gala” that will see the Metropolitan Repertory Ballet performing to publicly honor Mayor Bloomberg. The event is at El Caribe in Brooklyn on Sunday March 29.

“We are looking forward to [the ballet company] becoming a part of our organization and bringing their talents to Brooklyn,” Nacarato said. He has previously given aid to the company.

Volpe calls Nacarato an art aficionado.

Nacarato’s company, the FIAO is a non-profit umbrella corporation with 43 individual organizations including 19 after school programs for immigrant and underprivileged children. The FIAO is currently readying a ground breaking for the first Italian-American cultural center of its kind in the country—a multi-million dollar project.

Charity events are a big part of the Metropolitan Repertory Ballet’s agenda, with most recent event honored Louise Kerz Hirschfeld, widow of the late Al Hirschfeld, perhaps America’s most beloved caricaturist. The event was held at the historical Liederkranz Mansion on March 5.

The company has also performed well-known classics such as Swan Lake, The Nutcracker Suite, Giselle Les Sylphides, and Romeo and Juliet.