Love is in the Square

Celebrate the season of love with an exclusive event right here in the heart of Princeton!

Complete your Valentine’s weekend celebrations with a one-of-a-kind shopping experience for two, where you can discover thoughtful and meaningful gifts together in the shops around the Square.

Plus, enjoy a private and intimate performance by the talented dancers of the American Repertory Ballet as they present four pieces exploring various states of romantic relationships. Ranging from classical to contemporary, featured choreography includes an excerpt from Swan Lake, and works by Claire Davison, Lar Lubovitch, and Stephanie Martinez. Don’t miss out on this exclusive chance to see ARB right in the heart of downtown Princeton!

Details:

  • At check-in, each pair will receive one (1) Sweetheart Swag Bag filled with treats, local offers and promotions from our Palmer Square businesses with a Love Map that will guide you through each stop (exclusive to you on 2/16 only!)
  • Shop, dine, and explore the Square!
  • Check back in to enjoy live acoustic music, light bites, and refreshments before the 4pm ballet show at 11 Hulfish Street!

Tickets:

  • Cupid’s Early Access: The first 20 tickets will be discounted!

*Please note that tickets will not be sold on the day of the event. This event has limited tickets available.

2025 Gala

Honoring

B. Sue Howard

For her longtime support and passion for the arts

Sue Mesner Howard, a Princeton native, began her ballet journey with Audrée Estey when she was five, and continued dancing with the Princeton Ballet Society through high school. 

Sue is a visual artist and graduated from Hood College with post graduate study at Rutgers.  Along with navigating a painting and sculpture career, she has taught art at Stuart School, various area public schools, and the Princeton Art Association. She enthusiastically supports many cultural organizations in New Jersey and Manhattan.  Sue is a former board member of the Corner House Foundation and is currently a member of the Hightstown Cultural Arts Commission.  She is also a trustee of Princeton Symphony Orchestra, and last year became a member of the American Repertory Ballet/Princeton Ballet School board.  Her love of dance has happily come full circle!   

and

Amy Megules

Recipient of the 2025 Audrée Estey Award for Excellence in Dance Education

Magules.

Amy Megules began dancing with the Vineland Regional Dance Company and received her BFA in dance from SUNY Purchase, where she received the Bert Terborgh Dance Award. She apprenticed with the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago and then danced with American Repertory Ballet. Amy has also been on faculty at Today’s Dance Center, the National Dance Institute of Trenton, and Mercer County Community College. Amy taught and choreographed for the Otto M. Budig Academy of Cincinnati Ballet, the College Conservatory of Music Preparatory Division of the University of Cincinnati, and she was the ballet instructor for the elite and accelerated gymnasts at the Cincinnati Gymnastics Academy. Amy enjoys teaching the littlest dancers through adults. She is a Children’s Rehearsal Director for ARB’s The Nutcracker and Princeton Ballet School’s Spring productions.


The evening will start at 5:30pm.

More details to come!

Tickets and sponsorship opportunities will be available online soon; please click here if you would like to subscribe for more information.

Gala Committee

Magrielle Eisen (Chair), Brannan Berman, Christine Conanan, Jessica Coppola, Martha Dewey, Daphne Jones, Nancy MacMillan, Joan McCormick, Rebecca Piccone, Rosella Porter, Gabriella Vajtay 

If you are interested in volunteering, please email [email protected]. Thank you!

The gala performance is made possible in part by a generous grant from the Jerome Robbins Foundation.

Artwork by ARB Dancer Clara Pevel


Elevate

Meredith Rainey

Meredith Rainey

Amy Seiwert

Ethan Stiefel

Meredith Rainey began dancing at 15 in his hometown of Fort Lauderdale.  In 1985, he became the first African American dancer of the Milwaukee Ballet.  In 1987, he was invited to join the newly formed Pennsylvania-Milwaukee Ballet, when the collaboration ended, he remained with the Pennsylvania Ballet for 17 years—much of that time as a soloist—until his retirement in 2006. Among other awards and fellowships, Rainey has been the recipient of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship (1995 & 2002), the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Artist as Catalyst Grant (2001), the Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts (2002), a finalist for the Pew Fellowship in the Arts (2003), and a Pew Center for Arts and Heritage Grant (2010). He has been commissioned to create works for Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, BalletX, Delaware Ballet, Hubbard Street 2, National Ballet De Cali, Danse4Nia Repertory Ensemble, and institutions such as The University of the Arts, Drexel University, Stockton University, Georgian Court University, Goucher College, Swarthmore College, and Bryn Mawr College. His work has been performed in North and South America and throughout Spain. In 2009, Rainey founded and directed Carbon Dance Theatre, a contemporary ballet company in Philadelphia. In 2014 after deciding to concentrate on artistic projects, he closed the company and remained a sought-after teacher, mentor, and independent choreographer. In the fall of 2019, Rainey graduated with top honors as a member of the first cohort of candidates for the Master of Fine Arts in Dance from The University of the Arts. (Photo credit:  Portia Jones) 

Amy Seiwert enjoyed a nineteen-year performing career dancing with the Smuin, Los Angeles Chamber, and Sacramento Ballets. As a dancer with Smuin Ballet, she became involved with the “Protégé Program,” where her choreography was mentored by the late Michael Smuin. She was Choreographer in Residence there upon her retirement from dancing in 2008 until 2018. Named one of “25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine, her first full evening of choreography was named one of the “Top 10” dance events of 2007 by the SF Chronicle. Other awards include a Bay Area IZZIE Award for Outstanding Choreography and a “Goldie” from the San Francisco Bay Guardian. Her ballets have been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Kennedy Center, and the Joyce Theater in New York City. Seiwert’s ballets are in the repertory of BalletX, Smuin Contemporary Ballet, Ballet Austin, BalletMet, Washington, Atlanta, Oakland, Colorado, Louisville, Cincinnati, Carolina, Oklahoma City, Milwaukee, and American Repertory Ballets as well as Imagery, ODC/Dance, and AXIS Dance. Ms. Seiwert will be joining Smuin Contemporary Ballet as Associate Artistic Director for the 23/24 Season.

Ethan Stiefel is an internationally recognized Instructor, Coach, Director and Choreographer. Stiefel became American Repertory Ballet’s Artistic Director in July, 2021. In 1989, Stiefel began his professional dance career at age 16 with the New York City Ballet where he quickly rose to the rank of Principal Dancer. Stiefel was also a Principal Dancer with Ballett Zürich followed by being a Principal Dancer with American Ballet Theatre (ABT) from 1997-2012. Stiefel has served as Dean of the School of Dance at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) as well as the Artistic Director of the Royal New Zealand Ballet. During his celebrated performing career, Stiefel danced leading roles in all the full-length classics and performed in an extensive range of shorter classical, contemporary, and modern works. Guest appearances include dancing with The Royal Ballet, The Mariinsky Ballet, New York City Ballet, Teatro Colon, The Australian Ballet and many others. He has appeared in numerous film, video and television productions including the feature film Center Stage and the documentary Born to be Wild. As a choreographer, he has created new works for the Royal New Zealand Ballet, The Washington Ballet, American Repertory Ballet, ABT Studio Company, Northern Ballet (UK), The Royal Ballet School, UNCSA, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and the television series Flesh and Bone on the STARZ network. Stiefel has received a number of prestigious awards such as the Statue Award of the Princess Grace Foundation and the Dance Magazine Award. (Photo credit: Harald Schrader)

Princeton Ballet School Summer Dance 2023

Princeton Ballet School, the official school of American Repertory Ballet, presents its highly anticipated, annual Summer Intensive performance. Students from across the United States and around the world have come to Princeton Ballet School to train with our exceptional faculty, and will showcase their technical and artistic progress. The performance program is a culmination of their hard work and will feature the re-staging of a traditional classical ballet along with several other pieces created specifically for this year’s summer students.

Running time is about 1 hour 30 minutes with one intermission. Seating is general admission. 

The Princeton Festival with Attacca Quartet

Aldeir Monteiro and Ryoko Tanaka in Ethan Stiefel’s Wood Work, by Eduardo Patino; Attacca Quartet by David Goddard

Program

John ADAMS / John’s Book of Alleged Dances (Selections)

CIRCADIA (Excerpts)
Choreography by Caili Quan
Music – Carrot Revolution by Gabriella Smith

Caroline SHAW / The Evergreen

WOOD WORK (Excerpts)
Choreography by Ethan Stiefel
Music – Wood Works Nordic Folk Tunes (arr. Danish String Quartet)

Movin’ + Groovin’

Claire Davison

Ja’ Malik

Caili Quan

Claire Davison

Inspired by six songs from the legendary band Fleetwood Mac, Time Within A Time reflects on recent years and how it might feel to return to a place, such as a theater, studio, workplace – or to each other. It is also a celebration! “We are happy to be together again,” says Claire Davison. “I am thrilled to be returning to ARB as the dancers are a dream to work with: talented, eager, passionate and willing to play. And, the music of Fleetwood Mac is unbeatable.”  

Davison currently dances with American Ballet Theatre (ABT). Her choreographic credits include One of Us (2019) for Boulder Ballet and Por Ti for Kaatsbaan Cultural Park’s 2021 Summer Festival. In 2021, Davison was also the selected choreographer for New York Theatre Ballet’s Lift Lab. She participated in ABT’s 2022 Incubator program and created a one-woman show, Crash Test Dummy, for which she received the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus First of May award.

Ja’ Malik

Newly appointed Artistic Director of Madison Ballet, Ja’ Malik, has been called a “choreographer to watch” by The New York Times. Describing his piece Moving to Bach, Malik says he was “inspired by both the dancers of ARB and Bach’s beautiful Sonata for Violin Solo No. 1. This new work for five dancers will create an ever evolving world of exhilarating physicality in both a direct relation and counter relation to the rhythmically serene and sometimes explosive score by Bach.” 

Malik previously danced with North Carolina Dance Theater (now Charlotte Ballet), BalletX, Ballet Hispanico, in addition to working with Camille A. Brown (For Colored…at the Public Theater), Juel D. Lane, and College Dance Collective among others. With a deep connection to music, Malik’s choreography draws on his own personal life experiences as well as the world around him to create physically emotional works that allow both dancers and audiences to experience a connection through the language of movement.

Caili Quan

Caili Quan is a New York-based choreographer and a Creative Associate at The Juilliard School. Her new piece for ARB is inspired by how the body is affected during sleep. “Sleep gives us a place to recover, but it is also where our minds choose memories to keep. It also allows us space to reminisce and dream,” she says. “The music for the work is an eclectic mix that made me want to move, but also felt like a soundtrack to our dreams.”

Quan danced and choreographed for BalletX, and has created works for The Juilliard School, Nashville Ballet, and others. Her short documentary called Mahålang weaves familial conversations of her Chamorro Filipino upbringing on Guam with scenes from BalletX’s Love Letter, and was shown at the Hawai’i International Film Festival, CAAMFest, and the Dance on Camera Festival at Lincoln Center.  She will be an artist in residence at the 2022 Vail Dance Festival.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

American Repertory Ballet proudly presents A Midsummer Night’s Dream,

a new one-act ballet conceived and choreographed by Artistic Director Ethan Stiefel. Set to Felix Mendelssohn’s iconic score, with additional music arranged by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, this enchanting production will transport audiences to a fantastical forest filled with fairies, mischief and romance, joy and love. Stiefel’s visionary interpretation of this beloved comic masterpiece, featuring sets and costumes by an award-winning design team, is certain to cast its spell on audiences of all ages.


The Story of A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Act I
THE PARTY

The scene opens with the annual Christmas Eve Tree Lighting party at the home of the Silverhaus’. Clara and Fritz anxiously wait outside the parlor for the lighting of the tree, when to Clara’s horror and Fritz’s delight, the maid enters the hall, chasing a mouse from out of the pantry.


Father calls the children in, and the tree is lighted. As the guests arrive, we are introduced to the Elegant Family, the Widow, her daughter, the Dapper Gent and the Big Family with their nine children. After a festive dance performed by the children, the mysterious Uncle Drosselmeyer and his Nephew arrive. Drosselmeyer demonstrates wonderful mechanical dolls, and then presents his favorite niece Clara with a beautifully carved Nutcracker. As all of the children watch Drosselmeyer’s demonstration of the Nutcracker, Fritz becomes jealous and grabs the gift from Clara. In his flight, he drops and breaks it.


Drosselmeyer bandages it and re-presents it to Clara. The party winds down, the guests depart and the Silverhaus family goes to bed.


Unable to sleep, Clara sneaks downstairs to visit her Nutcracker. As she dances in the parlor with the Nutcracker, the shadows and the movement of little mice disturb her delight. Drosselmeyer reappears and casts her into a dream world -transforming the parlor into a battleground between an army of soldiers and rats.

Broadway World MARINA KENNEDY

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