Gary Lindsey Artist Services, Inc.

Von Heidecke's Chicago Festival Ballet is one of the newest and brightest classical dance companies now touring throughout the Midwest.  The company, which made its international debut at Scotland’s famed Edinburgh Festival in 1989, is composed of professional dancers drawn from the ranks of The School of the Chicago Festival Ballet, the Lyric Opera Ballet, and other Chicagoland dance companies.   The company's founder and artistic director is Kenneth von Heidecke, since 1986 resident choreographer and ballet master for the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Prima Ballerina Assoluta, Maria Tallchief, serves as Chicago Festival Ballet's honorary artistic advisor.  Since 1990, Chicago Festival Ballet has been performing and touring its wonderful, full-length produc­tion of Tchaikovsky’s "The Nut­cracker," choreographed by artistic director and founder, Kenneth von Heidecke.  The company has taken “The Nutcracker” on tour to theatres in Ontario, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Missouri, Michigan, Nebraska, South Dakota, Ohio, Kentucky, and Kansas, and as far afield as the Jackie Gleason Theatre of the Performing Arts in Miami Beach, Florida.  Closer to home, the company presents annual performances to sell-out audiences at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, at the Rialto Theatre in Joliet, and at Harris Theatre for Music and Dance in Chicago. Mr. Von Heidecke’s delightful and elegant production of "The Nutcracker" involves more than 16 professional dancers as well as a number of Chicago-area young people.  In addition, Ken or his ballet mistress will supervise auditions and work with a dance teacher in your community to incorporate at least a dozen local children in the production.   Availability is mid November through mid December. For the 2008-2009 season, the company will tour, in addition to "The Nutcracker," a full-length production of "Cinderella," which premiered in the spring of 2004.  Choreographed by Mr. Von Heidecke to the Prokofiev score, the production can use local dance students who are trained and rehearsed by directors of the Chicago Festival Ballet. “Cinderella” has been seen in theatres throughout Illinois and this season in Kentucky and Oklahoma.  Availability is during October, 2008, or in the spring of 2009. The company also offers a program of mixed repertory that can include such one-act ballets as Verdi's "Palazzo d'Oro," Gliere's "Les Sirenes" (origi­nally choreographed for the Chicago Festival Ballet's debut at the Edinburgh Festival), Offenbach's "Can Can," Tchaikovsky's "Elegy," excerpts from Tchai­kovsky's "Romeo and Juliet", and Stravinsky's "The Firebird." Mr. von Heidecke, who has performed with Maria Tallchief's Chicago City Ballet, the Lyric Opera Ballet, BalletMet, and Carla Fracci's company in Verona, Italy, has choreo­graphed for the New York City Opera, the Opera Company of the Los Angeles Music Center, the Dallas Opera, the San Diego Opera, San Francisco Opera, and the Washington Opera at the Kennedy Center, in addition to his work with the Chicago Lyric Opera. Following a successful collaboration with Chicago’s renowned Steppenwolf Theatre in 1996, Ken presented a full evening of his work at the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe, Germany. VIDEOS:   NUTCRACKER     CINDERELLA HOME       TECH RIDER      PHOTOS/POSTER      TOUR HISTORY      REVIEWS        COMPANY LINK      INQUIRIES