The Firebird
Accompanied by the West Texas Symphony
March 29 & 30, 2025
at the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center
We’re bringing you not just one, but three exciting ballets! We’ll begin with rattling tambourines and rustling tutus of Nadia Thompson’s Grand Tarantella. Next, feel the rythmn and the rhyme with all the animals in Pearl Wamsley’s award winning contemporary ballet, The Incredible Petes. Finally, we’ll join Prince Ivan as his search for golden apples becomes a much grander adventure in our featured ballet, George Skibine’s The Firebird. This Russian fairytale has it all: magical creatures, daring battles, an enchanted forest, an imprisoned princess - you don’t want to miss it.
About the Choreographers, Guest Artists, & Story
Check back here soon for more info!
George Skibine
Choreographer of The Firebird
George Skibine was born in 1920 in Yasnaya Polyana, Russia. His father was a member of Ballet Russe. George began performing with Ballet Russe at age 5 and joined the company as a professional at age 17. He eventually came to New York to dance with American Ballet Theatre in 1941 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen the following year. He served as a soldier in the U.S. military during World War II. He was one of the Ritchie Boys, a group of military intelligence officers who used their language skills to obtain intel from the Axis powers during the War. He resumed his dance career post-war. In 1947, he danced with the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas, where he met and married American ballerina, Marjorie Tallchief. After a brief stint with Ruth Page’s Chicago Opera Ballet, he and his wife were called to the Paris Opera Ballet to become “premier danseur etoile,” the first Americans to be so honored. He served as Artistic Director of the Paris Opera Ballet, Harkness Ballet in New York, and Dallas Civic Ballet. Skibine remained in Dallas, Texas for the remainder of his life, building the Dallas Ballet into a nationally acclaimed company.
Guest Artists
Where is the performance?
The Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center: 1310 Farm to Market 1788, Midland, TX 79707