(photo of Nina Ananiashvili by Nancy Ellison, taken from ABT website)

Also news that is now a few days old (and thanks to my new Pointe friend from last night for pointing me to it): President and Mrs. Obama will be the honorary chairpersons at ABT’s opening night spring gala on May 18th, along with Caroline Kennedy, Carolina Herrera, Blaine Trump, and Renee Zellweger.

Highlights of the pre-dinner performance that evening: in honor of Nina Ananiashvili’s approaching retirement, Alexei Ratmansky has created a piece d’occasion for her set to the waltz from Aram Khachaturian’s Masquerade Suite; and a performance by Herbie Hancock.

Ooh, how I wish I could afford the dinner. Do hope to be at the performance though.

This may be old news, but I just found out last night when I went to a friend’s book launch party and met a writer from Pointe magazine (how small is this world!) Anyway, wow! Hooray for Sabra; hooray for Cedar Lake; hooray for New York audiences!

(image taken from Cedar Lake’s website)

UPDATE: I have been told by a representative of Cedar Lake that Sabra is no longer with the company, unfortunately. This is as of August 2009. I will definitely let you all know when I hear anything further about.