Kennedy Center: Virtual Tour of the Eisenhower Theater

Map of Building

Concert Hall

JFK Quotes on the Arts

Golden Circles Lounge

Click on the

icon in the picture to go to the next stop on the tour.
Hold the mouse down and move the cursor on the picture above to see a 360 degree view.

The Eisenhower Theater seats 1,100, and is the smallest of the theaters on the Center's main level. It primarily hosts plays and musicals, operas, ballet and contemporary dance. Its namesake, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, signed into law the National Cultural Center Act in 1958, the first time in history that our government backed and helped finance a structure dedicated to the performing arts. The theater contains an orchestra pit for 40 musicians that is convertible to a forestage or additional seating space. The walls are of East Indian laurel wood. The red and black stage curtain of hand-woven wool is a gift from the people of Canada.

	The Suzanne Farrell Ballet
	Oct 8 - 12, 2008 Eisenhower Theater Running Time: Schedule and Tickets
Description: The Suzanne Farrell Ballet Suzanne Farrell, Artistic Director In Artistic Partnership with Ballet Austin, Stephen Mills, Artistic Director "The Suzanne Farrell Ballet is one of the most courageous projects in ballet today…energy, scale, detailed nuance, and musical sophistication seldom found anywhere." --The New York Times Through the Kennedy Center's own ballet company, Suzanne Farrell continues to share her intimate understanding of George Balanchine's vanguard body of work. In the newly renovated Eisenhower Theater, The Suzanne Farrell Ballet's two all-Balanchine programs will include many special projects unique to the Company and to Farrell's singular insight. The first program opens with *Liebeslieder Walzer. In this rarely performed two-part ballet of Brahms waltzes set to poems by Friedrich Daumer and Goethe, the dancers are joined on stage by four vocalists and two pianists on one piano, all in period costume. Beginning in a ballroom in formal evening wear, the dancers transform into ballet skirts under a starry sky before returning to their original dress. Suzanne Farrell then continues her acclaimed Balanchine Preservation Initiative by re-staging Ragtime, one of his "lost" treasures. Recreating the choreography from her own personal film footage, the new staging will feature Stravinsky's score performed by an onstage jazz band. Concluding the program is Episodes, an Artistic Partnership with Ballet Austin. Balanchine's homage to the music of Anton von Webern ends with the composer's tribute to J.S. Bach. For the second program, the Company brings back its presentation of "The Balanchine Couple,"* last staged in 2003. Suzanne Farrell takes the stage as narrator, navigating audiences through the evolution of Balanchine's legendary pas de deux style. Beginning with the pas de deux from the early years of Apollo, La Sonnambula, Ivesiana, La Valse, and Agon…through to the "Farrell years" of Meditation, Don Quixote, and Diamonds…and concluding with the classic Stars and Stripes, this program is the perfect showcase for Balanchine's legacy, masterfully carried forth by his most celebrated muse. All performances with the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra. Oct. 8, 9, 11 eve., 12 mat. *Liebeslieder Walzer* Music by Johannes Brahms *Ragtime* Part of the Balanchine Preservation Initiative Music by Igor Stravinsky *Episodes* In Artistic Partnership with Ballet Austin Music by Anton von Webern Oct. 10, 11 mat., 12 eve. "The Balanchine Couple" Narrated by Suzanne Farrell, to include pas de deux from: *Apollo* Music by Igor Stravinsky *La Sonnambula* Music by Vittorio Rieti, after Vincenzo Bellini "The Unanswered Question" from Ivesiana Music by Charles Ives *La Valse* Music by Maurice Ravel *Agon* Music by Igor Stravinsky *Meditation* Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pas de Mauresque from Don Quixote Music by Nikolas Nabokov *Diamonds* Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky *Stars and Stripes* Music by John Philip Sousa