Creating "A Midsummer Night's Dream" Involved a Musical Treasure Hunt

For his final performance as a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet in the late 1990s, Ethan Stiefel danced the role of Oberon in George Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A few years later, as a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre, he took on the role again — this time in the version by British choreographer Frederick Ashton.

The artistic director of American Repertory Ballet (ARB) since last July, Stiefel is about to debut his own telling of the classic Shakespeare play. Accompanied live by the Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO), ARB, which is based in Princeton and New Brunswick, presents A Midsummer
Night’s Dream at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center April 1-3.

Complete article below.