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Ballet Austin
May 14, 2012
Review: Ballet Austin's 'Romeo and Juliet'
A score as luscious as Sergei Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet” deserves dance as beautiful; Ballet Austin’s three-act ballet of the classic love story at the Long Center Friday was both whimsical and moving, and performed poignantly to the Austin Symphony Orchestra.
Artistic director Stephen Mills’ choreography is appropriately sweet in the moment Romeo (Frank Shott) and Juliet (Aara Krumpe) fall in love at the masquerade, effectively ebullient in the star-crossed lovers’ giddiness, and evokes tragedy in the tomb scene. “Romeo and Juliet” demands as much acting as dance ability from its performers.
Christopher Swaim as Romeo’s buddy Mercutio kept the audience laughing as he provided the comic relief in the first two acts; whether flirting with the girls in the courtyard, poking fun at Romeo’s wistfulness after his love-at-first-sight moment, or annoying Tybalt (a stoic Edward Carr) at the ball. Michelle Martin’s performance as the grieving Lady Capulet over Tybalt’s cold body was powerful — as she tore her hair loose and partially disrobed, making sweeping motions with her body all the while, her absolute pain was stunning.
As Romeo and Juliet fell in love, boy kissing girl’s hand, the score turned tender. Mills’ choreography called for four females to float about them, like butterflies. This moment moves into the bedroom scene, and their subsequent visit to the friar to get married. Romeo and Juliet’s fascination with one another overrides the devoutness of the church situation — every time the friar turns his back, the pair glom on to each other.
It was the interplay between the acting, dancing and awe-inspiring orchestral work that made the ballet a pleasure to watch, from the booming notes of the opening of the ball scene with the black-and-gold-clad dancers weaving patterns across the stage, to the quieter moments of missed connections in the tomb.
Claire Christine Spera is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
Photo by Tony Spielberg.
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April 17, 2012
Behind the scenes with Ballet Austin's 'Light: The Holocaust & Humanity Project'
In January Ballet Austin announced that along with the remount of its critically acclaimed ballet ‘Light/ Holocaust and Humanity Project,’ the company was also kickstarting a three-month community wide series of programs promoting human rights and raising awareness about hate, bigotry and bullying.
More than 40 community groups joined the project, including KLRU, Austin’s PBS affiliate.
On April 19 at 7:30 p.m., in conjunction with Yom HaShoah or Holocaust Remembrance Day, KLRU will debut “Producing Light,” a 60-minute documentary. Filmmaker Karen Bernstein followed Ballet Austin’s artistic director Stephen Mills and company over the last several months as they re-mounted Mills’ acclaimed ballet, ‘Light/ Holocaust and Humanity Project.’
The premiere broadcast of ‘Producing Light’ will be bookended by two related programs. At 7 p.m., an interview with Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel airs on “Overheard with Evan Smith.” And then at 8:30 p.m.. a 30-minute excerpt from author Gerda Weissmann Klein’s talk at KLRU’s Engaging Speaker Series will air. A Holocuast survivor, Klein is the recipient of Presidential Medal of Honor.
See www.klru.org/artsincontext
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April 9, 2012
Review: Ballet Austin II
Ballet Austin II exemplified what it means to be a contemporary ballet company when Friday night’s cast of thirteen dancers, including three from Ballet Austin’s main company and three from its trainee program, presented a mixed repertory production at the AustinVentures StudioTheater.
Today’s ballet dancer is, more often than not, expected to embody a diverse repertoire.
In the case of “Ballet Austin II @ AustinVentures StudioTheater,” that meant performing works that ranged from mid-19th century classicism (Marius Petipa’s Act III pas de deux from “Don Quixote”) to 1960s New York City Ballet (George Balanchine’s “Valse Fantaisie”) to two thoroughly contemporary pieces — 2008 New American Talent/Dance finalist Viktor Kabaniaev’s “Phrases” and Ballet Austin Artistic Director Stephen Mills’ “The Naughty Ones.”
Led by Daniella Zlatarev and Kody Jauron, the six dancers of “Valse Fantaisie” gave a clean interpretation of the piece. Dressed in calf-length, light-pink tulle skirts overlaid with a hint of grey that floated as the women waltzed en pointe, the dancers epitomized the airy quality of ballet. Sarah Britton, in her second season with Ballet Austin II, was one to focus on: Her stretch, indicating a limitless quality in her dancing, coupled with her bubbly facial expressions, made watching her a true pleasure.
The ebullient Balanchine choreography was then contrasted with the intensity of one of classical ballet’s most beloved pas de deuxs when main company dancers Michelle Thompson and Preston Andrew Patterson danced an excerpt from the Cervantes-inspired ballet of “Don Quixote.” Though shaky in the beginning, Thompson and Patterson ultimately relaxed into the dance to pull off the coda’s difficult fouetté and a la seconde turns, respectively.
Kabaniaev’s “Phrases” explored just what its title suggests — the choreography was parsed out into solos, duets, trios and groupwork, the dancers demonstrating eloquent control as limbs carved through the air in slow motion. The dim lighting and grey-toned minimalist outfits reflected the music, set to Arvo Pärt.
The evening ended with Mills’ “The Naughty Ones,” which featured four flirtatious couples. In “I Dig Your Voodoo,” a 70s-inspired section, Zlatarev and Jackson Jirard played it cool in funky fabrics and, in Jirard’s case, bell-bottomed pants. Each time Zlatarev playfully dropped her weight into Jirard, he propelled her into a new direction.
And what a metaphor for the modern ballet company: new directions. Ballet Austin is clearly up to speed.
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March 26, 2012
Review: Ballet Austin's 'Light: The Holocaust & Humanity Project'
An orb, emanating steady light, hung over the stage throughout Ballet Austin’s evening-length “Light/The Holocaust and Humanity Project” at the Long Center Friday.
At the opening, rectangular pieces of scrim raise to reveal what can be described as the Tree of Life. The work of Christopher McCollum, it is a gnarled old thing, complete with far-reaching branches and roots, roots that will be torn from the ground, ultimately depriving the tree of its namesake.
A couple, clad in flesh-colored leotards and briefs designed to expose slender, sinewy frames, moved together under a harsh spotlight in front of the backlit tree, their partner work mimicking the interwoven nature of the ropes used to create the tree. There is mutual understanding in their poignant desolation.
The ballet, at times danced en pointe, at other times in flat ballet shoes or barefoot, moved from the birth of humanity and scenes of community to portrayals of absolute despair and destruction, before ending on a placid and hopeful note.
Dressed in earthy-toned garb, the large corps of dancers embodied the communal in a section set to Steve Reich’s “Tehillim” (the Hebrew word for “psalms”); the music’s melodic voices approached the hypnotic. This gave way to the ever-increasing-in-volume noise of sirens, while the dancers nervously though hurriedly stripped down to their undergarments.
While they huddled together, a wad of bodies attempting to find strength in numbers, domestic images were projected onto the rectangular scrims — windows and doors that reminded us we all have a place we call home. Next, images of railroad tracks indicated an ultimate uprooting.
In the final section, Philip Glass’ wonder-filled and peacefully uplifting “Tirol Concerto” set the tone for four duos donning soothing-blue unitards. As they smoothly danced in canon, a sense of hope overcame the suffering of the prior movement.
Given the direct reference to the Holocaust in “Light/The Holocaust and Humanity Project’s” title, perhaps what is most surprising is the piece’s universality — it isn’t about any one historical event, not really. No, the work lives up to its full title: it is about humanity.
Claire Christine Spera is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
Photo by Tony Spielberg.
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March 5, 2012
Review: Chaddick Dance Theater's "Dark to Light"
As a part of Ballet Austin’s three-month-long “Light/The Holocaust and Humanity Project,” consisting of a series of events and performances aimed at Holocaust and human rights education, Chaddick Dance Theater presented “Dark to Light,” a contemporary performance centered around the themes of difference and tolerance, spirituality and hope at the AustinVentures Studio Theater this past weekend.
In the first of the five pieces, “He Said, She Said,” John Michael Hunt and Lynn Forney represented two sides of the coin. Most of the dancing is left to Forney, while the soundtrack — a medley of male and female voices describing what they think the opposite sex thinks about, intertwined with atmospheric music segments — is Hunt’s work. In this piece, the aural trumps the visual: “She plans her day,” says a disembodied male voice, “then plans what I’m going to do, then tells me what I’m going to do.” The audience laughed regularly.
The duet of “Driftwood” evoked a beach scene both in terms of the music (moving water prevails in the soundtrack) and the dance. Katherine Hodges and Maia McCoy sweetly move together, at times lifting one another, or rolling on the floor together, their arms evoking jellyfish tentacles, their bodies splayed like starfish.
Just before “The Hand of Man Before the Hand of God” (a piece choreographed by Artistic Director Cheryl Chaddick that, as explained in the program notes, reflects on her experience of learning about the Holocaust in the eighth grade), Holocaust survivor interview footage obtained from the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation Institute was screened, setting the stage for the next piece. Performed by seven Southern Methodist University Dance Division students, “The Hand of Man Before the Hand of God” combined the spoken word (“God, I need you. What is wrong with you? Can’t you hear me?”) with leg extensions, floor rolls, and leaps.
Chaddick continued to utilize spoken word in her solo-theater piece “Landmark,” the musings of a middle-aged woman who self-identifies as “old, cranky and bitchy.” Dressed in what can be described as Snuggie-esque geriatric pajamas, all the while slumped in an oversize armchair, perusing “O Magazine” and munching on a green apple, Chaddick was thoroughly entertaining.
The concluding choreography of the evening, “Scatterings of Light,” featured nine dancers in a dappled-light environment. The music, enchanting with a tinge of eerie, matched the lighting scheme. Patterns of synchronization and individualism pointed to a definition of humanity: individuals who, in the grand scheme of life, are in it together.
Claire Christine Spera is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
Photo by Rene Michaels, dancedigitals.com.
Permalink | | Categories: Ballet Austin, Dance, Reviews
February 29, 2012
Ballet Austin wins Statesman social media award
Ballet Austin is one of 10 companies and organizations recognized the Austin American-Statesman’s annual social media awards.
The non-profit organization’s lively blog along with its busy Twitter and Facebook feeds was recognized by the judges for “rich multimedia content” that shares “through all social avenues — Facebook, Twitter, the Ballet Austin blog, YouTube and email — thoroughly engaging original content.”
“My daily goal is to provide dynamic, curated content for patrons and dance fans in Austin and across the country,” said Ballet Austin social media manager Eleanor Bartosh.
Connect with Ballet Austin online:
www.balletaustin.org/blog
www.twitter.com/@balletaustin
www.facebook.com/balletaustin
www.youtube.com/balletaustin
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February 28, 2012
Ballet Austin announces 2012-2013 season
Ballet Austin announced its 2012-2013 season recently.
On the roster is a return of the adventuresome, imaginative and critically-acclaimed “Cult of Color: Call to Color,” artistic director Stephen Mills’ collaboration with artist Trenton Doyle Hancock and composer Graham Reynolds. Ballet Austin will present “Cult of Color” at its intimate AustinVentures StudioTheatre where the show premiered in 2006.
Also on season calendar is “The Rite of Spring,” with choreography by Mills and pegged to celebrate the centenary of the seminal modernist ballet set to music by Stravinsky.
Ballet Austin opens its season with Mills’ “The Taming of the Shrew,” originally commissioned by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. The season will close with “Giselle.” And this year’s production of “The Nutcracker” is the company’s 50th annual presentation.
See the full season schedule here.
Video courtesy of Ballet Austin.
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February 21, 2012
Ballet Austin's 'New American Talent/Dance' winners announced
Ballet Austin has tallied up the votes — and prize money — for Fourth Biennial New American Talent/Dance, a national modern ballet choreographic competition held this past weekend at the Long Center for the Performing Arts.
Three finalists competed for cash prizes awarded by an dance-industry jury and the audience itself, voting by text message. zes.
The results are:
- Loni Landon awarded the winning Jurors’ Award of $6,000 for her piece ‘The Wild Card’
- Gregory Dolbashian awarded a Jurors’ Award of $5,000 for his piece ‘views that never cease to keep me from myself’
- Bradley Shelver awarded a Jurors’ Award of $4,000, and received the Audience Award of $1,000 each night, making him the largest prizewinner at $7,000 for his piece ‘The Last Just’
Read the American-Statesman review of ‘New American Talent/Dance’ here.
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February 20, 2012
'New American Talent/Dance' review
At the Long Center last weekend, everyone had the opportunity to voice an opinion by way of text message. At each of the three showings of Ballet Austin’s 4th biennial “New American Talent/Dance,” a competition between three emerging choreographers selected to receive a combined $24,000, the audience was asked to vote for their “pick;” the choreographer with the most votes was awarded $1,000 each performance of the run.
Though the three pieces were created by different choreographers and set to entirely varying music, there was a curious lack of absolute differentiation in the movement between them.
There were certain differences, yes — Bradley Shelver’s seven male dancers in “The Last Just” (the audience pick for all three performances) got vocal when they punctuated the choreography with repeated yells; Gregory Dolbashian’s opening and closing images were memorable in ‘“views that never cease to keep me from myself’”; and the woman in red in Loni Landon’s “The Wild Card” was, in fact, a wild card.
But when it really came down to it, the pieces were monochromatic — literally, in terms of the black and gray costume scheme for each (minus Landon’s red, long-sleeve topped woman); lighting-wise, via the repeated use of the overhead spotlight; thematically, by virtue of the darkness; and movement-wise, in terms of the physicality of the pieces.
In ‘“views that never cease to keep me from myself,’” Dolbashian’s five dancers often moved in cannon, recalling cats stalking prey: flexible, agile and alert. With limbs folding and unfolding to the steady beat of electronic music, like sheets flapping in the wind, and concave spines, the dancers moved in and out of partnering and groupwork sequences. The final moment recalled the first. Initially, a woman is on “this side” of the drawn curtain, supported into a lift by an invisible partner, ensconced in the fabric of the curtain, clinging to its folds. At the end, this same woman reaches toward the audience as the curtain descends, though this time she doesn’t make it to the other side — she gets pulled back.
The pacing of “The Wild Card,” which took the judges’ top prize, was not unlike that of the previous piece, though the music alternated between the atmospheric and the rhythmic. One of the more visually inspiring moments involved the group of six doing sharply executed, synchronized floorwork to a regular beat. The connection/disconnection theme was highlighted when, in turns, the dancers approached the back of the stage face-on and faded into darkness.
In “The Last Just,” the men evoked Jewish folklore when they moved to Hebraic chanting. As the curtain rose, a man dropped to the floor from above and emitted a scream. Throughout, blackouts segmented the choreography into smaller morsels, dividing off sections such as one in which the men find themselves in a circle before they begin slapping their thighs and cooing odd noises. A couple of moments were obvious — a literal fight scene between several of the dancers, and the closing image: a man inhabiting a spotlight, stripped down to flesh-colored underwear, his heaving chest splashed with bright red blood.
Permalink | | Categories: Ballet Austin, Dance, Long Center, Reviews
February 15, 2012
Got ballet? There's an app for that
Need a Ballet Austin fix? There’s an app for that now.
Ballet Austin has just released a free iPhone app allowing users to keep track of all the goings-on at busy company.
Cleanly laid out and loaded with gorgeous visuals, the app lets users find the expected info on upcoming performances, tickets and even parking maps for performances.
But it also features lots of extras like beautiful photo galleries, backstage interviews, dancer-written previews and short video interviews. It’s easy to navigate, too, and while offering plenty of original content, it keeps a less-is-more profile that doesn’t overwhelm.
The Ballet Austin app is currently available free for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad Download it here.
Ballet Austin’s next performance is “New American Talent/Dance,” running Feb. 17-19 at the Long Center. As a choreographic competition for mid-career dancemakers, it’s a unique model in the dance world.
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December 26, 2011
Finalists for Ballet Austin's 'New American Talent' named
Ballet Austin has announced the finalists for the 2012 ‘New American Talent/Dance,’ its fourth biennial national choreographic competition.
The finalists, who all hail from New York, are:
- Gregory Dolbashian, Founder of The DASH Ensemble
- Loni Landon, Founder of Loni Landon-projects
- Bradley Shelver, Artistic Director of Bradley Shelver Contemporary Dance Theater
‘New American Talent/Dance’ will be presented at the Long Center, Feb. 17-19. See www.balletaustin.org for ticket information
The latest installment in this national choreographic competition brings the country’s most compelling young American dancemakers together to showcase their latest world premieres in a competitive arena.
Started in 2006, ‘New American Talent/Dance’ brought a new opportunity for emerging choreographic talent in this country by giving a trio of dancemakers a significant amount studio time with professional dancers and artistic staff to create a new dance along with the opportunity to win major cash prizes. A jury grants the largest prizes and while the audience awards its own prize each night via text-message live voting. A total of $24,000 in prize money will be awarded.
Jurors for the competition are
- Anik Bissonnette, artistic eirector of the Festival des Arts de Saint-Sauveur and president of the Regroupement Quebecois de la Danse
- Molly Lynch, pssistant professor of dance in the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at the University of California, Irvine; founder and artistic director of the National Choreographers Initiative
- Zachary Whittenburg, former dancer and current writer including Dance editor of Time Out: Chicago
Winners and previous finalists of New American Talent/Dance include Thaddeus Davis, Thang Dao, Sidra Bell, Dominic Walsh , Nelly van Bommel and KT Nelson (ODC Dance).
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December 5, 2011
Review: Ballet Austin's "The Nutcracker"
I’ve seen (and been in) more Nutcrackers than I can count. But I experienced a first Saturday at the opening night of Ballet Austin’s 49th annual production of “The Nutcracker” at the Long Center — seeing the much-beloved ballet with someone who had never seen it before. Ever. In fact, he’d never even seen live classical ballet before.
“The Nutcracker” is oftentimes touted as the great introductory ballet for those who have no or limited knowledge of dance of the classical variety. I believe this is the case for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, at only two acts, it is a relatively short ballet, with a run time of something around two hours; Ballet Austin’s version, with choreography by Artistic Director Stephen Mills and set to Tchaikovsky’s 1892 score performed live by the Austin Symphony, is no exception. Many more of the classics, such as “Swan Lake” and “Sleeping Beauty,” are three-act ballets (in the case of “Beauty,” the addition of a prologue takes the run time up to around three-plus hours, making it a long haul for those who aren’t ballet aficionados).
Secondly, the story-telling aspect is absolutely key to “The Nutcracker”; the first scene of Act I, which portrays a Christmas Eve party, largely consists of pantomiming, rather than dancing. It’s not until the last minutes of Act I, when the Snow Queen and King take the stage along with the ballet corps of snowflakes, that the real dancing begins. Act II continues the dancing, with solos, pas de deuxs and group numbers. The structure of the ballet perhaps makes it easier for youngsters to ease into it, who can be inclined to ask during ballet performances, “Why isn’t anyone talking?” (My own sister is guilty as charged — with a tug of Mom’s sleeve, she asked this question when she was five at a screening of “George Balanchine’s ‘The Nutcracker.’”)
While my companion for the evening was someone who has seen quite a bit of dance (especially in his capacity as a flamenco guitarist), he had never before experienced “The Nutcracker.” At the conclusion of the first act — which features polished performances by students from the Ballet Austin Academy, including Blake Cooper and Peyton Cunningham who share the coveted role of Clara — my companion was eager to experience Ballet Austin’s professional dancers’ performances in the second act.
Preston Andrew Patterson, who led the boisterous Russian dance with unparalleled energy, garnered the most applause of any dancer the entire evening for his explosive jumps and clean turns. Oren Porterfield’s spry performance in the whimsical French dance was one of the more technically challenging.
At times, however, the orchestral work outshone the dance, as climactic moments were achieved aurally with the music but not visually with the choreography (or with the dancers’ interpretations of said choreography, such as in the Sugar Plum Fairy and Cavalier’s pas de deux, which fell flat).
Audiences at “The Nutcracker” tend to be more varied than for any other ballet — from bunheads to proud parents, aficionados to first-time viewers, “The Nutcracker” brings people together to experience a holiday tradition.
Ballet Austin’s “The Nutcracker” continues through Dec. 23. See www.balletaustin.org for tickets.
Claire Christine Spera is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
November 16, 2011
Vote for Ballet Austin's "Mother Ginger"
Ballet Austin wants you to vote for Mother Ginger.
Each year, community leaders are recognized by being invited to play the cameo role of Mother Ginger, during each of Ballet Austin’s 12 performance of “The Nutcracker.”
In the second act of the Tchaikovsky ballet, when Clara visits the Land of the Sweets, the Mother Ginger character rolls onto stage on a 4-foot-high platform in an outrageous white-and-red satin costume from which little Bon-Bon dancers emerge.
Some 11 people have already been named celebrity as Mother Gingers for this year. But to celebrate an unsung hero of the community, Ballet Austin collected a list of community or business leaders and are inviting the public to vote. The winner will play Mother Ginger during the Dec. 22 performance.
Voting online continues through Nov. 30 at www.balletaustin.org/motherginger. The winner will be announced Dec. 1.
“The Nutcracker” plays Dec. 3-23 at the Long Center. See www.balletaustin.org for tickets.
Image: Lance Armstrong as Mother Ginger, 1999. Photo by Sung Park/American-Statesman.
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October 3, 2011
Review: 'The Mozart Project'
There’s no denying Ballet Austin’s artistic director, Stephen Mills, is a fan of Mozart. His newest creation, a three-piece series collectively titled “The Mozart Project,” was the company’s 2011-2012 season opener, which premiered at the Long Center last weekend. This work comes after Ballet Austin’s prior season’s closer, “The Magic Flute” — another Mozart-inspired ballet. But this time, Mills has taken Mozart to a new level: This is Mozart gone weird.
The first piece of the evening, “Wolftanzt,” was the most classical. Danced to Michelle Schumann and the Austin Chamber Music Center’s live, pure rendition of Mozart’s “Piano Concerto No. 12,” the 15 dancers maintained traditional male-female partnering relationships throughout the piece’s three movements, with Anne Marie Melendez as the lead ballerina, and Aara Krumpe and Rebecca Johnson as the two soloists. They were flanked by the corps de ballet and framed by a pink wonderland image of abstract roses projected onto the back screen onstage, which matched the ballerinas’ knee-length dresses in various shades of pink.
Though she was not the principal dancer in the piece, it was difficult for this writer to unglue her eyes from Johnson, whose physique and movement quality represented and interpreted Mills’ choreography in a seemingly effortless fashion. “Wolftanzt” is a joyful, expansive dance that calls for sweeping arm movements, high leg extensions, and the perfect arabesque line; the long-limbed Johnson delivered on all counts, especially in the slower second movement when she performed a gorgeous series of leg extensions that called out the delicateness of the piano. “Wolftanzt” ultimately communicates a sense of possibility and freedom.
In “Though the Earth Gives Way,” Austin-based composer Graham Reynolds’ musical composition, along with Michael B. Raiford’s set design, represented a dramatic shift from the production’s opening piece. Reynolds’ score was appropriately eerie, with an echo-y, pulsating beat and electric violin layered on top. The opening image — two white-clad women (Ashley Lynn Gilfix and Melendez) standing perfectly still underneath long veils — was flanked on three sides by five floor-to-ceiling light panels that shocked the eyes when illuminated for brief moments throughout the choreography.
The women were then joined by four men in black, who entered the stage by desperately falling into rectangles of light illuminating patches on the floor. The angular choreography — bent knees, sharp arms — comes to a stark conclusion in the piece’s final moments, when all of the gigantic panels flash at once, several times; with each illumination, the dancers are in a new pose. The chilling final image, with the two ghost-women once again covered with their veils, this time facing the audience head-on, is thrilling.
After the tone set at the conclusion of “Though the Earth Gives Way,” the opening of the evening’s final piece, “Echo Boom,” felt slow. The Austin Chamber Music Center began by playing Mozart’s famous “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik,” which was then “remixed” live by Paul D. Miller (also known as DJ Spooky). This introduction went on for a good 15 minutes, accompanied by an at-times-nauseating, black-and-white projection of words, musical notes and barcodes scrolling across a scrim, before the nine dancers entered the stage.
Christopher Swaim was easily the highlight of “Echo Boom”; his limber back and consciousness of stretching the movement while simultaneously maintaining sharpness to his dancing were engaging, despite a crucial moment when Miller’s composition, in suddenly switching gears to the dissonant, wobbly sound of electronic dance genre dubstep, created a need for audience adjustment to fall back under the spell of the dance.
Claire Christine Spera is an American-Statesman freealance arts writer.
Image: “Wolftanzt” from “The Mozart Project.” Photo by Tony Spielberg.
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August 23, 2011
Fall arts picks: Ballet Austin's 'The Mozart Project'
He did it with J.S. Bach.
Now, Ballet Austin artistic director Stephen Mills will the music of Mozart for his latest genre-crossing collaboration, a modern ballet in three parts using variations of the famed composer’s music.
Like he did last season with “Truth and Beauty: The Bach Project,” Mills will create three short ballets that together will comprise “The Mozart Project.” And again he’ll use the musical talents of Austin composer Graham Reynolds and celebrated Austin pianist Michelle Schumann to help realize the live musical aspect of the show.
Schumann will deliver a quintessentially classic, solo piano rendition of Mozart. And Reynolds will offer his alt classical twist on Mozart’s music. And in a third version, world-renowned DJ Spooky (Paul Miller) will use his unique electronic collage effects to reimagine a Mozart classic.
“The Mozart Project” plays Sept. 30 through Oct. 2 at the Long Center. See www.balletaustin for more information.
Photo: Tony Spielberg.
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July 5, 2011
Ballet Austin leaders commit to another decade at the helm
While just about every other major Austin arts organization has recently seen the departure of its leadership, Ballet Austin
Officials with the organization announced today that artistic director Stephen Mills and executive eirector Cookie Ruiz have accepted 10-year extensions to their employment agreements. The new contracts will continue the Mills-Ruiz leadership team through 2021.
Mills has been at the artistic helm for 10 years; Ruiz has been helming the administrative side of things for 13 years.
Under their collaborative management Ballet Austin has grown from an organization with a $2 million annual budget to a $6 million annually. Mills and Ruiz also led the organization through the $10.3 million capital campaign and innovative downtown redevelopment project resulting in the 38,000 square-foot Butler Dance Education Center.
In recognition of the duo’s achievement, the Ballet Austin board has a names studio at the Butler Center the Mills/Ruiz Legacy Studio.
The combination of Mills and Ruiz is a formula for success. In May, Ballet Austin announced that it had had its best season yet, setting a new record for its own highest grossing season.
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May 10, 2011
Ballet Austin breaks its own sales records
Recession? What recession?
On the heels of the news that arts organizations such as Austin Lyric Opera and Arthouse are beset by budget problems, Ballet Austin has announced that it has had its best season yet.
The 2010-2011 season — the 10th for artistic director Stephen Mills — saw 42,257 paid attendees and $1,992,430 in ticket sales, making it the largest number of paid attendees and highest grossing season of all time for Ballet Austin, the organization announced today in a release. The company also bested its own ticket-selling records with its season opener “Carmina Burana,” and sold more single tickets to its annual production of “The Nutcracker” than any previous season.
Ballet Austin recently completed its season with a stunning new $260,000 production of “The Magic Flute,” a debut with choreography by Mills.
Last week, officials at the Austin Lyric Opera announced that general director Kevin Patterson would be leaving his post and that the organization was more than $1 million in debt and would need to do some emergency fundraising in order to patch up budget shortfalls that could threaten its programming.
In April, just months after opening its newly-renovated Congress Avenue building, Arthouse claimed budget problems for abruptly eliminating the position of its only curator.
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May 9, 2011
Review: Ballet Austin's 'The Magic Flute'
A shadow puppet serpent lurches forward, its body rapidly enlarging until it fills the lit-from-behind screen onstage. Prince Tamino, whose shadow form has been courageously battling the monster, collapses with exhaustion. Next: Three ballerinas to the rescue, their silhouettes betraying tutus and pointe shoes. It is only after destroying the serpent, its body shrinking down to nothing, that the three dancers enter the stage proper, parading in striking black tutus with silver-streaked bodices, their hair fantastically frizzed and piled atop their heads.
Welcome to Ballet Austin artistic director Stephen Mills’ version of Mozart’s beloved opera, “The Magic Flute.” To create this contemporary ballet, the opera’s score was artfully whittled down from its full four hours to a danceable one and a half by University of Texas professor and composer Donald Grantham.
From the playful overture to the prince-and-princess-are-reunited happy ending, the Austin Symphony Orchestra beautifully accompanied the visual feast onstage at the Long Center, composed of Mills’ dance choreography, costume designer Susan Branch-Towne’s delectable outfits and San Francisco-based ShadowLight Productions’ creative shadow puppetry.
In transforming the opera into a ballet, the shadow puppetry effectively filled in what would have been plotline gaps in the absence of the voice. After his tussle with the serpent, Tamino (Frank Shott) is presented with a heart-shaped locket containing the portrait of the lovely Pamina (Ashley Lynn Gilfix), the kidnapped daughter of the imperial Queen of the Night (Aara Krumpe). Pamina’s profile, encircled by the locket shape, appears on the shadow screen. Upon falling instantly and deeply in love with the maiden’s image, Tamino promises to rescue her from her captors, though he doesn’t attempt the mission without his magic flute — capable of changing the hearts of men — and his trusty sidekick.
Enter bird catcher Papageno, danced by the comical Christopher Swaim. His entourage, six bird-women, don richly colored tutus complete with poofed-up ducktails and matching feathered headpieces. The birds’ movements, perfectly synchronized, mimic the harried motions of a flighty flock. Papageno’s love interest, danced by the appropriately frenetic Beth Terwilleger, wears a rainbowed bushy tutu and matching feathered leg warmers. Swaim and Terwilleger make a lively pair in performing a laugh out loud interpretation of mating rituals.
Branch-Towne’s costume designs elicited squeals of delight repeatedly from the audience, including those developed for a parade of animals that traipse across the stage. The crown of one dancer’s head bore the elongated neck and face of a giraffe; another dancer embodied a kangaroo carrying its baby in the front pocket of an apron.
Mills’ choreography was consistently danced confidently. Gilfix, in a pink chiffon outfit, floated about the stage dreamily as the evening’s leading lady; Krumpe illustrated her technical skill as the queen when she hopped on her tippy toes in black pointe shoes; Shott beat his legs together mid-air to the tune of his flute.
Ballet Austin’s “The Magic Flute” is a vividly colorful spectacle you don’t want to end. But the theater experience, we realize, is just as ephemeral as a serpent’s shadow, just as fleeting as the trills of a flute. That’s why we keep going back.
Claire Christine Spera is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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March 29, 2011
Review: Ballet Austin's 'Studio Theater Project'
Mixing it up can be a good thing.
Ballet Austin makes it work with the “Studio Theater Project,” the mixed repertory program playing through Sunday in the Austin Ventures Studio Theater, the intimate venue inside the company’s downtown headquarters.
Nicolo Fonte’s vigorous, intelligent “Lasting Imprint” brought out both a hard-edged physicality and cool intellectualism in the company’s dancers, something not always seen.
Fonte’s piece — the last of three dances presented and the most stunning — began with the dancers in half light, moving with an almost Butoh-like slowness, then halting to form sharp angled poses. The static hiss of brown noise was the only sound accompaniment. A riveting Paul Michael Bloodgood emerged as the lead in opposition to the corps, his body taut and fluid, his movements more pronounced than others in the pattern of movement and stillness. Then without transition or warning, the frenzy of Steve Reich’s ‘Triple Quartet’ broke the silence, red light flooded the stage and the movement accelerated into continuous rush of dancing. Then it stopped it again. The slowness and silence returning yet this time with a more world-weary tone.
With “Silence Within Silence,” Ballet Austin artistic director Stephen Mills created a jewel of a short dance. Set to Brahms’ stirring, romantic Four Ballades for solo piano — and beautifully yet sharply danced — “Silence” found four couples working through the intricacies and vicissitudes of love. Movement fluctuated — sometimes sensuous and sometimes shot through with athleticism, each duet ending with a striking, inventive pose. “Silence” enters the company’s repertoire as a thoughtful, sensual pas de deux showcase.
Mills’ “Luminaria,” getting its Austin premiere after being made for San Antonio’s festival of the same name, was spirited and simple romp to the gorgeous sounds of Jordi Savall’s interpretations of Spanish New World baroque music.
“Studio Theater Project” continues 7 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. Austin Ventures Studio Theater, Ballet Austin, 501 W. Third St. $45. www.balletaustin.org
Photo by Tony Spielberg.
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March 4, 2011
Ballet Austin announces 2011-2012 season
Ballet Austin announces 2011-2012 season which includes the premiere of a new concert, ‘The Mozart Project,’ by artistic director Stephen Mills. The company will also re-mount its critically acclaimed ‘Light / The Holocaust & Humanity Project.’
From the Ballet Austin release:
The Mozart Project (World Premiere)
Sept 30 - Oct 2, 2011
Choreography by Stephen Mills
Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Graham Reynolds
The world premiere of The Mozart Project with choreography by Stephen Mills features an evening-length ballet set to live performances of the music of Mozart as well as Mozart-inspired newly commissioned music. The production will reunite Mills with indie-classical composer/pianist Graham Reynolds and pianist Michelle Schumann.
The 49th Annual Production of The Nutcracker
Dec 3 - 23, 2011
Choreography by Stephen Mills
Music by Peter Illyitch Tchaikovsky
Accompaniment by The Austin Symphony Orchestra
The 4th Biennial New American Talent/Dance
Feb 17 - 19, 2012
For the first time at The Long Center, Ballet Austin’s 4th biennial juried choreographic competition, New American Talent/Dance, brings together three of the country’s most compelling mid-career choreographers to create new work. Culled from a national pool of candidates, these three choreographers will compete for cash prizes of up to $20,000. To build their works, each finalist is brought to Austin and given 40 hours of studio time with Ballet Austin’s Company dancers. The three world premiere works are then presented, as audiences and nationally renowned jurors decide the winner of the cash prizes.
Light / The Holocaust & Humanity Project
Mar 23 - 25, 2012
Concept/Choreography by Stephen Mills
Music by Steve Reich, Evelyn Glennie, Michael Gordon, Arvo Pärt, Philip Glass
2012 marks the return of Stephen Mills’ nationally acclaimed Light / The Holocaust & Humanity Project, which explores the devastating outcomes of unchallenged intolerance and discrimination as revealed through the story of a Holocaust survivor. Light was originally produced in 2005 as the culmination of a community-wide human rights collaboration that brought Ballet Austin into partnership with UT Austin, Holocaust Museum Houston, the Anti-Defamation League, the City of Austin, the Jewish Community Association of Austin among other
Romeo & Juliet
May 11 - 13, 2012
Choreography by Stephen Mills
Music by Sergei Prokofiev
Accompaniment by The Austin Symphony Orchestra
Mills brings back one of Austin’s most beloved works. Accompanied by the Austin Symphony Orchestra performing the Sergei Prokofiev score, the production brings classical ballet to the stage Mother’s Day Weekend.
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February 14, 2011
Review: Ballet Austin's 'La Sylphide'
Possession. It’s what Scotsman James wants in the 19th century romantic ballet “La Sylphide” when he tries to tame a free-spirited forest fairy by binding her wings. We’re presented with the age-old question, at least in the world of ballet — can love between a mortal man and a woman in white lead to a happy ending? If you’ve seen “Giselle,” “La Bayadère” or “Swan Lake” to name a few, you can guess the answer: No.
Ballet Austin’s production of Danish ballet master August Bournonville’s “La Sylphide” at the Long Center Friday marked the first time the ballet has been performed in the city. In some ways, it’s an unconventional choice of ballet to present on Valentine’s Day weekend — because James is unable to touch the sylph until he ties her up with a magical scarf, the ballet is devoid of a single luscious pas de deux between its two leads. The realization of their love is unattainable, especially evident when the sylph dies at James’ touch.
To embody the otherworldly role of the sylph, the ballerina is required to be light on her feet, while playfully mischievous at the same time. Aara Krumpe, in flowing stark white tulle, danced the character beautifully. One moment she would move across the stage with the help of her pointe shoes on her tippy toes, the next tilt her body towards the floor with one leg as her anchor, the other gorgeously extended behind her. She always remained an enticing few inches outside of James’ grasp.
James is the polar opposite of his would-be lover. Donning a kilt with furs belted around his waist, Frank Shott illustrated the character’s connection to the earthly. His huntsman’s lodge, complete with a deer-antler-and-candle chandelier, is seen in contrast to the sylph’s realm of the forest, flooded with girls in white. Both sets as well as the costumes were on loan from Boston Ballet.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. Christopher Swaim took the role of Gurn, desperately in love with James’ betrothed Effie, and turned him, appropriately, into a galumphing doofus. Swaim’s priceless facial expressions brought forth such laughter from the audience that, by Act II, all he had to do was walk onstage to elicit giggles.
In the end, the sylph’s lifeless body floats up, up and away in a leafy vessel. It’s a poignant moment for James, who realizes once and for all the foolishness of his need for possession.
Claire Christine Spera is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
January 6, 2011
Ballet Austin reports banner 'Nutcracker'
Ballet Austin recent production of ‘The Nutcracker’ was the best ever in terms of attendance and ticket sales.
Some 26,319 people attended the 12 performances that ran Dec. 4-13 at the Long Center, grossing more than $1 million in ticket sales, the second time the organization has topped the million mark with ‘The Nutcracker.’ The 2010 production was the 48th annual for Ballet Austin, making it longest running production of ‘The Nutcracker’ in Texas.
The ‘Nutcracker’ success follows Ballet Austin’s season opener in September in which the company performed ‘Carmina Burana’ and ‘Kai’ to three sold-out performances at the Dell Hall.
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