Carolina Ballet opens inaugural season with Balanchine works.RALEIGH, North Carolina--Carolina Ballet's inaugural season reflects the vision of artistic director Robert Weiss
The company's three programs at Raleigh's Memorial Auditorium include an all-Balanchine program October 22 to 25; "Innovations," a sampling of work by contemporary choreographers: William Forsythe's Steptext, Elaine Kudo's Hush, and Lynne Taylor-Corbett's Surtacings, April 22 to 25; and Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet star-crossed lovers die as teenagers. [Br. Lit.: Romeo and Juliet] See : Death, Premature Romeo and Juliet archetypal star-crossed lovers. [Br. Lit. , choreographed by Weiss, May 13 to 16. In addition, the company performs world premieres by Richard Tanner, Taylor-Corbett, and Christopher Wheeldon set to chamber music played by the Ciompi Quartet on March 5 and 6 in Durham at Duke University's Reynolds Theater. The season opens with something the company plans to emphasize: Balanchine works. Weiss plans to fill 30 percent of the repertory with Balanchine ballets. For the first program, Weiss has chosen five diverse Balanchine pieces suitable for his company of twenty dancers: Serenade serenade [Ital. sera=evening], term used to designate several types of musical composition. Opera and song literature yield numerous examples of the serenade sung or played by a lover at night beneath his beloved's window; outstanding is , Stars and Stripes Stars and Stripes nickname for the U.S. flag. [Am. Hist.: Brewer Dictionary, 8567] See : America (Pas de Deux pas de deux (French; “step for two”) Dance for two performers. A characteristic part of classical ballet, it includes an adagio, or slow dance, by the ballerina and her partner; solo variations by the male dancer and then the ballerina; and a coda, or ), Duo Concertant, and Steadfast Tin Soldier Steadfast Tin Soldier one-legged toy survives multiple calamities; ultimately immolated. [Dan. Lit.: Andersen’s Fairy Tales] See : Endurance . The program ends with Who Cares? set to George Gershwin. "It is very entertaining, because we are just starting out," says Weiss. "I don't want to put [audiences] off." As a dancer for sixteen years with New York City Ballet New York City Ballet, one of the foremost American dance companies of the 20th cent. It was founded by Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine as the Ballet Society in 1946. , Weiss performed in many Balanchine works, including Steadfast Tin Soldier with Patricia McBride. "If it is danced well, there will not be a dry eye in the house," says Weiss. Weiss has selected dancers for their ability to interpret character, subtext sub·text n. 1. The implicit meaning or theme of a literary text. 2. The underlying personality of a dramatic character as implied or indicated by a script or text and interpreted by an actor in performance. , and the underlying emotion of music, qualities he values over and above technique. In auditions held in ten American cities, he also looked for "beauty in line, the shapes they create." For the men, he had to look outside the United States. "I couldn't find any American men," he says. "All the good ones are taken. I wanted to start us on a very high level." Weiss hired male dancers from South America, Russia, Ukraine, Cuba, Romania, and Armenia. "It's the United Nations of American ballet," he remarks. Although many choreographers have done Romeo and Juliet, Weiss believes there is room for a chamber version centered on character development. Besides the Shakespeare play, it's the music by Sergei Prokofiev that inspires Weiss. "It's one of the great scores for ballet," he says. "It tells the story scene by scene, almost like paint-by-number." |
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