Ballet Tennessee’s Repertory Performance will be Friday, May 16, at 7:30 p.m. and Ballet Tennessee presents VanCura Ballet Conservatory in Spring Festival of Dance on Saturday, May 17, at 7:30 p.m. at the UTC Fine Arts Center, Roland Hayes Concert Hall.
From up and coming, to locally-developed, to new area residents, the choreographers featured in Ballet Tennessee’s Spring Repertory Performance are not to be missed.
The evening will feature young choreographers from the Chattanooga dance community. Emma Caines, who previously won the 2012 Tennessee Association of Dance Choreography Competition, is a local up and coming choreographer. This performance marks her first created for the Ballet Tennessee Company. Ms. Caines is a graduating senior from Ivy Academy and Ballet Tennessee Company member. Her contemporary piece "Foreigners" set to Radio Head, brings forth both contemplative and passionate moods. LaJeromeny Brown, Ballet Tennessee TIP scholarship and CCA student, in partnership with Reagan Sanborn, Ballet Tennessee Company II and GPS student, choreographed "Limitless," set on Company II dancers. The work focuses on the soaring strength that women can embody.
Guest company Project Motion, the performing company of Center for Creative Arts, Dance Director Karen Wilson, will perform a work choreographed by recent graduate Crystal Newson. The contemporary work "Breaking the Barrier" is a welcome addition to the program. New jazz choreography "Speak Up or Don’t Speak at All" by faculty member Brittany Johnson-Mills is choreographed to songs by Christina Aguilera and Zedd. The intense emotion is sure to evoke angst and passion in all viewers. As children, both Ms. Newson and Ms. Mills participated in the free Dance Alive summer program and were TIP scholarship recipients with Ballet Tennessee.
Lindsay Pierce joined the teaching staff of VanCura Ballet Conservatory in 2012. She holds a master's of Fine Arts in dance performance and choreography with a secondary emphasis in dance for the camera from the University of Colorado at Boulder. The evening’s impressive work, "Luminosities" offers high caliber choreography with intricate patterns and phrasing.
Errin Cusack joined the faculty this spring. She graduated from Kennesaw State University under director Ivan Pulinkala and continued her dance education at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. The Company I dancers perform Ms. Cusack’s "Copacabana," a musical theater piece that starts out electric and only increases in energy and pace. The exciting choreography and dancing will leave the audience breathless.
Ballet Tennessee still retains its roots in classical ballet. Both excerpts from Giselle and Les Sylphides bring the romantic era of ballet to the Chattanooga audience. From forest sylphs in white gossamer costumes in Les Sylphides, to the vivacious peasant variations of Giselle, the Ballet Tennessee company brings breath, stylization, and technique into a beautiful ballet harmony.
The May 16th performance is a one night only chance to see Ballet Tennessee repertoire and guest company. Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for children.
On May 17, the Conservatory and BT Outreach Programs will present jazz and contemporary pieces by their class instructors and will perform a ballet suite ‘Piano and Violin Concerto’ by French female composers Pauline Viardot and Louise Farrenc. Staged by Artistic Director, Anna Baker-VanCura, the ballet focuses on the classical poses, port de bras, body facings, and basic vocabulary; the language of classical ballet.