 Newspaper View
 Print
 Email
 Comment
 RSS
 Bookmark
If you would like to bookmark this article you will need to Login to your tulsaworld.com account
close
Tulsa Ballet going all-out in NY
Tulsa Ballet dancers Alfonso Martin and Karina Gonzalez in a scene from "Elite Syncopations," one of the works Tulsa Ballet will perform during its week at New York City's Joyce Theatre. CORY YOUNG/Tulsa World file
By JAMES D. WATTS JR. World Scene Writer
Published: 8/2/2009 2:22 AM
Last Modified: 8/2/2009 5:12 AM
In planning for Tulsa Ballet's return to New York City, artistic director Marcello Angelini devised some 25 programs that the company could perform.
All had one thing in common — they were safe.
"Everything gets seen in New York," Angelini said. "It is home to two of the country's major ballet companies, with five or six that are about as large and important. All the major international companies perform there. And the critics there have their very definite opinions — there are some things they like, and there are many things they don't like.
"So when a company such as ours decides to go to New York, you can do one of two things: One is to be conservative. You present a program that limits you to the niche you occupy, that really doesn't set you up to be compared to anyone else."
The other option is to try and beat the New York City dance world at its own game — by performing ballets that invite comparison to such legendary companies as American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet.
Angelini is going for the latter.
Tulsa Ballet will perform at New York City's Joyce Theater — the only theater in the Big Apple devoted entirely to dance — Aug. 10-15. It will be the first the company has performed in New York in 25 years.
When Tulsa Ballet went to New York in 1983, the company presented a "lost" work by George Balanchine — the "Hand of Fate" pas de deux from the ballet "Cotillion." The performance prompted the late Clive Barnes, then a critic for the New York Post, to write that "Tulsa Ballet Theater is the best thing to be associated with Oklahoma since Rodgers and Hammerstein."
For its return engagement, Tulsa Ballet will perform three works that are relatively recent additions to the company's repertoire: Sir Kenneth MacMillan's "Elite Syncopations," which the company performed for the first time in March; Nacho Duato's "Por vos Muero," which was part of the 2006-2007 season; and "This Is Your Life," Young Soon Hue's creation for Tulsa Ballet that premiered as part of the 2008 "About Tango" program.
"Tulsa Ballet's trademark is its eclectic repertoire," Angelini said. "Our dancers are able to perform anything that been created between 1836 and 2009 — maybe even to 2010 or 2011. They can perform a ballet that is at once a lot of fun and requires a great deal of extremely difficult classical technique like 'Elite Syncopations,' then take of their pointe shoes and dance a work as contemporary and profound as 'Por vos Muero.' "
Tulsa's own
Angelini also realizes that, by doing these works by these choreographers, Tulsa Ballet is doing more than putting on a show. It is making a statement.
The ballets of Sir Kenneth MacMillan and Nacho Duato are only in the repertoire of American Ballet Theater. The only other way for New York audiences to see these works is if the England's Royal Ballet or Spain's Compania Nacional de Danza perform in the city.
"I know that, by doing these works, we are daring New York to compare us to the best of the best," Angelini said. "And that's OK for us. That's the standard of this company — to be the very best."
Including Hue's work in the New York program was to make a statement of a different sort.
"You can't be a leader in the world of dance until other companies are doing the ballets you have had created," Angelini said. "And in the case of Young Soon's 'This is Your Life,' that is happening."
Hue's ballet — a series of narrative vignettes that reveal the joys and tragedies of a group of everyday people — has been performed by Essen Ballet of Germany, the National Ballet of Turkey and Universal Ballet in South Korea.
"It is a ballet that says a lot about the kind of art we are creating in Tulsa," Angelini said. "It is a ballet that is edgy, compelling, very funny — it's a piece that really hits you in the gut. It's not the kind of ballet I think people would expect to come from Tulsa, Oklahoma."
If you go
Tulsa Ballet will present seven
performances Aug. 10-15 at the
Joyce Theater in New York City.
Each performance will be of the
mixed-bill program, “Pos vos
Muero” by Nacho Duato, “Elite
Syncopations” by Sir Kenneth
MacMillan and Young Soon
Hue’s creation for Tulsa Ballet,
“This is Your Life.
An Opening Night Gala Patron
Reception will held following
the Aug. 10 performance, at the
Viceroy Cafe in New York City.
Gov. Brad Henry and Tulsa Mayor
Kathy Taylor will be among the
guests at this event, sponsored
by the Oklahoma Department of
Commerce and the Tulsa Metro
Chamber.
Other events planned for the
week include a patrons’ brunch
Aug. 11, post-performance receptions
following the Aug. 12 and
13, and a special salute to Tulsa
Ballet dancers following the Aug. 15 performances.
For more information about
the Tulsa Ballet Big Apple Tour,
call 749-6030 or online at tulsaworld.com/tulsaballet.
If you don’t
Tulsa Ballet will present a “
Big Apple Preview,” performing
Nacho Duato’s “Por vos Muero”
and two ballets created for the
company, at 7 p.m. Thursday at
Tulsa Ballet, 1212 E. 45th Place.
Single tickets are $75-$125; call
749-6030 for more information.
James D. Watts Jr. 581-8478
james.watts@tulsaworld.com
By JAMES D. WATTS JR. World Scene Writer
Copy Text
Search for this phrase/name
Close
Newspaper View
Print
Email
Comment
RSS
Bookmark
If you would like to bookmark this article you will need to Login to your tulsaworld.com account
close
 |
|
