McKenna Ryan Tuesday, November 19th, 2013 Dance 1100 Ballet 1 Ballet Analysis

The Beauty of the Ballet Ensemble

When I was young, I was taken to a performance of the Nutcracker by my Father. Reluctant at first, I soon found a love for Ballet and all of its unique beauty. This year, while taking my first Ballet class, we had the opportunity to attend a Ballet performance of our choosing, and I was thrilled for the opportunity. Since I dont bring myself to many dance performances, I was looking forward to this part of my learning experience. After several weeks of contemplating my options for performances, I stumbled upon the University of Utahs Ballet Ensemble performance and knew I wanted to attend. This particular ensemble was held by faculty and students of the ballet department of the University of Utah. While attending this performance, I was in awe at the graceful, musical, whimsical talent of the dancers and everyone else who played a part in the production. The ensemble seemed as if it was professionally choreographed and every other element, such as lighting, costume designing, makeup designing, and music seemed to be well thought through and perfected. Needless to say, I was deeply impressed with the entire performance. The ensemble started off with a piece called Poetic Motion,choreographed by Heather Colledge-Gray. This piece was, as it says in the title, the antithesis of poetic.

Each of the moves were beautifully executed and well thought out. For most of the performance, there was a duet on stage of two performers, a male and a female. Throughout the entire piece, the choreography seemed to be a more modern version of ballet. While there were some traditional ballet moves utilized, many of the traditional moves seemed to be altered into a more fluid motion, like that of modern dance. There were several occasions when the dancers were on the floor and almost the entire time they were assisting each other in choreography that seemed to be impossible. The dancers arms were a big part of the production, as they helped portray the mood of the piece exquisitely. The second performance of the Ballet Ensemble was that of Gerald Arpinos Birthday Variations. This performance, being just as wonderful as the previous performance, had a very different feel. The performance seemed to move from continent to continent with different dance styles and music. Starting with a spanish song, two performers were assisting each other on stage with a perfectly choreographed duet. After some time, several dancers made their way on stage to assist the main dancers. This performance started to utilize the more traditional ballet style while still maintaining a slight modern twist. The use of retire, pass and fondu were very prominent in this piece, as well as the pirouette and cambre. Lastly, the ballet department performed Michel Fokines one -act Les Sylphides. Compared to each of the other performances, this was most like traditional ballet. For this performance, almost all of the dancers were on point and beautifully mastered their pirouettes and cambres. This was the longest of the three pieces, telling a tragic love story of sorts. The dancers seemed to encompass their parts perfectly and it felt like the

ballet was screaming each characters feelings of love and pain. In this performance, there were three main characters, accompanied by several back up performers. Each of the dancers played a vital role in assuring the audience knew the story line. The dancers seemed to master every piece of choreography from the impressive leaps to the lifts. Overall, this performance was a very beautiful one, and the dancers from the university did an excellent job of executing one of Fokines most celebrated works. Aside from the choreography, the lighting, makeup and costume design were stunning. During the second act, while the choreography took an unexpected tribal twist, the lighting immediately changed to warm shades of orange, yellow and red, simulating the Summer heat. At the same time, the music changed to a melody of drum beats and deep melodic tones. During the third, and final performance, when the main dancer was broken hearted and distraught, the dancer gracefully pulled down her hair as she fell to the floor. At this same time, her costume became disheveled, the music stopped for a brief moment and continued in sad, soft tones, just as the lighting dimmed and took on a cool demeanor. While the dancing and choreography itself could have been seen as sad and dramatic, the change of the music and the lights seemed to make the audience feel torn apart in agony alongside the dancer. The lighting, music, costume and makeup designers did an excellent job of making the audience feel like a part of the production and as if we were there performing and feeling with the dancers. The University of Utah did an excellent job of remaking these three wonderful pieces. They covered many styles of ballet and each of the the performances told a passionate and powerful story. While the dancers and choreographers played a vital role in the performances, the lighting, costume, makeup and music designers played an

equally important role. The performances were flawlessly executed and were the epitome of professional. After attending this performance, I would love to attend more of the ensembles put together by the university and plan on doing so in the near future. It is amazing to me the amount of talent that each one of the dancers has and it makes me appreciate the beauty of ballet.