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3/20/2015
Ballet SA takes on the challenge of Balanchine - San Antonio Express-News
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MUSIC & STAGE
Ballet SA takes on the challenge of
Balanchine
Tobin sets Balanchine neo­classical work
Jasmina Wellinghoff, For the Express­News | March 20, 2015
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Ballet SA takes on the challenge of Balanchine - San Antonio Express-News
Photo: Courtesy Alexander Devora
Lydia Relle, Crystal Serrano, Jayson Pescasio, Rania Charalambidou and Yanaylet Lopez will
perform in Ballet San Antonio's program of works by George Balanchine and Gabriel
Zertuche.
Fresh off its impressive production of Ben Stevenson’s “Romeo and Juliet,” Ballet San
Antonio has taken on a new and different challenge — a work of iconic American
choreographer George Balanchine.
Though born and trained in Russia, Balanchine moved to the U.S. in 1933 and later cofounded the New York City Ballet, which he led until his death in 1983. Along the way, he
created hundreds of ballets and other dances, many of them still performed by companies
all over the world.
“As we were talking about developing the company further, I felt it was important to try to
do Balanchine, to show that we were capable of stylistic diversity. His style is completely
different from Stevenson’s,” said Ballet San Antonio Artistic Director Gabriel Zertuche.
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“San Antonio may not be well aware of
him and his impact on dance, but ballet
lovers know it. Not everyone can get
the right to perform his work. The
Balanchine Trust makes that decision
after a demanding process of
application and approval.”
That did not stop Zertuche from trying.
He made that first call last spring, and
the rest may very well become San
Antonio dance history. After providing
written and video documentation of
Ballet San Antonio’s accomplishments,
the trust granted the company the rights
to stage “Donizetti Variations,” a neoclassical ballet Balanchine created in
1960 as part of the “Salute to Italy”
program celebrating the 100th
anniversary of Italy’s unification.
Though not frequently performed, the
MORE INFORMATION
'Balanchine’
When: 8 p.m. Friday­Saturday and 2 p.m.
Sunday
Where: H­E­B Performance Hall, Tobin Center
for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle.
Tickets: $28 to $93 at the Tobin Center box
office; by calling 210­223­8624; or online at
tobi.tobincenter.org.
piece has the distinction of being the
first Balanchine work to be staged in the Soviet Union after his defection to the West.
The Ballet San Antonio production, opening Friday at the Tobin Center for the Performing
Arts, marks the first time a Balanchine ballet ever has been presented by a local ensemble.
“The work is classical in vocabulary but with music from a Donizetti opera ('Dom
Sebastien’), so there is that combination of classical dance and an operatic flair,” said
former New York City Ballet principal dancer Philip Neal, who came to San Antonio to
coach dancers in the Balanchine style. “It’s a bright, buoyant work, but technically very
challenging, lots and lots of steps packed into half-an-hour.
When Balanchine came to New York,
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Ballet SA takes on the challenge of Balanchine - San Antonio Express-News
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Neal added, “he said he wanted to
create a company that matched the pace
of the city. That’s how speed became
the hallmark of the New York City
Group rocks to beat of
different drum
Ballet.”
Zertuche describes that speed as
“breathtaking.”
“As they exit the stage, the dancers are
sweating and breathing really hard; this
piece moves!”
At first, the San Antonio dancers
complained about the tempo, Neal said,
but he promised that in two weeks it
wouldn’t seem that fast at all. They just
needed to adjust to it.
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Break out the umbrellas
In addition to the brisk pace, “Donizetti
Variations” demands exceptional
technical skills, such as expecting ballerinas to land on pointe following a jump.
Like much of Balanchine’s work, the piece is largely abstract, with choreography that
embodies the dance maker’s vision of the music. There’s no story or theme.
“How much story do you want?” Balanchine is famously quoted as saying. “You put a
man and a woman on stage, and that’s already a story.”
“Variations” features a lead male-female couple plus three trios of dancers who will
perform the 20th century ballet in adapted period costumes.
“He wanted the dancers’ own personalities to shine through,” Neal said. “That’s
something I emphasized to the dancers, to find their own way to express themselves, not
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Ballet SA takes on the challenge of Balanchine - San Antonio Express-News
just learn the steps.”
The production marks lead dancer Jayson Pescasio’s first encounter with the revered
choreographer’s oeuvre.
“It’s very different from story-based choreography,” he said. “You don’t have a character
to portray, so you don’t know what you are going for. Here music ties everything together.
So I relate my movements to the music; I translate what the music makes me feel, and
since I dance with a partner I try to relate to her.”
Pescasio’s alternating partners will be up-and-coming company member Kate Maxted and
principal Sally Turkel. Maxted was chosen personally by Neal because he felt that “she
could really physically manifest the music.”
The program also will include two new contemporary ballets by Zertuche and the short
balletic gem “Nokturn” created by principals Ian Morris and Sarah Pautz a couple of years
ago.
“Doing Balanchine is a rite of passage in a way,” said Zertuche. “It’s important that we do
it well.”
Jasmina Wellinghoff is an arts writer.
© 2015 Hearst Communications Inc.
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