Philadelphia Season Finale with Summer Series 2009
Contemporary ballet company BalletX celebrates dance season finale at The Wilma Theater and presents Summer Series 2009, July 22-26. The innovative program features a world premiere by Jodie Gates danced to Ravel’s Bolero, and two classic BalletX favorites: Jorma Elo’s Scenes View 2 and Matthew Neenan’s Broke Apart.
“The movement, the sense of quiet fierceness about it … It will be physical, sensual, abstract and visually stunning,” says Jodie Gates, describing her new work set to Bolero and original music by Jack Eddy.
Jodie Gates is well-known in the Philadelphia region: She was a principal ballerina with The Pennsylvania Ballet during 1995-2000. She has also performed as a lead dancer for Joffrey Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, San Francisco Ballet and others.
Ms. Gates, a founder of CaDance/Laguna Dance Festival, CA, is thrilled to return to Philadelphia to collaborate with her former colleagues from The Pennsylvania Ballet: “Philadelphia is a very artistic community; it has this Renaissance happening in the city cultivating art and new sense of thinking about dance.”
A former dancer with Netherlands Dance Theater, Jorma Elo has created work for dance companies around the world. His Scenes View 2 is a juxtaposition of hip-hop and classical ballet for seven dancers who never leave the stage. The piece is set to J.S. Bach’s Partita No. 2 in D Minor for Solo Violin and opens with spoken dialogue from the play Carmen. The ballet is marked by high energy and detailed isolated movements, showcasing the dancers’ strengths.
In addition to the cast of seven dancers, Matthew Neenan’s Broke Apart is distinguished by a landmark feature: a clever set of four portable bars designed by Matthew Pappajohn.
“The set was originally built for my other ballet, Wonder Why. I knew I could do much more with it and was inspired to create this fun piece, with very athletic, almost gymnast-like moves,” explains Neenan. “The bars acquired a life of their own, they can be taken apart and put together again, hence the title Broke Apart. It became a metaphor of life’s shifts and barriers that we put up.”
Broke Apart is danced to a compilation of songs by female artists: Joanna Newsom, Cynthia Hopkins, Martha Wainwright, and a female duet, She-Haw.
Scenes View 2 by Jorma Elo and Broke Apart by Matthew Neenan both premiered in the 2006 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival.
Summer Series 2009 features dancers: Amy Aldridge*, Laura Feig, James Ihde*, Jermel Johnson*, Tara Keating, Anitra Nurnberger, Matthew Prescott, Francis Veyette*, Kevin Yee-Chan (* guest dancer from The Pennsylvania Ballet).
Costume design by Martha Chamberlain. Lighting design: Drew Billiau.
Performance Times:
Wednesday-Saturday, 7/22-25 at 8 p.m.,
Sunday, 7/26 at 2 p.m.
Tickets: $30 General, $25 Senior, $20 Student, at the Wilma Theater Box Office, 265 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia, call 215-546-7824 or at http://www.WilmaTheater.org. Groups of 10 save 20%. More information at http://www.BalletX.org.
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