“Turning Pointe”, Madison Ballet’s 40th Anniversary Season Finale
Eight By Benny Goodman, Photo Courtesy Kolman Rosenberg & Verb Ballets
Madison, WI - By March 2022, Madison Ballet will have waited over two years to return to performing its celebrated program of new and modern ballet. 2020's Inside Out was the last production Madison Ballet produced before the pandemic forced its stages closed. Now, with Turning Pointe coming to Promenade Hall in March, Madison Ballet’s artists and audience can once again appreciate the full depth and power of dance.
This production will mark the close of the organization's 40th anniversary season, a time when it has thrived in spite of unprecedented challenges. It will also serve as the passing of the torch to a new Artistic Director from Sara Stewart Schumann, who has led the company dancers since 2018. To celebrate the incredible work of the past while keeping an eye on the future, Turning Pointe captures the wide span of ballet repertoire with highlights from previous collaborators and new works by emerging choreographers.
Program:
Birthday Variations, Choreography Gerald Arpino, Staged by Kim Sagami, Courtesy of the Arpino Foundation
Guitar Concerto, Choreography Ja' Malik, Premiere
Ethos of Force, Choreography Kia Smith, Premiere of Live Performance
Rubies Pas de Deux, Choreography George Balanchine, Staged by Nilas Martins, Courtesy of the Balanchine Trust
Eight by Benny Goodman, Choreography Heinz Poll, Courtesy of and Staged by Richard Dickinson
Birthday Variations is a light ballet by renowned choreographer and co-founder of the Joffrey Ballet School and Company, Gerald Arpino.
Birthday Variations features a series of daredevil solo variations and intricate partnering for one male and five female dancers, staged to excerpts from Giuseppe Verdi’s ballet-opera music. The ballet premiered in March 1986 and was praised by the New York Times as “a classical showpiece of classical dancing.”
Turning Pointe premieres Guitar Concerto, a collaboration between Ja’ Malik, founder of Ballet Boy Productions non-profit ballet company, and Oliver Davis, a preeminent composer of contemporary classical music for ballet, film, TV, and concert hall. Ja’ Malik is recognized as a “New York Times choreographer to watch” for his physical inventiveness and theatrical sense. Together, they push the boundaries of classical guitar and sublime dance movement.
Ethos of Force is a powerful ballet originally produced as a collaboration among choreographer Kia Smith, filmmaker Jordan Biagomala, and MMoCA for Madison Ballet’s 2021 film program, Lift Every Voice. Madison Ballet premieres this first live performance of Ethos of Force in Turning Pointe. This thought-provoking ballet depicts feelings surrounding the pandemic, giving voice to Smith’s vision of the human condition through her lens as an important young artist of color.
Madison Ballet will perform the pas de deux excerpt from George Balanchine’s Rubies, the second movement of his full-length ballet, Jewels. Co-founder of the New York City Ballet, Balanchine is widely considered the father of American Ballet, and Rubies is one of his masterworks. Performed to Igor Stravinsky’s Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra, the six and a half minute pas-de-deux is described as quirky and playful. Jewels is considered the first full-length abstract ballet, breaking the traditional boundaries of ballet.
Eight by Benny Goodman is a delightful visit to the 1930s when Benny Goodman was establishing himself as the “King of Swing”, choreographed by Heinz Poll, founder of the Ohio Ballet. The Benny Goodman Orchestra plays eight tunes from Gershwin, Davis, and other jazz artists as dancers perform mixed ballet and ballroom choreography. This jazzy ballet was a national touring favorite of Ohio Ballet’s when Madison Ballet Artistic Director, Sara Stewart Schumann, danced with the Company in the 1990s, including at the Joyce Theater in New York City.
Turning Pointe represents a culmination of 40 years of Madison Ballet honoring the traditions of this art form while adapting to better reflect and serve its community. More than a clever title, this program is an announcement of the intention to return from the challenges of the pandemic stronger than ever.