Ballet Santa Barbara will give a free workshop and performance at the Carrillo Recreation
Center on Saturday, October 25th, 2:00-3:30, in the Ballroom. Designed for children,
youth, families and seniors, this cross cultural dance event will feature both local
dancers and New York City guest artists.
In an informal and welcoming setting, Ballet: Up Close and Cultural
will explore the many ways dance communicates through movement. This fun and educational
program, connecting contemporary ballet to Balinese and Afro-Brazilian dance, is
designed to involve the entire audience and kids in particular, through participation
in dance exercises and choreography, and a question and answer segment where Ballet
Santa Barbara’s exceptional dancers will share their personal and professional dance
experiences.
Ballet: Up Close and Cultural is made possible, in part, by our
first Organizational Development grant from the City of Santa Barbara in partnership
with the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission. We would also like to thank the Carrillo
Recreation Center, Santa Barbara Travel Bureau, Santa Barbara City College, The
Coffee Cat, Tuttini, and Adams Printing and Graphics for their contribution to this
event.
Featuring New York guest artists
Carlos Fittante and Robin Gilbert Campos Choreography by Carrie Diamond,
Carlos Fittante,
Brian Carey Chung, and Benjamin Harkarvy
and traditional Balinese and Afro-Brazilian dance
Music by Chopin, Prokofiev, Ravel, and Etta James
Live piano accompaniment by music director, Eric Valinsky
Terra Incognita
(Excerpt)
(Sometimes the most unrecognizable terrain is found
in the most familiar people and places…)
Choreography: Carrie Diamond
Music: Selected Mazurkas by Frederick Chopin
Performed by Eric Valinsky
Costumes:
Ann Bruice
Eric Valinsky, Denise Woods, and Nicole Helton in Terra Incognita
Photo: ©2006 David Bazemore
A work for 5 dancers, including a guest appearance by the popular Santa Barbara
dancer Juliana Bertelson, was choreographed by artistic director
Carrie Diamond and set to Mazurkas by Frederic Chopin,
performed live by music director Eric Valinsky. In this satiric
ballet, a couple confronts manipulation, betrayal, and finally affirmation in a
work that combines classical and contemporary styles.
Wayang Blues
(Excerpt)
Choreography: Carlos Fittante
Music: Songs sung by Etta James
Costumes: Ann Bruice
Set: Patricia L. Frank
Video Animation: David Bengali
Puppeteers: James Birch, Yuki Kawahisa, Carlos
Fittante
Mr. & Mrs.: Robin Gilbert Campos and Carlos Fittante
Denise Woods and Carlos Fittante in Fittante's Wayang Blues
Photo: ©2007 David Bazemore
Artistic Associate, Carlos Fittante has set his “Wayang Blues” on the Company, a
compelling duet that truthfully and humorously portrays five decades of a marriage.
Fittante skillfully combines dance-theater, Wayang puppetry and the music of Etta
James.
Premonition
Featuring Carlos Fittante, Artistic Associate and Guest Artist
Choreography: Benjamin Harkarvy
Music: Selections from Introduction and Allegro by Maurice Ravel
Costumes: Jana Rosenblatt
Mr. Harkarvy created this work with the support of
the National Endowment for the Arts.
Carlos Fittante, Colleen Bialas, Aimee Lopez, Ellen O'Connell in Harkarvy's Premonition
Photo: ©2006 David Bazemore
A work for four dancers, choreographed by the late Benjamin Harkarvy,
founder of Nederlands Dans Theater, director of the Pennsylvania
Ballet and the Dance Division of the Juilliard School.
This is one of the two last works choreographed by the master, both of which were
created for Diamond's New American Ballet Ensemble and which featured
Carlos Fittante as well as Ms. Diamond. The dance presents the
coming of age of four young people, doing so in a profoundly modern style, yet with
a decided art deco influence, perfectly in keeping with the score by Maurice
Ravel.
One of three short solos choreographed by our guest choreographers to different
arrangements of Ravel's menuet