BSB's Debut Performance

March 11th at 8:00 PM and March 12 at 2:00 PM, 2006
at the Marjorie Luke Theatre


In Memory of Helen Valinsky, Leal Anne Mertes and Benjamin Harkarvy

The Dancers

Featuring guest artists Carlos Fittante
and Juliana Bertelsen
Carlos Fittante Juliana Bertelsen
Colleen Bialas Sam Mitchell
Eduardo Cueto Ellen O’Connell
Kaitlyn Ezell Christina Sanchez
Aimee Lopez Shane Scopatz

Technical Staff

Samanta Szigeti, stage manager
Rich Hoag, assistant stage manager
Chad Colley, stage crew

The Program

The Triumph of Terpsichore (West Coast Premiere)

Choreography: Carrie Diamond
Music: Buxtehude: Adagio and Allegro by David Noon
Costumes: Jana Rosenblatt

The Muses:
Ellen O’Connell and Aimee Lopez

The Bemused:
Colleen Bialas, Eduardo Cueto, Sam Mitchell and Christina Sanchez

The Triumph of Terpsichore

Bialas, Mitchell, Sanchez, and Cueto in Diamond's The Triumph of Terpsichore
Photo: ©2006 David Bazemore

A delightful work for six dancers by artistic director Carrie Diamond that shows how dance can lighten the lives of even benighted peasants. It is set to a musical score by Pomona composer David Noon, currently Dean of Academics at the Manhattan School of Music.

Midnight Tangle (West Coast Premiere)

Choreography: Lizabeth Skalski
Music: Selections from Kleine Dreigroschenmusik by Kurt Weill
Costumes: Linda Hayes

Kaitlyn Ezell and Shane Scopatz

Midnight Tangle

Kaitlyn Ezell and Shane Scopatz in Liz Skalski's Midnight Tangle
Photo: ©2006 David Bazemore

This pas de deux about a romantic entanglement was set to excerpts from Kurt Weill’s Threepenny Opera by New American Ballet Ensemble’s associate director Liz Skalski. The West Coast Premiere was danced by exquisitely talented San Marcos High School students Kaitlyn Ezell and Shane Scopatz.

Premonition (West Coast Premiere)

Featuring Carlos Fittante, Artistic Associate and Guest Artist

Choreography: Benjamin Harkarvy
Music: Selections from Introduction and Allegro by Maurice Ravel
Costumes: Jana Rosenblatt

Carlos Fittante with Colleen Bialas, Ellen O’Connell and Aimee Lopez

Mr. Harkarvy created this work with the support of
the National Endowment for the Arts.

Harkarvy's Premonition

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.

New Step Rag (West Coast Premiere)

Choreography: Carrie Diamond
Music composed and performed by Eric Valinsky

Colleen Bialas

New Step Rag was made possible in part by a Space Grant
from the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center.

New Step Rag

Eric Valinsky and Colleen Bialas in Carrie Diamond's New Step Rag
Photo: ©2006 David Bazemore

A fiendishly difficult and dramatic solo set to a fiendishly difficult original piano score by music director Eric Valinsky, the choreography by Carrie DIamond represents the struggles of a dancer at the turning point of her career. Although intended to represent the end of a dance career, Colleen Bialas presents an exquisite interpretation at the beginning of hers. Dr. Valinsky performed the music at the West Coast Premiere.

Amantes (Guest Performance)

Choreographed and Danced by Carlos Fittante
Music: Juan Gabriel
Costume: Islene Pinder

Amantes

Carlos Fittante in Amantes
Photo: ©2006 BALAM

New York guest artist Carlos Fittante performed his Balinese-American fusion solo. Amantes (Lovers) is a sensual solo of indeterminate gender depicting a serenely beautiful masked figure who dances with questioning seductiveness.

Terra Incognita (World Premiere)

(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: Stacie Logue/Maria Cabrera

Eduardo Cueto, Aimee Lopez
Colleen Bialas, Ellen O’Connell
and a special appearance by Juliana Bertelsen

Terra Incognita

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.