USC Dance Company rises to the challenge of staging classic ballet Sylvia in Fall Concert
October 21, 2015
COLUMBIA, SC – The UofSC Dance Company will take on a mix of beloved classics and expressive new works in its Fall concert, On Pointe, November 12-13 at the Koger Center for the Arts.
Show times are 7:30pm each evening. Admission for the concert is $12 for students, $16 for University faculty/staff, military or seniors 60+, and $18 for the general public. Tickets can be purchased by calling803-777-5112 or visiting www.kogercenterforthearts.com. The Koger Center is located at 1051 Greene St.
A centerpiece of the concert will be a performance of Act One of the classic ballet Sylvia, adapted by award-winning dance educator Kathryn Long (Youth American Grand Prix Outstanding Teacher, 2012) from the original choreography by Sir Frederick Ashton (Royal Ballet). Also featured will be George Balanchine’s signature work Serenade, plus original works by guest choreographer Shaun Boyle (UC-Irvine, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet) and UofSC Dance instructor Madeline Jazz Harvey.
Sylvia
Act One of Sylvia tells the Greek mythological story of Aminta, a shepherd who is secretly in love with Sylvia, a huntress nymph who has promised never to love. When Aminta is accidentally pierced by Sylvia’s arrow, and she by the bow of the love god Eros, she begins to experience true love, but is unexpectedly abducted by the jealous hunter Orion.
“This is the first time we’ve done a storytelling ballet,” says Professor Susan Anderson, Founder and Artistic Director of the dance program. “We’ve done full acts in the past from ballets like Swan Lake andGiselle, but this is the first time we’ve taken on the full challenge of incorporating the acting of a story through dance.”
“It requires an artistic maturity to convey a narrative through dance,” adds UofSC dance instructor Madeline Jazz Harvey, “and our students are at that level.” Sophomore dance performance major Alexandra Turetzky, who came to the UofSC from the San Francisco Ballet School, will dance the title role.
Anderson calls Sylvia a “beautiful story, with a little bit of magic and mystery” that will be particularly mesmerizing for younger audiences.
Momentary Diversions
Momentary Diversions, by guest choreographer Shaun Boyle, is a work fusing classical ballet and modern dance, partially inspired by the Robert Frost poem, Dust of Snow. Boyle, an assistant professor at UC-Irvine and former performer with BalletMet and the Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, conceived the work in collaboration with University dance students.
“She gave choreographic tasks to the students, allowing them to take ownership and creative liberties in developing their own movement, and then allowed that to inform her construction of the final piece,” says Harvey, who is rehearsal director for the piece.
“Through that process, Shaun encouraged the students to take on a level of critical thought about the movement, asking why they made certain choices and what their intention was,” says Harvey. “She really stressed not just steps for the sake of steps, but what the underlying meaning of those steps were.”
Anderson says the dance program is entering the piece for competition in the 2016 American College Dance Festival.
Pax
Pax is a reconstruction of a piece created in 2009 by Madeline Jazz Harvey for the North Carolina Dance Theatre (now Charlotte Ballet) that incorporates classical ballet with modern and jazz dance. She describes Pax as juxtaposing moods of chaos and calm into a larger theme of the power of an individual to overcome obstacles.
The new UofSC instructor praises her dance students for what they are bringing to the work. “I can make adaptations to suit their strengths, and that, in turn, inspires new ideas,” she says.
In addition to her work with Charlotte Ballet, Harvey has choreographed for the Carolina Ballet Theatre and the Chautauqua Institution in NY. In 2007, an original ballet created for Chautauqua earned Harvey a prestigious New York Choreographic Institute Fellowship Award from the NYC Ballet’s Diamond Project.
Serenade
The first ballet George Balanchine made in America, Serenade began simply as a lesson in stage technique. The legendary choreographer even worked unexpected rehearsal events, such as one student’s fall and another’s lateness, into the choreography. The ballet was recently described by The Wall Street Journal as “the Rosetta Stone for a new kind of dancer, the American classical dancer.”
“It’s going to be a fabulous concert,” Anderson promises. “It’s rich and just saturated with great choreography with a variety of techniques and styles.”
Adds Harvey, “The quality of these dancers is fantastic. They’re being held to the standard of professionals and rising to that level. There’s an openness to continue evolving and not be complacent once they reach a high level of technique. Our dancers have a real hunger, and that has a lot to do with the performance opportunities they’re given.”
For more information about On Pointe or the dance program at the University of South Carolina, contact Kevin Bush by phone at 803-777-9353 or via email at [email protected].
