Karena Brock Carlyle

Karena is a former Principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre. She has partnered with stars such as Rudolf Nureyev, Ivan Nagy, and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Karena has danced all over the world and has performed for two US presidents. This year Karena has staged the classical ballet Paquita.

What led you to choose Paquita for this year’s performance?

I chose Paquita because it is such a beautiful, classical, bright, and happy piece. I like to open with a classical ballet piece to show what our dancers are capable of. I always choose something challenging and different.

Tell me a little about the story of Paquita.

The ballet Paquita is set in Spain during Napoleon’s occupation. The story tells of a young Romani girl who is abducted as a baby unaware of her noble birth. She falls in love with a French officer and eventually learns of her true identity. We are performing Act 3, the wedding scene. It is pure dance. The wedding scene features the Grande Pas which is a showcase of classical ballet technique. It is so important to keep these classical ballets alive. They are such beautiful works of art. I especially love staging a classical ballet because otherwise you would have to travel to see them.

It’s true that we don’t often get to see a live ballet performance with partnering and pointe work.

Yes, and it is important that we keep this art form alive and accessible. I know there is quite a lot of ballet available on the internet which was not available as I was coming up, but there is a dimension lost when you watch dance on the screen. A certain electricity that doesn’t come through and you lose the communication between the performer and the audience. The two play off each other during a live performance.

What has been challenging about staging this piece?

The wedding scene is beautiful and happy. It contains some character dancing as well as classical steps. Particularly the Mazurka. It is very fast and can be a challenge, but I know our dancers will work to perform it beautifully. I like to open with something beautiful then transition to something more contemporary and finish with a ballet that tells a story. Terpsichore highlights a well-trained dancer’s versatility; moving smoothly between classical, contemporary and jazz styles.

Artistic Director

John Carlyle

John began his ballet training at City Center Dance Theatre in Atlanta. In New York John continued his studies on full scholarship at Harkness School of Ballet. While in NY, John studied with some of the finest ballet instructors in the world, including Melissa Hayden, Robert Denvers, David Howard, Edward Villella and Bill Carter. John danced professionally with City Center Dance Theatre, The Tampa Ballet and Savannah Ballet. This year John is staging his original ballet, Snow White.

Tell us what led you to create a ballet for the story of Snow White?

One year after Nutcracker Rehearsal Karena wanted to announce to the dancers what we would be dancing for the Spring. I replied, “We don’t know what we are doing for the spring.” She said, “Tell them we are doing Snow White.” So, I did, and everybody cheered. Later when we were alone, I said, “You know there isn’t really a Snow White Ballet.” She looked at me and said, “You are so creative, you’ll figure something out.”

And you did.

I knew people had tried to stage a Snow White ballet, so I looked at some of them, but they were dark and somber. The music was dark and somber. I know it’s a Grimm’s fairy tell but I wanted to do something different, so I began to look for music that inspired me to tell the story. What I found was the music from the Princess Bride by Mark Knopfler. It told the story I wanted to tell.

What is next in choreographing a ballet?

I chose steps that tell the story. Not just dance for the sake of dancing. The ballet is very story driven. Another challenge of the production is that aside from the main characters I needed something for the corps de ballet to do so, I gave the queen henchmen. Her sycophants support her. For the prince, I gave him guardian angels. When the prince must leave, his guardian, angels stay with Snow White. This gave the corps de ballet something beautiful to dance.

What would you tell audiences about your production of Snow White?

Snow White is a ballet for all ages. It is a family friendly story, but it is not a little kids’ story. People of all ages will enjoy Snow White and Terpsichore.

Tell me about Hoedown and your new jazz piece. Hoedown is a western inspired ballet. Taking some music from Rodeo and Western Symphony along with some other composers and putting it together to create Hoedown. It’s a fun ballet. It’s upbeat with lots of bright colors. The dancers are having a really fun time with this dance. My next piece is currently untitled. It is based on soul music, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye. I’ve wanted to do this for a while and this year I really felt the inspiration to make it happen. This piece is about capturing the style and little nuances from the sixties and seventies. It requires quite of bit of musicality, synchronization, and really being on the right counts.

I’ve had an opportunity to see small snippets of this dance and I am blown away by the choreography and the dancers. It looks very challenging. Karena and I were just talking about this. Yes, the dancers are trained classically first, but the training allows them to jump into so many different styles. This soul piece is more grounded with lots of hips and twists. Dancers have to be really versatile, and Terpsichore shows what a well-trained dancer can do. The variety of music and dance styles make for a very exciting show.