1 minute read
DA NCE
City Ballet and San Diego Ballet will both bring highly emotional productions to the Balboa Theatre
San Diego Ballet: “Giselle”
Advertisement
BY MARCIA LUTTRELL
This year, productions by City Ballet of San Diego and San Diego Ballet are primed to deliver excellence.
Like many local dance companies, they were forced to cancel live performances and reschedule, so there has been an abundance of preparation and repetitive rehearsals. Both shows combine traditional classics with contemporary ideas and express, through movement and imagery a mosaic of emotions that verbal communication fails to achieve As a word person, I’m inspired.
City Ballet:
“Rhapsody in Blue
During last year’s scramble for survival, City Ballet presented an intriguing, online version of “Rhapsody in Blue,” with original choreography by resident choreographer Geoff Gonzalez that was accompanied by George Gershwin’s familiar score.
Ican’t wait to see it live on March 25-26 at the Balboa Theatre.
The overall theme of “Rhapsody in Blue” reflects the ways that our sexuality is integral to who we are and who we are drawn to, regardless of gender. Gonzalez’s choreography is ambitious and complex: A pas de deux, for instance, features exceptionally proficient Brazilian dancers Lucas Ataide and Iago Breschi, who manage to express curiosity sensuality and playful masculinity at once
The male characters are attracted to each other but how they identify sexu- ally is deliberately ambiguous.
This production doesn’t make a social statement about gender equality. Rather, it recognizes the ways the laws of attraction play into our choices.
The company also will debut George Balanchine’s “Danses Concertantes,” a witty and energetic work that projects the excitement of dancers who are preparing for a big show essentially, a performance within a performance.
Additionally, the company will perform “Kingdom of the Shades” from “La Bayadère,” one of the most famous and celebrated of choreographer Marius Petipa’s exotic ballets.
It’s a visually gorgeous excerpt, with the corps de ballet dressed in white and moving in sync.
