On Saturday Sept. 15 and Sunday Sept. 16, Ballet Quad Cities worked with local musicians to create Paris en Pointe, which was performed at the St. Ambrose University’s Galvin Fine Arts Center. The idea was many years in the making; it was inspired when Artistic Director, Courtney Lyon, and Artistic Associate, Emily Kate Long, learned that an impressionist exhibit was coming to the Figge Museum in the fall of 2018.
Lyon and Long wanted to create new choreography inspired by certain impressionist paintings featured in the exhibition. Next, they selected music written by French composers from the same era to dance to. Included in the program was a page that showed the paintings and the certain pieces they were inspired by. The choreographer included a small paragraph underneath the painting explaining what they interpreted from the painting that inspired them to create the movements they did.
Inspiration came from bright colors, contrasting tones and the mood the choreographer interpreted from the painting. Boldini’s “Portrait of a Lady,” Redon’s “Jacob Wrestling with the Angel” and Léger’s “Les Plongeurs Polychromes” were some of the paintings that inspired Lyon and Long.
The choreographers were then tasked with finding proper music from the same era that corresponded to the choreography and inspiration. Milhaud’s “Cinéma-Fantasie after La Boeuf sur le Toit, Op. 58b” was paired with “Les Plongeurs Polychromes” because the vibrant sounds of the music complimented the vibrant colors of the painting. Other paintings and music were paired for similar features.
Senior Mahalia Zellmer was one of the dancers in the performance. She was in “The Regatta” and “Les Plongeurs (The Divers)”. “We have been preparing for the performance since August 6,” Zellmer said. “Before school started, I was able to rehearse from 9:00 to 5:15. After school started, I got there around 2:00 and rehearsed until 5:15.”
“All the inspiration came from the paintings,” Zellmer described. “When we first started, we all sat down and analyzed the painting and talked about what the people were doing or what their personalities were.”
After analyzing “Les Plongeurs”, they saw birds were drawn in it. This inspired a pas de deux between a man and a bird that was put in the piece. Lots of hands were in the painting, which was shown in the choreography through numerous hand motions.
Senior Jeanelle Cho went to the performance Saturday night. “My favorite piece was Boléro because it was very different than a classical ballet dance,” Cho said. “They did it on the apron of the stage, so it felt like they were connecting with the audience. I loved the shapes they made with their bodies. It felt like they were telling a story through all the shapes.”
Cho recognized the music for Boléro which has the same title and was composed by Ravel. “It was interesting to see how they interpreted the song in their dance,” Cho said.
Musicians included Quad City Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster Naha Greenholtz and Marian Lee, who is the associate professor at St. Ambrose University. Other musicians included soprano Michelle Crouch, baritone Dr. Nathan Windt, pianist Benjamin Loeb, clarinetist Robert Hadesbeck and flutist Jeiran Hasan. The impressionist exhibit’s home is the Brooklyn Museum. It is titled “French Moderns: Monet to Matisse, 1850-1950”. The exhibit opens Oct. 9 and leaves the Figge Jan. 6. Painters featured are Gerôme, Monet, Renoir, and Cezanne, among many others.
