BalletNext, Park City’s resident dance company, will open its doors to patrons and performing arts lovers for an intimate performance on Sunday, March 22.
The concert, which will give the audience a peek behind the curtain, will be held from 1-3 p.m. at Artistic Director Michele Wile’s home studio.
Although the performance is free, registration is required. Email Wiles at [email protected] to register and for the studio address.
While there is no cost for admission, donations are welcome, Wiles said. Donations can be made by visiting tinyurl.com/4bcrzt9v.
“We are putting some new stuff together for our upcoming shows we have in Salt Lake City,” Wiles said. “So, this in-studio performance will show people how the music and dancing come together.”
Solo harpist Carolyn Mumford will join Wiles, BalletNext resident dancer Matthew Helms, guest artist Bashaun Williams and the company’s pre-professionals — Courtney Rich, Charli Adams and Julia Scherbel.
“The music Carolyn will perform is by Phillip Glass, Max Richter and Ludivico Eindaudi,” said Wiles, a former American Ballet Theatre principal dancer. “They are all the minimalist masters, and I feel bad for Carolyn’s forearms.”
“Translucent Materials” is the name of the work on which the dancers will focus, according to Wiles.
“This was a piece that was incubated at the Park City Library two years ago, and it was well received,” she said. “I’m bringing it back because it is changing and the Salt Lake City audience hasn’t seen it yet.”
Wiles describes the piece as “otherworldly.”
“It’s like a dream or a stream of memories,” she said.
The choreographical transitions are reasons the piece feels dreamlike, Wiles said.
“Trios flow into a solo, and the solo flows into a duet,” she said. “The duet then flows into a quartet, which flows into something else.”
The artists, in addition to dancing to minimalist compositions, will find themselves dancing in silence.
“I’m utilizing silence because I feel there’s something really powerful about that,” Wiles said. “There’s a silent pas de deux, which I think it’s interesting, and that flows into a solo.”
Additional dancers will add a level to the solo when they appear and perform arm phrases of prior variations, Wiles said.
“This is like bringing back fragments of a memory, kind of like a memory of me being in New York City,” she said. “There’s one person walking and doing the choreography straight, and then there are others who are coming in and out of the space doing the choreography backward or slow. So, this isn’t one plus one equals two.”
On top of “Translucent Materials,” the program will include Wiles and Helms’ performance of the “White Swan” pas de deux from “Swane Lake,” performed to the music of DeVotchka.
“We’re bringing the piece back to work with it because we are putting together a new program called ‘Beyond the Swan’ for May, before taking the show to Salt Lake in June,” Wiles said. “The music is so moving, and it works so well with the choreography, and this will be like a preview.”
Wiles enjoys inviting audiences into her studio because of its immersive atmosphere.
“They feel like they’re inside the work, and it’s almost three-dimensional for them,” she said. “They also get to see the process, and they really see what goes on when we collaborate with a musician.”
Wiles also enjoys hearing audience feedback.
“We always get comments like, ‘We didn’t know it was so complicated to put the live music and dance together,’” she said. “So, it’s a vehicle for us. To have people come see my process as an artist is special, and I think that’s one of the reasons why they become patrons of BalletNext.”
The studio is also unique because it is part of Wiles’ home.
“I don’t have to rent studio space,” she said. “I have rented studios in New York for years, and it’s not easy.”
Wiles considers her studio BalletNext’s “heart.”
“This is where everything starts, and I can be there all day and not worry about anything else,” she said. “I teach classes there, and we’re in there creating work there all the time.”
BalletNext In-Studio Performance
- When: 1-3 p.m. Sunday, March 22
- Where: BalletNext Studio
- Cost: Free, but registration required (address will be provided after registration)
- Registration email: [email protected]
- Web: balletnext.org