UMS Concert Program, March 5, 1984: Oakland Ballet --

Season: 105th
Concert: Thirty-fifth
Power Center For The Performing Arts Ann Arbor, Michigan

THE UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Oakland Ballet
RONN GUIDI Artistic Director
Mario Alonzo Jane Beuthet David Blood Diane Cassou Richard Chen-See Tony Cirella Susan Fulton Joy Gim
Steven Bayati Aileen Bibaoco Audrey Broylcs Jade Lynnc Ching Berkeley Choate
Carolyn Goto Douglas Hevenou David Kleine Jon Konetski Erin Leedom Julie Lowe Michael Lowe Michael Myers Kaken Peusson
Vincent Cowart Jane Edwards Monica Gerhart Alison Huff Miriam Kantor Carlos Lopez
Deborah Pitts Smiklee Reevie Summer Lee Rhatigan Deisua Rose Aura Rudisill Susan Taylor Ron Thiele Jennifer Young
Julie Martin Scan Ramirez Michael Ryan Joral Schmalle Adam Sklute
Ron Thiele, Associate Artistic Director
Howard Sayette, Ballet Master Lance James, Company Manager
Robert Klemm, Technical Director Peter Butt, Stage Manager
Gillian Holaday-Klemm, Wardrobe Supervisor
Monday Evening, March 5, 1984, at 8:00
Power Center for the Performing Arts
Ann Arbor, Michigan
The Oakland Ballet performances this week are made possible, in part, by a grant from the Great Lakes Arts Alliance, with the support of the Michigan Council for the Arts and The National Endowment for the Arts.
Thirty-fifth Concert of the 105th Season Thirteenth Annual Choice Series
INCONSEQUENTIALS
Choreography: Agnes de Mille Music: Fkanz Schubert
Staging: Ilene Strickler Lighting: Robert Klemm Costumes designed by Santo Loquasto, executed by Sandra Woodall
Allegro from Sonata in A major, No. 13
The Wanderer (Das Wanderer) Song in Green Places (Das Lied itn Griinen)
Waltzes
The Blind Dance
You are my Peace (Du hist die Ruh) Finale
Jade Lynne Ching Carolyn Goto Erin Lccdom Julie Lowe Patti Owen Karen Persson
Deborah Pitts Abra Rudisill Susan Taylor Richard Chcn-Scc Tony Cirella
Douglas Hcvcnor David Klcine Jon Konctski Michael Lowe Scan Ramirez Joral Schmallc
In 1975 Agnes dc Millc did Summer for Boston Ballot, her first attempt at a Schubert-centered piece. Having mixed feelings about this lighter variation on Schubert's music, she devised a new and darker work for the Joffrey Ballet two years later, A Bridegroom Called Death. As in Robert North's Oakland Ballet premiere this season (next on tonight's program), de Mille "cued the whole ballet" to Schubert's song "Death and the Maiden." The work, presenting mortality as a beautiful marriage with Death, was dedicated to her sister, who passed away near the time of production.
Still not feeling "quite right" with this second interpretation, de Millc in 1981 combined pieces from the two previous ones and added others to make Inconsequentials, in her words "the best of both ballets, and the lightest of all three, being very robust andjolly." The setting is Schubert's Austria, the Tyrolean countryside. Inconsequentials premiered at the Richmond Ballet in 1981; the Oakland Ballet first performed it October 14, 1983.
Inconsequentials has been funded in part through a grant from The National Endowment for the Arts.
INTERMISSION
DEATH AND THE MAIDEN
Choreography: Robert North Music: Fuanz Schubert
Staging: Linda Gibbs Lighting: Adrian Dightam
Costumes interpreted and executed by John Gilkerson
Premonitions (Allegro)
Deborah Pitts Summer Lee Rhatigan Susan Taylor
Jennifer Young Mario Alonzo Douglas Hcvenor
Jon Konetski Ron Thielc
Conversations with Death (Andante con moto) Erin Lccdom Ron Thiele
with
Deborah Pitts Summer Lee Rhatigan Susan Taylor Jennifer Young Mario Alonzo Douglas Hevenor Jon Konetski
The first two movements of Schubert's String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, "Death and the Maiden. "
Maiden:
Pass onward, oh! pass onward, Go wild and bloodless man! I am still young, away then, And touch me not, I pray. And touch me not 1 pray.
Death:
Give me thy hand, my fair and tender child,
As friend I come and not to chasten.
Be of good cheer! I bring thee to rest:
To sleep within these fond arms hasten!
In December 1817 Schubert wrote the famous song set to Matthias Claudius' above poem, "Death and the Maiden." Although the text is written as a dramatic dialogue between the two characters, Schubert gave the poem a short and powerfully simple treatment for one voice. The poem presents two conceptions of the mythological Death figure. On the one hand, the Maiden sees him in the traditional medieval sense, as a horrid skeleton come to destroy her life. Yet Death himself appears as a friend to comfort her and bring her peace, not unlike the ancient Greek belief in death as the God of Sleep. The short poem juxtaposes these vastly opposing viewpoints, and Robert North makes use of this compelling dichotomy. Because of this duality, the relationship of the two characters is complex; their dramatic choreography contains tension and grotesqueness as well as tenderness and sensuality.
Although the song provides a rich source of ideas for the piece, the music itself is too short to sustain an entire ballet. Thus, North chose to use Schubert's Quartet in D minor -"Death and the Maiden" -of which the second movement is a theme and variations on the song.
In the first dance, "Premonitions," there is only a suggestion of the two characters. "Death lurks in the background, for Death is always a vague possibility in the midst of life," explains the choreographer. In the second, "Conversations with Death," is the embodiment of the song-dialogue, danced to the variations of the song-melody. Here is a beautiful magnification of the song's drama and vision of Death as balm.
Death and the Maideti was first presented by London Contemporary Dance Theatre November 25, 1980, at Sadler's Wells Theatre, London; Oakland Ballet's premiere was October 28, 1983.
INTERMISSION
WATERWAYS
Choreography: Betsy Erickson Musk: Toru Takemitsu Lighting: Patty Ann Faruell Costumes: Sandra Woodall
Abra Rudisill Julie Lowe Shirlee Rcevie Mario Alonzo Michael Lowe Ron Thiele
After receiving her early training in the San Francisco Ballet School, Betsy Erickson joined the San Francisco Ballet in 1964, where she remained for three years before joining the American Ballet Theatre. She appeared in lead roles in classical repertory and in ballets of de Mille, Robbins, and Ailey. Since her return to the San Francisco Ballet in 1972, she has distinguished herself as one of the Company's finest interpreters of the works of Balanchinc. She choreographed her first ballet, Bartok Quartet No. 5, for Oakland Ballet's 1981 Summer Festival. Her second work, seen tonight, Water?ways, was premiered during the 1982 season, and last fall saw the world premiere of Erickson's Sonata, all performed by Oakland Ballet.
(pause)
DVORAK DANCES
Choreography: Ronn Guidi Music: Antonin Dvorak Lighting: Robert Klemm Costumes: Tricia Kaye
(in order of appearance)
Abra Rudisill Erin Leedom Julie Lowe Deborah Pitts Joy Gim
Shirlee Rccvic Susan Taylor Richard Chen-Sec Mario Alonzo
Michael Lowe Joral Schmallc Jon Konctski Ron Thick Douglas Hcvcnor
"Dvorak Dances is a choreographic frolic, a toast and celebration of the Oakland Ballet's 1982 fall season."
-Ronn Guidi World premiere by Oakland Ballet, September 24, 1982.
About the Artists
One of the West Coast's major professional ballet companies, the Oakland Ballet has earned an outstanding reputation for presenting innovative contemporary choreography and the preservation of balletic niasterworks from the Diaghilev and 20th-century American dance eras. Under the artistic direction of Ronn Guidi, the 25-member company has mounted impressive revivals of ballets by Nijinska and Fokine and is also acknowledged for its faithful re-creations of historically significant American dance works, such as Eugene Loring's Billy the Kid.
The Company maintains an extensive touring schedule which brings them to national and international dance centers approximately four months of the year. The group's recent European tour included appearances in both France and Italy. In 1982 Oakland Ballet performed as the featured attraction at the acclaimed Spoleto Festival, U.S.A., in Charleston, South Carolina. The current tour, which began February 25, includes 26 performances in 14 cities of eight states, including Alaska. Touring more widely than any other West Coast ballet company, the group also takes its popular Christmas classic Nutcracker on the road each year.
The forerunner of today's Oakland Ballet began in 1954 when Raoul Pause, a former student of the great Russian dancer and choreographer Adolph Bolm, established the Ballet Player's Guild of Oakland. In 1961, the group became Oakland Civic Ballet and Ronn Guidi, Associate Director of the Guild, began staging ballets for the new company. The group was again reorganized, and in 1965 Guidi founded today's Oakland Ballet Company and Academy.
The Company returns to Ann Arbor after its debut appearance here two years ago.
Through his artistry and unique teaching ability, Ronn Guidi has inspired students who now dance in major companies throughout the world. As Artistic Director of the Oakland Ballet, he has given it a repertoire that is both innovative and bold, yet retains an historical portfolio of works from both the classics and the Diaghilev era. A few of the works he has choreographed for the Company arc Carnival D'Aix, Dvorak Dances, Hansel and Grelel, Trois Gymnopedies, Soiree Mttsicale, and Sibelius.
Mr. Guidi has an extensive background in classical dance. His balletic heritage is directly linked to the tradition of the Russian Kirov Ballet through his ten years of training with the late Raoul Pause. From 1958 to 1961 Guidi extended his knowledge of classical dance in Italy, Germany, and Denmark, and upon returning to the United States taught for three years as Associate Supervisor of Ballet at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1961 he choreographed his first ballet for Oakland Civic Ballet, a precursor to the Oakland Ballet Company and School which he founded in 1965.
REPUBLIC Republic Airlines is the official carrier " airlines for Oakland Ballet's 1984 national tour.
Watch for imminent announcement: Ann Arbor Summer Festival, 1984
June 30 -July 24, on the U-M campus Mime Dance Music Theatre
To be announced April 9: A New Season of International Presentations, 1984-85
Ballet and Modern Dance companies,
some old favorites and some new to Ann Arbor
Watch for them!
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
GAIL W. RECTOR, President WILliUR K. PIERPONT, Vice President
DOUGLAS D. CHARY, Secretary ALLEN P. BRITTON, Treasurer
?HOWARD S. HOLMES PAUL W. McCRACKEN JOHN D. PAUL
SARAH GODDARD POWER JOHN W. REED HAROLD T. SHAPIRO
LOIS U. STEGEMAN E. THURSTON THIEME JERRY A. WEISBACH
First term beganjanuary 1, 1984.
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
Burton Memorial Tower, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1270 Phones: (313) 665-3717, 764-2538