BALLET ENSEMBLE OF TEXAS PRESENTS
A CELEBRATION OF DANCE 2021
Ballet Ensemble of Texas celebrates ballet history with
American Ballet Theatre guest artists and vintage Paris Opera/Harkness Ballet costumes, and exclusive performances of Confetti
COPPELL, Texas – (March 9, 2021) – Ballet Ensemble of Texas (BET), one of Dallas’ best-reviewed
pre-professional ballet companies, will present its annual A Celebration of Dance on Friday, April 9 and Saturday, April 10 at 7:30 p.m. at the Irving Arts Center, 3333 North MacArthur Blvd in Irving, Texas. The mixed repertoire program includes George Skibine’s FIREBIRD; Swan Lake, Act 2, featuring American Ballet Theatre (ABT) guest artists; Gerald Arpino’s Confetti; and two premieres by resident choreographers Jenny Johnston and Tammie Reinsch.
“With choreography styles spanning more than 200 years, this mixed repertoire is purposefully designed to captivate a broad audience,” said BET Artistic Director Thom Clower. “The spectrum of dance genres we’re presenting touch on pure classical, neo-classical, contemporary, comedy and virtuosity—all in one energetic program.”
George Skibine’s FIREBIRD, based on Russian folk tales of the mythical creature, has been a Dallas audience favorite for more than 50 years. This is the third staging of the ballet for BET by Clower, the repetiteur of the Skibine estate. Skibine re-choreographed the ballet for the Paris Opera from the original 1910 version by Michel Fokine set to Igor Stravinsky’s famous score for Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe. Many of the costumes in the BET production are from Skibine’s Paris Opera Ballet production and the Harkness Ballet where he was subsequently artistic director. Skibine arrived in Dallas in 1969 as artistic director of Dallas Civic Ballet, and in 1975 founded professional dance in North Texas. The silk of the princess dresses and the leather of the creatures are literally “dancing history.”
BET is proud to present Gerald Arpino’s Confetti, created on Joffrey Ballet in 1970. Like its title, the brightly colored ballet is light and fluttery, and is a piece performed many times by BET Founding Director Lisa Slagle during her career with Joffrey Ballet. BET is the only pre-professional company granted permission to perform this work. “Confetti has been performed by regional professional companies, but not by pre-professional companies,” said Charthel Arthur, Executive Director of The Gerald Arpino Foundation. “The BET dancers are indeed very special and the Arpino Foundation is pleased to allow the performance of the piece.”
According to the Chicago Tribune, Joffrey Ballet’s original presentation is “set to one of those deathless, breathless Rossini overtures, Arpino’s simple yet stylish sextet runs the entire gamut of fits, starts, halts, climax upon climax and extraordinarily grand, grand finale that constitutes any well brought up Rossini overture. Rossini is too much. Arpino notices this and is consequently even more too much. It is fun!”
BET continues to add to its own repertoire history with two premiere pieces by resident choreographers Jenny Johnston and Tammie Reinsch. Ms. Johnston challenges BET dancers with contemporary movement in Spatial Percussion, set to a strong percussive beat by John Mackey. Ms. Reinsch’s duet In a Nutshell is a concentrated, fast-paced homage to The Nutcracker that takes Clara on a whirlwind journey to the familiar Land of Sweets where all the dreamlike treats come to life in less than four minutes.
Tickets are $30 for adults and $25 for students/seniors and are available online through the Irving Arts Center box office or 972-252-2787 (ARTS).Artistic Director Thom Clower joined BET in August 2018. His career spans more than 40 years as a professional dancer and master teacher, including 10 seasons as company member and ballet master with Dallas Ballet, followed by eight seasons as artistic director of Ballet Dallas. Subsequently, he was ballet master for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and artistic director of Arizona’s Yuma Ballet Theatre. Since 2001, Clower has worked around the world as a master teacher and choreographer, including 16 summer seasons with the Young! Tanzommer annual dance festival in Austria.
BET is the resident ballet company of Ballet Academy of Texas (BAT) in Coppell, Texas. Under the direction of Lisa Slagle BAT has produced some of the country’s best trained dancers who have danced professionally with leading companies such as American Ballet Theater, Ballet West, Houston Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, as well as many international companies. BAT was named “Outstanding School” for the second year in a row at the regional Youth America Grand Prix.
A Celebration of Dance 2021 is supported by National Endowment for the Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts, City of Coppell, and City of Irving through the Irving Arts Board. For more information, please visit www.balletensembleoftexas.org, or follow us on Facebook or Instagram.
All photo credit: Cathy Vanover