Ballet Tucson is trying to create memories you won’t soon forget with its season finale, “ReINVIGORATE,” taking place at the Leo Rich Theater, 260 S. Church Ave., Friday, April 1 through Sunday, April 3.
“We really want to end on a high note,” said Margaret Mullin, the company’s associate artistic director. “We want the audience to feel like they had a joyful experience that they can carry with them until they see us again in the fall.”
The company plans to do that with three works; one set by a ballet icon, one piece by a noted contemporary and a third with ties to Tucson.
Ballet Tucson will open “ReINVIGORATE” with George Balanchine’s “Who Cares?” a piece that Mullin describes as Balanchine’s “love letter to New York and to American jazz.”
Set to some of the jazz standards of the early twentieth century, Mullin said “Who Cares?” is brimming with elements of fun.
“It is very physically demanding for the dancers, but also very light and charming,” she said. “There are six dancers in the piece, but they all have a lot of opportunities to get on stage with four solos, three pas de deux. They all get a lot of stage time.”
Russian-born Balanchine, considered to be the father of American Ballet, moved to the United States in 1933, and was always fascinated with New York City.
“You can see so much of Balanchine himself (in ‘Who Cares’) just being in love with the excitement of city life,” Mullin added.
The New York Times agreed in a review of the work’s premiere, courtesy of Balanchine and the New York City Ballet in 1970.
“(Balanchine) is trying to evoke a world of warm nights, Manhattan penthouses, cold martinis, and the Astaires smiling at one another with cheerful camaraderie,” the review said.
Ballet Tucson will follow “Who Cares?” with “No Holds Barre’d,” a more modern work by noted choreographer Kiyon Ross, the director of company operations at Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle.
Mullin danced with Ross for a time at Pacific Northwest. This will be his second work performed by Ballet Tucson.
Mullin said “No Holds Barre’d,” is fun but tremendously challenging, with music from four composers keeping dancers on their toes. The piece has elements of Balanchine, Mullin said.
“Balanchine turned ballet on its head and said, ‘What if we completely change how we are attacking things? Make it much more playful, have a lot of ups and downs in tempo.’
“He created neoclassical ballet. Kiyon is definitely a product of that. He is part of a generation that has taken that whole approach a step beyond.”
The evening will end with a homespun piece, a work dubbed “Saddle Up!” by Ballet Tucson’s longtime resident choreographer Mark Schneider. The Southwestern-themed work features music by Tucson’s own Bill Ganz Western Band and has a little line dancing and square dancing thrown into the mix.
“Having such a long history with us, it was important to have one of Mark’s works,” Mullin said. “He knows how to make a crowd-pleaser. He knows how to get people to the edges of their seats.”
Showtimes for “ReINVIGORATE” are at 7 p.m. on
Friday and 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are $50 with discounts available through
ticketmaster.com and
