University of Arizona Dance, Tucson Symphony team up for whimsical performance

From that iconic rat-a-tat-rat-a-tat snare drum intro and the romantic interlude of the flute, oboe and other wind instruments, Ravel’s “Boléro” unfolds like a whimsical dance.

It makes sense since the 20th century French composer set out initially to create a ballet score.

But University of Arizona School of Dance Director Duane Cyrus sees much more than ballet in the work, which was one of Ravel’s most famous and enduring pieces.

“I was really interested in how the music takes a motif and progresses it. How the whole piece sort of crescendos and builds and something about how each phrase takes an instrument — the oboe, the flute the French horn — and that instrument contributes a voice and it speaks,” said Cyrus, who with his colleague Tamara Dyke-Compton, an associate professor and the school’s associate director, choreographed a dance to accompany the Tucson Symphony Orchestra’s performance of “Boléro” this weekend. “Sometimes you hear it and you’re like wow that’s a unique way of saying something.”

Thirteen UA dancers will join the orchestra and Conductor José Luis Gomez at Linda Ronstadt Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave., for performances at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 19, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 21, as part of the orchestra’s ¡Celebración Latina! series.

This is the latest collaboration between the orchestra and School of Dance, which has partnered with the orchestra eight times in the nearly 20 years since longtime former co-director Melissa Lowe created a dance for Strauss's "The Emperor's Waltz" in 2005-06. Lowe and her husband/co-director Jory Hancock led the School of Dance for 34 years before retiring in 2021. 

“It’s exciting,” said Cyrus, who has led the school since fall 2022. "It brings students exposure. The excellent performance of the students gets them out into the community and I think that is very important. I am committed to that.”

Cyrus tapped costume designer Shane Ballard to create pieces that would allow the dancers to stand out among the full complement of the orchestra. He also brought in Dyke-Compton and the pair set about building on the idea of community and progression. The choreography incorporates contemporary dance and ballet, with a constant processional crossing the stage as solos, duets, trios and quartets until the ensemble comes together in what Cyrus described as a “river of humanity” that defines a community.

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“I just think about these young dancers and how they are standing on the shoulders of people who have come before them,” he said. “Something about that idea of building, of community coming together, is important.”

“It’s very strong. It’s very meaningful,” Gomez said of the choreography. “I think it speaks for the music definitely because this music was originally for ballet. (Cyrus) captured immediately the energy and the incredible potential that this piece has.”

This weekend’s collaboration has been in the works since Cyrus stepped on the UA campus, he said. TSO President and CEO Paul Meecham reached out to him not long after he started in the fall 2022 semester about working together.

Cyrus said the opportunity to put his students on a stage outside of the UA’s Stevie Eller Dance Theatre is part of his goal to prepare students for professional careers in dance. It’s the first of several collaborations in the spring semester that includes a scholarship benefit on Feb. 16 at Stevie Eller with Ballet Tucson and Hubbard Street Dance Company; legendary ballerina Misty Copland will be a guest speaker. In March, UA dancers will perform at the fundraiser “Destiny Rising” in New York City.

“My vision for the School of Dance is that we continue to meet the needs of today’s dance artists by preparing them for all the things they need to do,” he said, from modern, post-modern, jazz and ballet dance forms to choreography, production and fundraising. “They also need to understand what does it mean to go out in the community and engage the community as artists. What the School of Dance is now is we are accessible and we are engaging.”

“UA dance has an incredible reputation.” Gomez said. “They are well respected in the dance world. And having them here in our town it is impossible not to reach out to them.”

Tickets for Ravel’s “Boléro” are $14-$90 through tucsonsymphony.org.