{"id":30415,"date":"2015-11-04T13:07:11","date_gmt":"2015-11-04T19:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=30415"},"modified":"2023-11-15T21:11:21","modified_gmt":"2023-11-16T03:11:21","slug":"joining-the-corps-balanchines-symphony-in-c-at-ballet-wests-iconic-classics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/joining-the-corps-balanchines-symphony-in-c-at-ballet-wests-iconic-classics\/","title":{"rendered":"Joining the Corps: Balanchine’s Symphony in C at Ballet West’s Iconic Classics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"symphonyinc\"<\/a>

Symphony in C Choreography by George Balanchine \u00a9 The George Balanchine Trust Artists of Ballet West | Photo by Stuart Ruckman<\/p><\/div>\n

Not many dancers get into ballet with the dream of simply joining the corps, but in \u201cSymphony in C\u201d the corps de ballet is as good a reason as any to join Ballet West<\/a>\u2019s season opener, Iconic Classics<\/em>. For those not versed in ballet, the corps de ballet is the largest group which flanks soloists and small groups throughout a particular work. In narrative ballets, the corps helps to move a story along. In \u201cSymphony in C,\u201d a 1940s work by choreographer George Balanchine originally made for the Paris Opera Ballet, the corps serves a primarily visual purpose; large groups of women are consistently framing four female soloists and periodic pas de deux, or dances for two performers, refreshing the scene while breaking down classical ballet formats.<\/p>\n

New Yorker<\/em> magazine critic Arlene Croce spent a good deal of her career finding words for Balanchine\u2019s choreography. In 1975 she got to the heart of the emblematic nature of Balanchine\u2019s objectives: \u201cTo make plain to American audiences the dynamics of classical style. In [\u201cSymphony in C\u201d] the dancing grows from simple to complex structures, and every stage of growth is consequentially related to every other. It is partly because of their structural logic that his ballets make such great sense\u2014or such vivid nonsense\u2014to us years after they were completed, but it\u2019s also because such logic isn\u2019t the featured attraction; it\u2019s only the means by which a particular kind of entertainment is elucidated.\u201d Ballet West clearly agrees with Croce\u2019s sentiments, having regularly presented Balanchine. Iconic Classics<\/em> doesn\u2019t only revive \u201cSymphony in C\u201d but completes it, showing the full ballet after formerly excerpting the work.<\/p>\n

Last week, Ballet West presented a rehearsal of the piece with live accompaniment of the Bizet score by Jared Oaks, a frequent conductor at Ballet West\u2019s performances. The new Jessie Eccles Quinney Ballet Centre studios, where they performed, are as large as the Capitol Theatre stage, plus wing space, making it possible to take in the full ballet. The setting is sizeable but still more intimate than what audiences typically experience.<\/p>\n

The soloists were, as usual, formidable; Emily Adams in particular captures joy through striving, a quality inherent in Balanchine\u2019s work. But it was the corps that continued to draw attention as their power grew with proximity to the material. Artistic Director Adam Sklute persistently suggested that the corps dancers keep thinking about lengthening their backs. From a seat in the house it\u2019s impossible to see how heavy the breathing of the corps is and unlike a soloist who may exit the stage, the corps primarily returns to the sides with their bodies held precisely. The difficulty in this task is easy to overlook which is particularly interesting considering how it is their role that holds the work together, keeping it turning like a kaleidoscope rather than a variety show of smaller acts.<\/p>\n

Sklute also gave affirmations to members of the corps who were moving fully off the standing leg, a key characteristic of Balanchine\u2019s work. This gesture is more visible sans costuming and theatrical lighting. Letting an audience in on the complexity of a posture makes the magic of pointe, in which a dancer supports all her weight entirely on the tips of her feet, more visible. Some of this magic may be hidden to audiences who attend the Ballet\u2019s season opener this next week, but they can still consider these moments, opting to let their eyes drift across the action, not needing to be tied to the center. In particular this thought extends to those who find non-narrative ballet inaccessible but who may be persuaded by the sheer difficulty of small moments.<\/p>\n

\u201cSymphony in C\u201d\u00a0isn\u2019t the only work presented in Iconic Classics<\/em>. In a triple bill, it joins \u201cFancy Free\u201d by Jerome Robbins and \u201cOvergrown Path\u201d by Jiri Kylian. The programming choices Sklute makes are never easy and in a post-rehearsal discussion he revealed that there are always subtle negotiations between what longtime patrons may expect and what newer audiences may crave. A craving coincides too with Sklute\u2019s common metaphor for a program, a good meal. In the case of Iconic Classics<\/em> he considers \u201cFancy Free\u201d an appetizer, \u201cOvergrown Path\u201d a dense main course and \u201cSymphony in C\u201d a concluding hot fudge sundae. To return to critic Croce, she looked at \u201cSymphony\u201d again in the \u201880s and overheard a man in the lobby greeting a companion by saying, \u201cOh, I couldn\u2019t miss \u2018Symphony in C.\u2019 It\u2019s my bread and water.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ballet West\u2019s \u201cIconic Classics,\u201d at the Janet Quinney Lawson Capitol Theatre, Salt Lake City, Nov. 6 -14, www.balletwest.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

This article is published in collaboration with loveDANCEmore.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not many dancers get into ballet with the dream of simply joining the corps, but in \u201cSymphony in C\u201d the corps de ballet is as good a reason as any to join Ballet West\u2019s season opener, Iconic Classics. For those not versed in ballet, the corps de ballet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":861,"featured_media":30426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,10],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-30415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-15-bytes","category-dance","tag-15-bytes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/symphonyinc.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-20 07:43:22","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/861"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30415"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71511,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30415\/revisions\/71511"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}