{"id":33727,"date":"2016-05-16T11:00:21","date_gmt":"2016-05-16T17:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=33727"},"modified":"2023-11-22T17:31:15","modified_gmt":"2023-11-22T23:31:15","slug":"sunlight-unlimited-at-the-fallout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/sunlight-unlimited-at-the-fallout\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunlight Unlimited at the Fallout"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

Photo of Municipal Ballet. Courtesy their Facebook page.<\/p><\/div>\n

Municipal Ballet Co. is a collection of dancers and choreographers, organized by Sarah Longoria, that aims to present ballet in unconventional spaces:\u00a0sidewalks, libraries, bars and historic buildings.\u00a0In its own words, Municipal Ballet \u201ccollaborates with local musicians and artists because it\u2019s a lot of fun and because everyone\u2019s art combined turns into something unpredictable and magical.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ballet is obviously an art form seeped in hundreds of years of tradition and etiquette: this spring, when I took my husband to see Ballet West\u2019s Romeo and Juliet <\/em>he wondered why so many women were wearing their bridesmaid dresses, and why I didn\u2019t clue him in to wear something nicer than jeans.\u00a0At Sunlight Limited, <\/em>Municipal Ballet\u2019s latest show at The Fallout (a Granary District event space)\u00a0he would have felt right at home, with this version of ballet married with live rock music, a bar serving local beer and wine, and plenty of patrons in sneakers. Music by Magic Mint (Andrew Shaw) and Color Animal (Felicia Baca, Tyler Ford, Seth Howe, and Andrew Shaw) provided not only beats and lyrics but a banter and easy stage presence to give relief to tightly structured choreography.<\/p>\n

In the first dance,\u00a0Color Animal accompanied choreography inspired by Kendall Fisher, assembled by Sarah Longoria, and created by all the dancers. \u00a0In simpler terms, the movement was a collaboration. The choreographic structure was clear and often fell into the your turn, my turn <\/em>formula, but even so the dancers looked strong and fluctuated between a serious and playful stage presence.<\/p>\n

There were also more contemporary minded pieces, an on-trend duet by Karina Lesko and a quintet by Chase Wise.\u00a0Both dances had a looser structure, looser torso, and a punctuation of timing that is a contemporary dance trend recognizable a’ la SYTYCD.\u00a0Wise\u2019s piece fully used the space and levels, and ultimately felt investigated and complete.<\/p>\n

Hannah Bowcutt soloed Cha Cha<\/em>\u00a0by Sara Borazan.\u00a0Bowcutt is a striking figure\u2014long limbs, flowing white dress\u2014who turns and stretches like a music box ballerina unleashed from her perch.\u00a0Sarah Longoria performed choreography by Karina Lesko in a section with distinct vocabulary and play with the music.\u00a0Heal Me, <\/em>danced by Kaya Wolsey and choreographed by Ellie Hanagarne, had the same musical play with repetition that eventually made metaphor and offered a departure from carefully placed technique.<\/p>\n

It is in these solos that the show shines, perhaps because the choreographer is unable to rely on tried and true balletic structures that can feel stifled when paired with rock music. In yet another solo, powerhouse dancer Cynthia Phillips is grounded, articulate, and gestural in Will you go Why <\/em>choreographed by Jessica Liu.<\/p>\n

The show closes with I Can See It All,\u00a0<\/em>an unambitious, yet ultimately moving section.\u00a0 The dancers take turns as soloist,\u00a0forming a half-circle community around each other.\u00a0Later,\u00a0they improvisationally traverse the space, exploring and connecting.\u00a0 Making distinct frontal rows, the dancers perform a progressively building reverence.\u00a0It is satisfying and touching, a simple structure that pays homage to the tradition of classical ballet, and the communities that are forged through art making.<\/p>\n

As a fellow choreographer who also is drawn to choreographing to rock music for its energy and accessibility (thesis piece to Led Zeppelin, recent show with The Weekenders at the State Room),\u00a0I viscerally understand that where some things are gained others can be lost.\u00a0 Longoria has done this enough times to understand the staples of a successful equation: bar (read: alcohol), engaging yet talented band, and unique venues.\u00a0What is gained is a fun night out where, regardless of dance literacy, one can enjoy great music alongside the power of the moving body.\u00a0What often is struggling to surface are choreographic structures powerful and innovative enough to match the immediacy of strong bass-lines, guitar riffs, and a pounding drum.\u00a0As Longoria stated at the welcome, the show \u201cis a bit of an experiment,\u201d and as an audience member that was able to turn a mundane Thursday night into an awesome night with friends and art, it’s an experiment I am willing to be a part of.<\/p>\n

Municipal Ballet Co. performed at The Fallout May 13-15.<\/em><\/p>\n

This article is published in collaboration with loveDANCEmore.org<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Municipal Ballet Co. is a collection of dancers and choreographers, organized by Sarah Longoria, that aims to present ballet in unconventional spaces:\u00a0sidewalks, libraries, bars and historic buildings.\u00a0In its own words, Municipal Ballet \u201ccollaborates with local musicians and artists because it\u2019s a lot of fun and because everyone\u2019s art […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1522,"featured_media":33728,"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":[10],"tags":[2858,2884,2904,2903,2899,2283,2901,2902,1401,2900,2905],"class_list":["post-33727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dance","tag-andrew-shaw","tag-color-animal","tag-cynthia-phillips","tag-ellie-hanagarne","tag-hannah-bowcutt","tag-jessica-liu","tag-karina-lesko","tag-kaya-wolsey","tag-municipal-ballet-co","tag-sara-borazan","tag-the-fallout"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/municipalballet.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-06 00:12:01","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\/33727","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\/1522"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33727"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72186,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33727\/revisions\/72186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}