Gem City Ballet shines at Victoria Gala

By Burt Saidel

The stars were out at the Victoria Theatre. Barbara Pontecorvo’s Gem City Ballet’s Victoria Gala was replete with stars. Two members of American Ballet Theatre, Xiomara Reyes and David Hallberg, joined the young and beautiful dancers of GCB in Act II of Coppélia.  

There were plenty of other stars, as well. This remarkable assemblage of very youthful talent is full of the stars of today and many will be future stars of the ballet world.  

The training and dedication to dance excellence reflects the beginnings of Dayton as a dance center.  Five decades ago, I remember the Schwarz sisters, Jon Rodriguez and Bess Saylor imparting the same passion and discipline to their young charges. This became Dayton Ballet, now a fine professional company.  

These very beginnings gave birth to Jeraldyne Blunden’s Dayton Contemporary Dance Company and attracted Sharon Leahy to found Rhythm in Shoes. Now, we are richer in dance than many cities ten times our size.

There was a long awaited area premier.  George Balanchine’s Serenade is a time honored ballet set to Tchaikovsky’s intoxicating Serenade for Strings.  I have seen it performed by major companies for years.  The size of the company, requiring 26 dancers, has kept it off Dayton stages until this concert.  

Serenade is a tour de force for classical dancers.  It is a far-reaching challenge for young hopefuls.  Make that challenge a reality as the exquisitely trained and passionately motivated youngsters of GCB created a buffet of glorious dancing, beautifully costumed and professionally staged.  

The corps was led by established GCB stars, Rachael Bade, Victoria Bek, Amy Holihan, Evan Hewer  and Kayleigh Gorham,  They were joined by GCB alumnus Adam Hundt, now a member of Columbus’ BalletMet.

Serenade was followed by Jon Rodriguez’ Ole with Clarissa Carey joining Amy and Rachael in the bright Spanish shawl-spinning ballet.  To continue the spice, DCDC II was invited to join the program.  A dozen attractive and extremely energetic dancers took William McClellan’s The Migrating Venom into near perpetual motion.

Continuing their special cooperative relationship, Debbie Blunden-Diggs of DCDC set Pathways on the GCB dancers.  Dancing to percussive sounds, the young dancers took immediately to the “with it moves” that characterize DCDC.

The final work, Coppélia Act II, brought out the entire company and special guests. Delibes’ music exalts the bliss of simple village life and the traditional choreography extols those happy images.

There are joyous solos and two corps, flower girls and tutu-clad ballerinas. All have dances which are festive and clever.  Clarissa Carey, Evan Hewer, Rachael Bade and Amy Holihan  led the corps in these fun-filled dances.

There was a pair of “ringers.”  Lovely Marsha Bonhart played the village mayor and not-so-lovely Burt Saidel was the curmudgeonly Dr. Coppelius.  Two debuts, one artistic and the other – well I had rather not comment.  

The celebrated pas de deux was a lesson in dance technique and elegance.  Xiomara Reyes is a “spinning top” flashing her stunning speed with ease and grace.  Handsome David Hallberg leaps and spins with athletic grace.  

They are established stars, there will be many stars emerging from those young dancers who shared the stage with them.  Many will be dancers, some superstars.  Others will be stars in life taking their passion and discipline and using it for the good of all.

Barbara Pontecorvo and her devoted teachers have the answers.  All they need is strength, time and money to continue their daily miracles.

Four Plays

That same week was a theatre buffet.  Dayton Playhouse staged a moving and well-directed One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.  The entire cast, led by Becky Lamb as Nurse Ratched and Daniel Wilson as her nemesis McMurphy surpassed all expectations for fine acting and character development.

Dayton Theatre Guild took its audiences deeper into the morbid with Frozen by Bryony Lavery. An exploration of serial killing, it delved, often too deeply, into that unspeakable grief of child murder and its effects.  Again, very well directed, the trio of actors, Barbara Coriell, Wendy Michael and the return of Mark Diffenderfer moved the play, the characters and the audience.

Continuing in the “downer” genre, The Human Race’s celebrated staged reading workshop series featured a premiere, The Ambition Bird by author/composer/lyricist Matthew Sheridan.   This one woman show is based on the life and ultimate suicide of poet Anne Sexton.

Sexton, born in 1928, ended her life in 1974 after battling bipolar disease for years. She left behind a failed marriage, estranged children and an opus of highly personal poetry which had been very well received.

That success signaled no relief for Sexton.  Her fate, not unlike the relentless obsession with killing in Frozen, was beyond her control.  To tell the story, in words and music, is a remarkable accomplishment and much work is still needed.  While preparing the reading with director Scott Stoney and producer Kevin Moore, three characters were added.  The music is simply beautiful.  The acting, superb by Kay Bosse as Anne with Scott Hunt, Morgan Grahame and Stoney assisting.

Next, the complete week of theater came to its highest point.  WSU professor and master actor Bruce Cromer created an unforgettable experience in his one-man/woman show I Am My Own Wife. 

Written by Doug Wright, this unlikely tale has become a prize-winning play.  It follows German history through the horrors of life during World War II and the Soviet domination of East Germany.  It is the story of a transvestite/homosexual and how he/she survived amidst the daily tragedies of a totalitarian existence.

Cromer plays 30 parts, some one-liners but several, in different voices and languages, are characters which must develop to full dimensions.  In “Wife,” Bruce worked with a marvelously written play, well directed by Richard Hess, with a smashing symbolic set and intricate, dramatic lighting by John Rensel.

To sum it all up, all four theater experiences showed high creativity in spite of devastating subjects.  True theater magic.

Cello and piano recital at DAI slated Feb. 4 

A free concert of cello and piano music will be presented at the Renaissance Auditorium at the Dayton Art Institute on Sunday, Feb. 4 at 2 p.m. Dayton Philharmonic cellist Mark Hofeldt will be joined by pianist Stephen Phillips in a pairing of contrasting cello sonatas - one classical and one romantic.

The Beethoven C Major Sonata was written just as he was embarking on what is now referred to as his late period of composition. Although written in a classical style, it is also turbulent and revolutionary in style and mood.

The Rachmaninoff Cello Sonata is a romantic masterpiece and a showcase for pianistic virtuoso display. Like his symphonies and piano concertos, it is filled with Rachmaninoff’s sublime melodies.

The recital will close with two lighter works, a Tarentella by Popper. A composer who exploited the cello’s capabil- ities much as Paganini did for the violin; and Saint Saen’s  evocative piece entitled The Swan. For further information  call the Dayton Art Institute at 223-5277.

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January 30, 2007
Volume 16, No. 5

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