Dayton Ballet’s Tommy evokes youth & passion

By Burt Saidel

Dayton Ballet mounted a world premier, The Who’s Tommy, last weekend.  I was, perhaps, the only person in the packed audience who didn’t know what he was about to experience.

The generation gap was never more in evidence.  I have walked past theaters in New York playing various permutations of The Who’s Tommy for years.  I was never tempted to enter.  I don’t recall the music, in fact I could ask, “Who are The Who?”

After the scintillating performance, I know a great deal more about The Who.  What occurred on the Victoria stage was a marvelous exposition of the power of dance.  

The original musical/ rock opera was created 35 years ago to evoke the personal travails of Pete Townshend, leader of The Who.  Drugs, rock star life-style, brushes with the law and Eastern religions left Townshend close to death and ruin.

Tommy, is the personal story of a journey from the paralysis of trauma to fulfillment. The Rock Opera, album and film have attracted waves of devotion from so many – all except me - it seems.

Dayton Ballet’s Dermot Burke, always innovative, felt that the story and the music could be told in a purer fashion through dance.  He engaged choreographer Christopher Fleming to set the imaginative and convoluted tale on the dancers of the Dayton Ballet.  The result was a spectacular display of dance by this wonderful company.

Dayton Ballet is one of the most physically beautiful dance companies.  There is not a “Dayton Ballet mold” into which all of the dancers must fit.  Burke chooses individuals who remain as individuals.  Each of the dancers has the training, talent and technique.  Each is a radiant example of young passionately committed artists.
The ballet was a series of danced vignettes.  Each was separate but added a layer of understanding to the characters and the story.  An elaborate and exciting set by Dan Gray and dramatic lighting by Dan McLaughlin enhanced the total effect
Every dancer was involved in the complex excitement.  Every dancer shined with élan and enthusiasm.  As Tommy, Justin Koertgen made the most of his dramatic talent as well as his handsome stage presence.  Sharon Lancaster, Erika Cole Christy Forehand, Katie Keith, Jennifer Grund and Harriet Slack are dream ballerinas.  Richard Grund, Eduard Forehand, William Cannon and Paul Gilliam are both athletic and artistic in their challenging parts.

This concert marked yet another “end of an era” for Dayton Ballet.  Sharon Lancaster is retiring from the company after ten distinguished years.  Sharon is the very soul of beauty on and off stage.  As a dancer, she has created major roles and has supported the company in every way.

The recent Marilyn Monroe exhibition at the Dayton Art Institute has made me consider what beauty is.  Certainly Marilyn had an iconic beauty.  Was it real or was it in our imaginations?  I can’t answer that question but can state with conviction, Sharon is a real beauty.  We wish her, and her wonderful husband Stefan, decades of love and happiness.

DTC’s Speaking in Tongues

Dayton Theatre Guild is known for innovation.  Their latest play, Speaking in Tongues by Andrew Bovell, deals with the usual subjects - marital infidelity, dysfunctional families, even a murder.  What is innovative is the very conception of the play.

To me, it was an interesting combination of Thornton Wilder’s The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Arthur Schnitzler’s La Ronde and a Bach Fugue.  Both plays deal with people interconnecting with each other without the knowledge of each other.  The Bach Fugue comparison is the unusual juxtaposition of dialogue.  

The play opens with two couples, in separate rooms, preparing for an amorous rendezvous.  They happen to be two couples separating for an infidelity fueled by boredom, lack of passion, all the customary reasons.  They begin speaking as instruments play a fugue.  First, they speak in unison, from their separate spaces. Then they begin to finish each other’s sentences.

This cleverness, and the web which is woven by the characters, makes the play dramatically appealing and pervasively entertaining.  The cast, directed peerlessly by Barbara Coriell, was well-laced with the great pros of area theater. Stunning performances were given by Becky Lamb, Teresa Connair, Alex Carmichal, Cassandra Engber and David Shough.  The debut of Kevin Rankin fit right in with the veterans.  

The play was witty without being funny.  It was literary and even musical.

Unfortunately, the fugue ended without the usual harmonic finale.  All were guilty, left to be punished by their consciences.  The only ones who were actually punished were the innocent young man charged with a murder he didn’t commit and the poor panicked wife who was punished by an untimely death.

Opera Guild vocal competition yields 3 winners

Winners of the Opera Guild of Dayton’s 2007 High School Vocal Competition were Greg Gallagher, first place; Valerie Reaper, second; and Andrew Helton, third. The Guild’s annual competition was held this year on Saturday, April 14, with students representing 13 area high schools vying for cash awards.

Gallagher, a senior at Troy Christian High School, resides in Greenville. A tenor, he will major in vocal music at Cedarville University next fall. His voice teacher is Paula Kehr. Reaper, a soprano, is a senior at Oakwood High School and will enter the musical theater program at Wright State University in the fall. She studies with Jamie Cordes.

Helton, a baritone, is a junior at Edgewood High School in Trenton. He studies with Bess-Arlene Comancho. Honorable Mention went to Elana Elmore, a mezzo-soprano   from Dayton who is a senior at Stivers School for the Arts, and soprano Rachel Taylor, who resides in Miamisburg and is a junior at Dominion High School.
Students from Beavercreek, Centerville, Cincinnati, Dayton, Englewood, Enon, Greenville, Miamisburg, New Carlisle, Oakwood, Riverside, Springboro and Trenton participated in the competition. Awards were $600 for first place, $450 for second, and $300 for third.  

Winners received their awards at the Opera Guild’s College Vocal Competition Sunday, April 22, at the Dayton Art Institute. They performed during the adjudications.

Blumensheid opens exhibit

Dru Blumensheid, a senior at the Savannah College of Art and Design, will open her multimedia exhibit entitled “SOMA” at the Desoto Row Gallery in Savannah, Georgia on May 11.

Blumensheid, a photography major who will graduate in June, drew inspiration for her work from the Aldous Huxley novel Brave New World and her prediction of a utopian society in the United States within 30 years.

Blumensheid’s photography symbolizes contemporary advertising, current social news and commercial photography reminiscent of the Dada Movement.

Following graduation Blumensheid plans to pursue a career in fashion and commercial photography. She is the daughter of Roger and Pamela Blumensheid. 

Bach Society to perform Brahms on May 13

On Sunday, May 13, 2007, 7:30 p.m., under the baton of music director John Neely, the Bach Society of Dayton chorus will present “The Best of Brahms.” This concert will spotlight two perennial favorites, Brahms’ German Requiem and his Liebeslieder Waltzes. For the Liebeslieder Waltzes, the Bach Society chorus will be joined by chamber choirs from three area schools: Sinclair Community College, Wayne High School, and Centerville High School. The Bach Society is pleased to be able to present Brahms’ own “London” version of the German Requiem, which utilizes a four hands piano accompaniment. Noted Dayton pianists Robert and Tiraje Ruckman, as well as soloists Dawn Stone, Soprano and Thomas Sherwood, Bass, will join the Bach Society chorus for the performance of this beautiful, rarely heard arrangement. Local residents participating in this concert include Margaret Karns; Dave Grupe; Faye Seifrit; Marc Georgin; Laura Thie; accompanist, R. Alan Kimbrough; and music director, John Neely.

The concert will take place at the Kettering Seventh-day Adventist Church, 3939 Stonebridge Rd. Nolan Long will present a preview of the concert from 6:45-7:15 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of the church.

Tickets for the concert are $15 for adults and $10 for students. Children 12 and under are admitted for free. Tickets are available at the door or may be purchased in advance by calling 937-294-BACH (2224).

Auditions for Charlotte’s Web

Miami Valley Christian Youth Theatre will be having auditions for its debut production, Charlotte’s Web. on May 14 & 16 from 4 to 7. Auditions will be held at Faith Lutheran Church 3315 Martel Drive. (Near Smithville and Patterson).

Auditions are open to all youth in Kindergarten through eighth grade. All will be cast! (Unless there’s some conflicts with rehearsals and performance times.)

Rehearsals for most cast members will be 1- 2 times a week, typically on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, in late afternoon or early evening.

A parent/legal guardian must attend auditions, as we need their signature on forms. Parent volunteerism is expected to help create a great production.

A suggested donation fee of $75.00 per participant helps cover expenses related to script, costume, props, scenery, etc. Performances will be July 19th, 20th, and 21st.

Dayton Ballet II holds open auditions

Dayton Ballet II, Dayton Ballet’s pre-professional training company, will hold open auditions on Friday, May 11, 2007, which will be held in Dayton Ballet’s 4th floor studios, Victoria Theatre, 140 N. Main St.  Boys and girls, 10 to 14 years of age, audition for DBII Junior at 4:30 p.m.  Young men and women, age 14 through college, audition for DBII Senior at 6:00 p.m.  Please arrive 30 minutes prior to the audition time.  Young women auditioning for DBII Senior should bring pointe shoes.  

There is no fee to audition or to participate.  If selected, the only cost involved will be the cost of classes.

DBII consists of a Junior Company (ages 10-14) and a Senior Company (ages 14 and older).  DBII Junior students are expected to take three ballet classes each week as well as a once-a-week scholarship conditioning/fitness class.  DBII Senior students take three ballet classes and two pointe classes per week as well as scholarship classes, including two ballet classes with the professional company per week and two conditioning/fitness classes per week.  

Members of DBII receive opportunities for performances throughout the school year. Performances include; Culture Works’ Annual Campaign, Dayton Philharmonic
Youth Orchestra Program, the annual Wright State University Dance Concert series, lecture demonstrations for the Dayton Foundation and Dayton Ballet School’s annual workshop.  A limited number of scholarship opportunities are available for advanced students and require an audition.  Additionally, DBII company members may have the chance to participate in Dayton Ballet’s professional productions for the 2007-2008 season, which include; The Three Musketeers, The Nutcracker, and There Was A Time.

For additional information about Dayton Ballet II auditions, please contact the official school of Dayton Ballet, the Dayton Ballet School, at 937/223-1542.  For information about Dayton Ballet’s 2007-2008 performance season, visit www.daytonballet.org or call 937/449-5060.

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May 8, 2007
Volume 16, No. 19

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