Courtesy of Ballet North Texas.
Ballet North Texas, a nonprofit with headquarters and a conservatory near the L Streets, is leaping into its eighth season starting with a production of Sleepy Hollow on Oct. 24-25 (8 p.m. Friday and Saturday).
Then, the company will produce the holiday classic The Nutcracker in December. The repertory Winter Mix will premiere Feb. 20-21, followed by Cinderella April 10-11 and A Midsummer Night’s Dream June 19-21.
All shows take place at Moody Performance Hall in Downtown. Sensory friendly performances for audience members on the autism spectrum or with certain sensitivities are available for some of the shows (even though Ballet North Texas inexplicably lost its National Endowment for the Arts grant that helped to provide those performances and sensory access).
Executive and Artistic Director Nicolina Lawson talked with me about the upcoming season and her goals:
Sleepy Hollow:
Part of our mission is really to recreate historical works, but also create new works, which is kind of what inspired the idea behind Sleepy Hollow. And we wanted it to be something that was iconic but hadn’t really been done before in a ballet form.
I’m not choreographing Sleepy Hollow; Carrie Ruth Trumbo is, and it’s one of those situations where she’s choreographed for us a couple other times, and so I brought her this idea. I really wanted to do Sleepy Hollow, but I just knew that I wasn’t really the right person to do the actual choreography. And when I saw her work, I was just like, ‘It has to be you.’ So we collaborated, and we’ve been working on that for a little over a year now, kind of bringing this ballet together.
It’s having the idea, but then also finding that perfect opportunity to make sure that it’s a cohesive story, that it’s going to be told in a unique way.
My First Classic:
We actually do a show that’s called “My First Classic.” … It’s an introduction to ballet and to the theater. So when you walk in, you’re being introduced to what the theater is, the legs, the wings, everything is up and exposed, so you kind of get to see behind the scenes. And then, it’s either myself or my assistant artistic director Cindy Michaels that comes out, and we talk about all the different elements of the theater. We talk about the different people that run the production. So you can kind of see all the multi-faceted parts, all the moving elements that go into just one show, and we feature these types of productions around a specific ballet. So the one that’s going to be in October will be The Nutcracker, and then we have a narrator come out and actually narrate the ballet, so that you also get that storyline behind it because some people feel like they don’t understand ballet, and I think when they’re told, you probably do, you feel like you don’t, but if you just allow your mind to kind of open up to it, you probably understand more than you think you do. So that’s kind of the idea. We’re trying to expose people to appreciating it instead of feeling like it’s something outside of their realm.
Winter Mix:
Our February show is what we call a mixed rep, or a mixed bill, and it involves all contemporary works and works that are not necessarily full-on stories. You’re not going to have one story from start to end of the show. You’re going to get multiple different stories. Some, technically, don’t have a storyline. You’re just supposed to feel something. And we’re doing Balanchine’s Concerto Barocco. That’s a great ballet that also is kind of a benchmarker for ballet companies. It kind of sets the bar. It’s like you’ve reached this level. So it’s really exciting that we’ve been able to get that one.
We’re doing Antony Tudor’s Continuo. He was a choreographer for American Ballet Theater, amazing choreographer. We’re actually very fortunate to have one of his original dancers for this piece be one of our instructors for the company and for the students here, and so we got the rights to that ballet. It’s really beautiful … three couples that dance together throughout the whole piece. It’s very lyrical, feel-good.
And then we’re doing a piece that I’m choreographing, which is called Pastoral, and it’s Beethoven’s Pastoral. … It’s very light and fluffy and springy and just supposed to be really, really fun. And then we have another piece that’s choreographed by Mackenzie Jones, who was our resident choreographer before she kind of moved on, but it’s a really great piece that’s very edgy and has a lot of fire behind it. So, in that particular show, I wanted to show kind of the range of ballet, like where it can go.
Promotional art for Ballet North Texas’ upcoming production of Sleepy Hollow. Courtesy of Ballet North Texas.
Do you have any goals for this season in general, any new heights that you want to reach?
I’m trying to kind of reach all ranges of dance, and I want to draw people into that because I feel like if you’re familiar with classical ballet, you’re going to go to classical ballet. If you feel uncomfortable with classical ballet, you’re going to go to contemporary ballet or a story that you feel more comfortable with. My goal is to kind of to broaden that range for each individual that comes in to make them want to kind of see more.
Earlier you mentioned My First Classic, which can help audiences understand ballet a little better. Would you say that ballet at Ballet North Texas is for everyone, or is that what you want?
Absolutely, that’s my goal. My goal and the vision really is that ballet becomes something that people do as often as turn on the radio in their car, like, ‘I need to escape, I turn on the music.’ I want people to escape and come to ballet. I want that to be their instinct. That’s the big vision. Absolutely, for everyone, there’s a little bit of something, and I think in any sort of way you can appreciate one thing or another.
How can people support Ballet North Texas?
If they visit our website, there is a “give now” button at the top, and it will take you to the PayPal Giving Fund, which is great because PayPal Giving Fund covers all processing fees. So if you donate $25, we get the full $25. There’s no, like, 3.75% taken out or anything like that.
Honestly, if you can’t donate, come to a show. Every ticket that is purchased helps us. That’s the revenue that’s generated to then keep these other programs going. So come to a show, come take a class. We offer ballet classes for all ages, literally, from 2 years old all the way through adult classes.
Tickets for Sleepy Hollow range from $27 to $79 and can be bought here.
This interview was edited for clarity and brevity.
