A group of dancers will step onstage depicting characters that represent an orchestra of instruments Friday and Saturday for this year’s spring ballet, “L’amour et la Mort” – “Love and Death.”
The instrumental first ensemble “Fanfare” features dancers personifying woodwind, string, brass and percussion instruments set to a musical piece called “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.”
“It’s very showy,” said sophomore Sterling Manka, who plays a percussion instrument. “It’s almost quirky. You have to love your part and go full out.”
“Fanfare” will be accompanied by George Balanchine’s “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” and act two of “Giselle (Act II).”
The program for the spring ballet is selected about a year in advance, so the department often has to choose pieces based on the talent it has at the time, artistic director Michael Vernon said. There were no surprises, but he said he saw the improvements expected from students.
Manka and junior Maggie Andriani are set to take the roles of a tin soldier and paper doll, respectively, in “The Steadfast Tin Soldier.”
The ballet is about a tin soldier and a paper doll who come to life and fall in love, and the soldier gives the doll his tin heart. The two dance together, but fate keeps them apart in the end.
Despite its tragic ending, Manka said he likes the piece.
“It’s the most adorable ballet ever,” he said.
The two dancers are alone on stage for the 12-minute piece, so Manka and Adriani maintained their technique, character and energy without any break.
For Manka, it helps to feed off the energy of his partner and her character. Andriani, who said she considers herself to be a serious dancer, has to find an innocence to bring to her performance.
“It’s kind of like reverting to that childlike state,” she said.
Like Manka, Adriani will also perform another role. In “Giselle (Act II),” she dances as one of the dead maidens known as weeping wilis.
Adriani has to bring a different energy to the ghostlike role, she said. Her arms are more willowy and her eyes are often trained on the ground.
“I can’t think of more opposites than being a dead virgin and being a toy doll,” Andriani said.
The romantic-era “Giselle” is an traditional ballet, which the department tends to do less often, Vernon said.
“I think the time is right, since it’s been a few years since we’ve done one with this sort of nature,” Vernon said.
With this ballet, the dancers do not dance quite as much as an ensemble would in a contemporary ballet, Vernon said. However, it lets them have a chance to experience what it is really like to dance in a supporting role.
“I think that’s what we try to give them, a sense of becoming an artist, even in the corps de ballet,” Vernon said.
