Ballet overcomes weather at MAC

Spinning, leaping and graceful dancers flawlessly executed their choreographed arabesques, pirouettes and fouettes in the IU Ballet Department’s “On The Edge.”

The show, originally scheduled for two performances Wednesday at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, was postponed until Thursday due to snow.

IU Ballet Theater moved the show to the Musical Arts Center ballet studio because the Buskirk was booked for Thursday.

Seating was limited for the performance, but was offered free of charge.

“I was kind of upset that we weren’t able to perform at the Buskirk, but this was a nice environment, and we could see the reactions of the audience a lot more easily,” said Grace Reeves, a junior ballet major who danced in the show.

The show, designed to showcase the talents of up-and-coming choreographers, featured eight pieces of contemporary music ranging from the likes of Imogen Heap to Sergei Rachmaninoff to two Jacobs School of Music professors Eugene O’Brien and David Dzubay.

The hour-long show featured choreography by two IU ballet majors, ballet department faculty and professional dancers from the Louisville Ballet and BalletMet.
Some of the 42 students in the performance only had three days to learn the choreography.

“I felt it was important to have more performances and have our dancers work with different choreographers,” Chair of the IU Ballet Department Michel Vernon said in his opening introduction.

The first piece featured a remixed version of the song “Hide and Seek” by Imogen Heap, which included both the original music and a techno remix of the song. Juliann Hyde, Caitlin Kirschenbaum, Vincent Brewer and Paul Dandridge were the featured dancers for the piece.

“I liked the emphasis on contemporary music and how it broke away from original and traditional form of ballet,” sophomore Alexander Hanthorn  said.

Brewer said he tries to think about making the dance enjoyable for the audience while on stage, and thought it was fun to branch out and perform a different style of ballet.
With the contemporary mindset, Vernon emphasized storytelling within the mix of the choreography and music.

“The minute you put two people on stage, you have a story,” Vernon said.
Students and Bloomington residents quickly filled the available seating of the cramped ballet studio, which left only a small amount of standing room against the back walls for late-comers.

With the shows rescheduling, there was one dancer who was unable to make the performance for the last piece, “Grounded,” choreographed by junior ballet major Ben Delony.

Instead of cancelling the piece, Delony surprised the audience and danced in her place.

“It was really cool to see the choreographer dancing in his own piece,” sophomore Lindsay Zetter said. “There was no one better who could have stepped in for the role.”