“My favorite aspect of dance is not even the dancing part of it — it’s the music,” Ellis said. “It’s the ability to use music and interpreting it in a way that you can’t speak. It can be very powerful.”
Ellis is pursuing a bachelor of science in ballet performance. He is also a dancer in the Fall Ballet.
The Fall Ballet is subtitled “Three Iconic Choreographers,” and it features the work of Twyla Tharp, George Balanchine and Paul Taylor. The ballet is at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the Musical Arts Center.
The first part of the ballet is Tharp’s “Surfer at the River Styx.” Artistic director and chair of the ballet department Michael Vernon said it has a modern, record score, unlike the other two pieces that are performed by an orchestra.
Freshman Nicholas Gray is in the ensemble of Tharp’s piece. He said it has been interesting learning a piece in such a different style from classical ballet.
“I really love the style and the energy of this piece,” Gray said. “It just moves really fast-paced, and in the end, all of a sudden, it’s this beautiful music and it gets slow.”
The next piece is “Concerto Barocco” by famous choreographer Balanchine. It features Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Double Violin Concerto.”
Vernon said “Concerto Barocco” is meant to be a visualization of the music. One ballerina dances to one violin, another ballerina dances to the other violin and the corps de ballet, or the group of dancers that are not soloists, dances to the orchestra.
The pristine piece is neoclassical, Vernon said, which means it is classical but has been redefined from the old style of Russian ballet.
Ellis is a featured dancer in “Concerto Barocco.”
He said the members of the corps de ballet are very hardworking in this piece, because they do not leave the stage.
“There is not one small part,” Ellis said.
The last ballet is “Musical Offering” by Taylor, featuring Bach’s piece of the same title. It is inspired by sacred Polynesian figures, and it is about the celebration of a woman’s life and mourning her death.
Both “Concerto Barocco” and “Musical Offering” feature music by Bach, Vernon said, but they show completely different sides of the composer.
Vernon said he juxtaposed the two pieces to contrast the styles.
“It’s like two different composers,” Vernon said.
Ellis said the music in “Concerto Barocco” is melodic and soothing, like the Bach most people are familiar with.
“Musical Offering” is very dark, Ellis said, because it is a requiem dealing with themes of death. Ellis also dances in this piece.
“It will suck you in so quickly,” Ellis said. “There’s this atmosphere with the very first note, and there’s no way the audience can escape, and I think that’s the exciting part.”
Vernon said he chooses ballets that will challenge the dancers and give them a professional experience.
“What I look forward to with each program is that the dancers learn something, and they’re going to learn a lot,” Vernon said.
Ellis said he has been a dancer since he visited his twin sister’s ballet practice when he was in preschool.
“I came in and was so young and easily manipulated, so I was like sure, I’ll stay in that,” Ellis said. “I had one or two occasions where I was like ‘Should I do something else?’ But then I thought, ‘No, I like what I’m doing.’”
He said performing a ballet is still an exciting experience.
“There’s always that feeling that you’re there and the audience is viewing you, and all of this hard work, all of these months of training — all of a sudden, it’s to be presented at that one moment to look as easy as it possibly can,” Ellis said.
