Opening a season of elegance

Combining themes of sorrow, passion and religion with contemporary choreography, the IU Ballet Theater opens its season with “Ballets of Our Time” at 8 p.m. Friday  at the Musical Arts Center.

Ballet Department Chair Michael Vernon will bring his ballet “Endless Night” to the stage in its world-premiere performance, along with George Balanchine’s “The Four Temperaments” and Twyla Tharp’s “Sweet Fields.”

“Endless Night” features music by contemporary American composer Philip Glass, whose music, Vernon said, was the starting point in creating the ballet.

“I really liked one of Philip Glass’ quartets in its entirety,” Vernon said. “It had four short movements, but that wasn’t long enough for a ballet.”

He later decided to add the end of another quartet and Glass’ “Metamorphosis IV,” a piano piece.

After he chose the music, Vernon found inspiration in William Blake’s poem “Auguries of Innocence,” which describes the way some people are born into the “endless night” of a hard life and some are born into the “sweet delight” of an easy life.

“I don’t like really dramatic ballets,” Vernon said. “So what I have done is made an abstraction of the poetry, so people shouldn’t expect a literal translation.”

One literal translation is that of the characters’ moods to the costumes they wear.

“The color palette is where we connect with the concept of the characters,” set designer C. David Higgins said. “This piece is very somber, so it has a lot of blues and purples in subdued colors. But there is one couple that represents happiness, and they wear colors in the warmer palette, yellows and mustards.”

To make the premiere of “Endless Nights” even more memorable, Daniel Ulbricht, principal dancer of the New York City Ballet, will perform a solo in the fifth part, featuring pianist Florence Couvrette-Dupuis.

“It’s great having (Ulbricht) with us, but he is only here for a week,” Vernon said. “He is an extraordinary dancer, and he is sort of dramatic. So, I am giving him a chance to act because his personality is that of a tortured soul in the piece.”

Vernon said the rehearsals with the student dancers have also gone well, and he expects the best from them.

“The longer I am here, I see that the dancers just work better and better,” Vernon said. “They’re stronger, and the standard has gone really high. They have taken this whole program very seriously, and it has been very challenging because ‘The Four Temperaments’ is difficult.”

This will be IU’s second performance of Balanchine’s “The Four Temperaments,” and Vernon said he thinks it is the most important ballet of our time because it is forward-looking and modern.

“(Balanchine) was very much ahead of his time,” Vernon said. “This, in a way, should be called ‘Ballets Ahead of Their Time.’”

Balanchine’s ballet revolves around the ancient belief that human psyche is based on four humors – Melancholic, gloominess; Sanguinic, passion; Phlegmatic, indifference and Choleric, irritableness.”

Sophomore Grace Reeves is the principal dancer of the “Sanguinic” movement. She dances the major pas de deux (a dance for two) of the ballet.

“The dancing is sharp, very angular,” Reeves said. “It’s moving, and it gets very passionate. This role is technically hard to dance, and I have to have a lot of stamina for it.”
Vernon said he is proud of Reeves’ professionalism.

“She dances with great authority, style and technique,” Vernon said. “She is a really excellent dancer, and she is excellent in the role.”

The third ballet, Tharp’s “Sweet Fields,” calls on Tharp’s Quaker background with 18th-century and 19th-century American religious hymns of Shaker origins, will be performed for the first time ever with live music, sung by the IU Symphonic Choir.

Vernon said Tharp’s contemporary choreography is one of the best ways for IU student dancers to learn a different style of dancing.

“It has been very difficult for our dancers with Twyla Tharp because it is a very different way of moving,” Vernon said. “Even though it is based on classical ballet, it is very much into the floor. It is exactly what we need here in the department.”

Not only did Vernon say he has high expectations for his dancers’ abilities, but he also has expectations of his audience members.

“I am bringing a different point of view of ballet to Bloomington, which is a bit more sophisticated, and I just hope that the audience will come and appreciate it,” Vernon said. “Because finally, you know, we have to dance for an audience.”