CORRECTIONS:
OCU SHOW TIMES
AND JACOBSON
MEMORIAL DATE

Please note that Oklahoma City University's "Home for the Holidays"
will be performed at 8 pm Dec 6, 7, and 8, and 2 pm Dec 8 and 9 in
OCU's Kirkpatrick Fine Arts Center. For tickets or additional information
about these performances, call the Oklahoma City University Ticket Office at
(405) 208-5227 or visit www.okcu.edu/ticketoffice.

The date for Jamie Jacobson's memorial service at UCO is not available
at the time of this posting. 

OU FESTIVAL BALLET
PERFORMS CINDERELLA
AND BALANCHINE'S
VALSE FANTASIE

Cinderella in her coach in OU's ballet.
Photos by Wendy Mutz

By Nancy Condit

The University of Oklahoma's Festival Ballet presents a double bill of a new version of the storybook Christmas classic Cinderella, and Balanchine's Valse Fantasie 1953. Performances continue at 8 pm December 6th, 7th, and 8th, and at 3 pm on December 9th in the Donald W. Reynolds Performing Arts Center inside Holmberg Hall, Norman.

As part of their training, OU School of Dance students are prepared with the repertoire as well as the technique to perform many ballets. The school also preserves older works, especially as the appreciation and demand for dance grows. Cinderella, with The Nutcracker, are two of the most popular ballets performed during the holidays, and are regarded as money-makers for the presenting organizations, helping them continue to function the rest of the season.

The new version of Cinderella, set to Sergei Prokofiev's score, is choreographed by faculty member Steve Brule, and Mary Margret Holt, director of the School of Dance and artistic director of the OFB. The piece, set in the French Empire period, with costumes designed by Lloyd Cracknell, school of drama faculty member, has been changed from a full evening ballet into two acts.

"We wanted to turn the grand fairy tale into an intimate, more personal story," Holt said in the press release. "We focused on the heart of score, which is breathtaking, to help form the intimate feeling."

Co-choreographer Brule said, "I have adored this music from the very first time I heard the score, dancing at the Houston Ballet, and am very lucky to get to choreograph music that I have loved for years."

Melanie Jensen and Nicole Reehorst will alternately perform the role of Cinderella, Zeek Wright and Nathan Young will dance the Prince, Natalie Kischuk and Melanie Jensen will perform the role of the Fairy Godmothers, and Steve Brule and Donn Edwards will portray the Stepsisters. Brule is torn, since this is his final year with the School of Dance, but "it's great to be able to work with this great group, and Donn again, since he has retired from the School of Dance faculty."

George Balanchine's Valse Fantaisie, staged by Leslie Peck from the Balanchine Trust, is described as "a light charming ballet" set to Mikhail Glinka's music. "The wonderfully melodic waltz is made richer with echoes of slightly melancholic undertones," Holt said in the press release.

In The New York Times review about the January 1953 premiere, John Martin wrote, “Balanchine has set three of his most enchanting ballerinas in a kind of perpetuum mobile, dainty, lilting, fleet and studied with brilliance. A partner attends them all, less to dance in his own right than to serve as an adjunct to their dancing.  The music, winning and melodious, with no break, no change of tempo, passes from persuasiveness to virtual hypnosis, and it is easy to realize why once the genteel waltz was considered an instrument of the devil” [from the press release].

Tickets are $22 for adults and $18 for senior adults, OU faculty and staff, military, and $14 for students. For tickets, please call the fine Arts Box Office at 405.325.4101 M-F 11:30 am - 5:30 pm. They are also available at the door one hour before performance with check or cash.

OKLAHOMA DANCE
MAKES STATE NEWS

By Nancy Condit

http://www.homeandawaymagazine.com/content.cfm?a=3366

Home and Away is the state magazine circulated to Oklahoma's members
of AAA. Although this writer didn't get a byline, she did get a check. More
importantly, Oklahoma dance received the spotlight.

Thank you for allowing this writer to harass you.

What a lovely holiday present.

The shame is that Jamie Jacobson, chair of the dance department at
the University of Central Oklahoma, died over the summer. A
memorial service will be held for her at UCO on February 2.

Jamie Jacobson
Photo provided

WHAT A WONDERFUL WEEK
FOR DANCE: OKC BALLET,
OCU HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS,
AND RACE!

Race Dance Company dancers from four high schools offer
hip hop dance and a contemporary story of  the classic.

By Nancy Condit



Marzipan dancers perform in the Land of Sweets in
 Oklahoma City Ballet's traditional "The Nutcracker."
All photos provided



Oklahoma City University's American Spirit Dancers dance as merry tapping Santa dancers
in a Broadway style revue "Home for the Holidays."

This week and weekend sees performances by three Oklahoma City dance groups -- the Oklahoma City Ballet, Oklahoma City University's American Spirit Dance Company, and the professional jazz dance company, RACE.

The Oklahoma City Ballet will perform The Nutcracker December 7th - 9th and 14th - 16 at the Civic Center Music Hall. Each weekend includes 7 pm performances on Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 pm performances on Saturdays and Sundays.

The Oklahoma City Philharmonic will perform Tchaikovsky's score live for each show.

When the Oklahoma City Ballet presents its version of The Nutcracker,  audiences will see the traditional production "everyone has come to expect from the original libretto used for the very first production choreographed in 1892 -- including a grand Victorian holiday party, a battle between mice and life-sized toy soldiers...and, of course, visions of Sugar Plums and other fanciful characters dancing," 

Robert Mills, artistic director, wrote in a press release. "The holidays are a time for tradition and we are pleased to provide one of Oklahoma's most enduring family holiday outings."

The production will feature over 100 dancers, including numerous children selected during auditions in August. The matinee performances include family activities -- ornament decorating, pictures with Santa, and Braum's Milk and Cookies receptions with the dancers after matinees.

Tickets are available online at www.okcballet.com/tickets.html, by phone at 405.848.TOES, or at the Civic Center Box Office. Prices range from $12 to $52. Family Four packs are $50.

The American Spirit Dancers at Oklahoma City University's Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Arts Management will perform December 6th - 9th. Shows will be in OCU's Kirkpatrick Fine Arts Center on Blackwelder. Director Jo Rowan founded the dancer group in 1981 to "celebrate America's unique contributions to dance through jazz, tap and musical theater, and to provide students with professional performance opportunities" [from the press release].

The Broadway style show "Home for the Holidays" is "an annual Broadway style dance extravaganza that captures the spirit of the season with rocking swing numbers, hundreds of colorful costumes and a Nativity of Christ's birth. Popular numbers this year include 'March of the Toy Soldiers,' 'Song for a Winter's Night,' 'Imaginary Guy,' 'Baby Please Come Home' and 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town'"[from the press release].

For tickets or additional information about these performances, call the Oklahoma City University Ticket Office at (405) 208-5227 or visit www.okcu.edu/ticketoffice. Single tickets are $28. The program is appropriate for six year olds and up.

Race Dance joins forces with four Oklahoma City School high school dance programs – Capital Hill,

N.W. Classen, Putnam City North, and Southeast -- for the production of the "Hip Hop Nutcracker."

A modern take on The Nutcracker is told through hip hop dance with real world issues in an urban setting. The cast of 80 dancers follows a young man who is searching for something missing from his life only to

find that it exists within himself. Race invites the audience to join Carlos to follow his heart in this coming of age story.

The cast includes the adult troop of the jazz dance company, the Men of Race, and Jr. Race.

Performances are at 7:30 p.m. December 7^th and 8^th at Bishop McMcGuinness High School's Petusky Performing Arts Auditorium. Tickets are $12 for adults, $8 for students, and $5 for children. Tickets are
available at the door, or through their website, www.racedance.com.

 

 

BRIGHTMUSIC TURNS IN
"BRIGHT PIANO"
CONCERT AT
ALL SOULS'

By Nancy Condit

Brightmusic plays Beethoven's
Piano Trio No. 1 in E-Flat Major. op. 1, no. 1
Photo c. by Nancy Condit

Joy overpowered everything in the concert presented by Brightmusic chamber music last night at All Souls' Episcopal Church. This was particularly true in the pieces by Beethoven and 20th century composer Reynaldo Hahn. The pieces were played extremely well, and well chosen.

"I liked the stimulation of hearing something new. I enjoyed the interplay of the instruments," said one of the concert goers at All Souls' Episcopal Church in the second of three performances of Brightmusic's "Bright Strings" last night. The last performance will be at 7:30 pm at St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral this evening. Tickets are $10 at the door.

The most pleasing surprise of the Brightmusic chamber music concert last night at All Souls' Episcopal Church was the piano. The nine foot concert grand was clear, pianist and artistic co-director Amy I-Lin Cheng's word, pulled its weight with the other instruments. With works by Beethoven, Hahn and Brahms, this was wonderful. Both pianos at All Souls' and St. Paul's are Baldwins, but this writer has never been able to hear the piano at St. Paul's as more than a suggestion.

While the Beethoven Piano Trio No. 1 in E-Flat Major, op. 1, no. 1 was outstanding, the Reynaldo Hahn piece, Piano Quintet in F-Sharp Minor, stood out as the star of the concert. It was appropriately referred to in the program notes as a piece that "prolongs the Belle Epoque, nourished by classicism" [Benoit Duteurtre]. As one of the concert-goers at All Souls' said, "I liked the interplay of the instruments (piano, violin and cello). I liked the stimulation of hearing something new."

Performing exceptionally well were Katrin Stamatis, violin; Royce McLarry, viola. They were ably assisted by Hal Brossman, violin; and Tomasz Zieba, cello.

Genticorum, Quebec’s Famous Traditional Trio,
To Play Series of Concerts
at Metro Libraries

The Metropolitan Library System’s annual Our World concert series has brought to central Oklahoma the music of South America, Asia, and the Louisiana bayous, but this year’s performances are something special.  Prepare for the music of the Great White North.
Genticorum, a trio specializing in traditional music with a unique twist, will appear at 10 MLS locations between November 4-9. They are known for their intricate fiddle and flute work, beautiful vocal harmonies, and energetic foot percussions. "The trio is the premier interpreteter of quebecois tunes and folk songs," source, MLS flyer.
“But calling them a trio is a little misleading,” said MLS Director of Outreach Services Dana Morrow.  “Genticorum may be just three musicians but, as one reviewer said of them, they ‘make a glorious noise, both instrumentally and vocally.”
The group is made up of Pascal Gemme, Alexandre de Grosbois-Garland, and Yann Falquet.  Together they sing as well as play fiddle and flute, energetic foot percussion, guitar and bass.  Just listening to them, you’d swear it was a larger ensemble.
“Genticorum is from Quebec,” Morrow said, “and they play traditional, or ‘trad,’ music, but their overall sound is a surprising blend of the ancient and the modern.   The word ‘genticorum’ has no real meaning.  It’s something Pascal Gemme remembers his grandfather used to say.”
Since they first got together in 2000, Genticorum has released four CDs and has presented live–concerts in 15 countries, including Australia, Egypt, England and Malaysia.  Check them out at http://www.myspace.com/genticorum.
All Genticorum’s MLS appearances are free and open to the public.  They are co-sponsored by Oklahoma Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. 

• Sunday, November 4 at 2:00 p.m.: Downtown Library, 300 Park Avenue
• Monday, November 5 at 1:00 p.m.: Warr Acres Library, 5901 N.W. 63rd Street
• Monday, November 5 at 7:00 p.m.: Midwest City Library, 8143 E. Reno
• Tuesday, November 6 at 1:00 p.m.: Edmond Library, 10 S. Boulevard
• Tuesday, November 6 at 7:00 p.m.: Bethany Library, 3510 N. Mueller
• Wednesday, November 7 at 10:00 a.m.: Choctaw Library, 2525 Muzzy Street
• Thursday, November 8 at 1:00 p.m.: Northwest Library, 5600 N.W. 122nd Street
• Thursday, November 8 at 7:00 p.m.: Belle Isle Library, 5501 N. Villa
• Friday, November 9 at 10:00 a.m.: The Village Library, 10307 N. Pennsylvania Avenue
• Friday, November 9 at 2:00 p.m.: Del City Library, 4509 S.E 15th Street

For more information about this or any Metropolitan Library System program, visit the MLS website, www.metrolibrary.org.

From the press release

BRIGHTMUSIC CONCERTS “BRIGHT MUSIC”
BEGIN SUNDAY


Artistic Directors Chad Burrow (clarinet) and Amy I-Ling Cheng (piano). Photo provided

 3:00 pm, Sunday afternoon, November 4
at First Christian Church of Norman,
220 S. Webster, Norman 73069

7:30 pm, Monday night, November 5
at All Souls’ Episcopal Church
6400 N. Pennsylvania Ave. (at 63^rd Street)                    

7:30 pm, Tuesday night, November 6
at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral
127 NW 7th Street (at Robinson)

This Sunday afternoon, Monday evening and Tuesday evening, five members of the Brightmusic Chamber Ensemble will play the second concert of Brightmusic’s 10^th Anniversary Season – “Bright Strings.”  For the first time, we will give three performances of this concert.  The ensemble will perform on Sunday afternoon at the First Christian Church in Norman; on Monday evening at All Souls’ Episcopal Church in Nichols Hills; and on Tuesday evening at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral downtown.

The works on the program are:  (1) Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Trio No. 1 in E-flat Major, op. 1., no. 1 for piano, violin and cello; (2) 20^th Century French composer Reynaldo Hahn’s luscious French Romantic Piano Quintet in F-sharp Minor for piano, two violins, viola and cello, which will transport audiences back to La Belle Époque; and (3) Johannes Brahms’ Piano Trio No. 3 in C Minor, op. 101 for piano, violin and cello.   

The Brightmusic musicians who will perform this concert are

Violin: Hal Grossman, concertmaster of the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra in Chicago and assistant professor of violin at the University of Oklahoma.

Violin: Katrin Stamatis, violinist with the OKC Philharmonic Orchestra and Doctor of Musical Arts candidate at the University of Oklahoma. 

Viola:  Royce McLarry, principal violist of the OKC Philharmonic Orchestra and associate faculty member for violin and viola at Oklahoma Christian University.

Cello: Tomasz Zieba, Associate Principal Cellist of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestra and Instructor of Cello at Oklahoma City University. 
Piano:  Dr. Amy I-Lin Cheng, concert pianist, Lecturer of Piano at the University of Michigan and faculty member at the Ann Arbor School for the Performing Arts. 

Amy I-Lin Cheng (piano), Hal Grossman and Katrin Stamatis (violins), Royce McLarry (viola) and Tomasz Zieba (cello).         
This concert is made possible by all of our wonderful individual and institutional donors, including our Tenth Anniversary Season sponsors, Chesapeake Energy Corporation, the Oklahoma Arts Council and the Ad Astra Foundation.

Program notes are posted on Brightmusic’s website, http://www.brightmusic.org/concert/bright-strings/program-notes.  Admission is $10 for adults, free for students with ID.

From the press release