Celebrating Ballets Russes, Its
Connection to the
University of Oklahoma, with
Oklahoma Festival Ballet
Performances Nov. 4 - 13
Yvonne Chouteau
Photo courtesy of OU School of Dance,
Ballets Russes Special Collections and Archive
The
University of Oklahoma School of Dance, OU Libraries and the Fred Jones
Jr. Museum of Art are showcasing the Ballets Russes Special Collections
and Archive and its connection to
the University of Oklahoma with an array of exhibitions, lectures and an Oklahoma Festival Ballet production.
Many events are open to the public with complimentary admission.
The Ballets Russes, the pre-eminent ballet company of the early
20th century, was founded in 1909 by Russian impresario
Sergei Diaghilev. Throughout the company’s history, it was a who’s who
of famous artists that ensured the success of the company. Noted
composers Strauss, Stravinsky, Ravel and Prokoviev wrote
scores for the ballet company. Set designers included such renowned
painters as Picasso, Matisse, Braque and Miró.
Choreographers such as Balanchine, Fokine and Massine,
and
principal dancers Nijinsky, Karsavina and Danilova served as dominant
figures in the ballet world. The company’s cutting-edge
productions forever changed audience expectations of ballet as theatre.
The
Ballets Russes
connection to the university comes from two of its principle dancers:
Yvonne Chouteau and Miguel Terekhov. In 1943, Chouteau, one of
Oklahoma’s American Indian ballerinas, joined the Ballet Russe de Monte
Carlo at the age 14. She toured with the company until
it closed in 1956.Terekhov joined de Basil’s Ballet Russe as a teenager
in South America and later joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo where
he met Chouteau.
Both
came to OU as guest artists in 1961 and remained to establish one of
the first fully accredited university dance programs in the United
States. The department became the School of Dance in 1998 with Mary Margaret
Holt as director.
In 2007 the
School
of Dance created the Ballets Russes Special Collections and Archive, a
permanent collection of artifacts and personal histories
from former members of the ballet company. The
collections include correspondence, programs, clippings, diaries,
scrapbooks, photographs and musical scores, as well as video resources,
costume items and other ephemera. More than 40 former dancers with the
Ballets Russes companies, as well as other donors, have entrusted their
personal collections to the archive. The current and ongoing
digitization project will make the holdings accessible
to the general public.
Camille
Hardy, noted
dance critic, historian and scholar, joined the School of Dance faculty
as professor of dance history and served on the steering committee to
assist in building the collections and creating a structure and policies
for the archive until her retirement this
fall.
To
honor the Ballets
Russes, University Theatre and School of Dance will present Oklahoma
Festival Ballet in a program of world-renowned ballets from and inspired
by the legendary ballet companies bearing the name Ballets Russe.
Oklahoma Festival Ballet will open at 8 p.m. Nov. 4; additional
performances are scheduled at 8 p.m. Nov. 5, 10 and 11, and 3 p.m. Nov. 6
and 13. All performances will be held in the Elsie C. Brackett Theatre,
563 Elm Ave., on the OU Norman campus.
The production is a
tribute to the memory of Chouteau. Highlights include Stravinsky’s masterpiece,
The Firebird;
Pas de Quatre,
originally danced for Queen Victoria by the four reigning ballerinas of
the Romantic Era; a new version of the ballet that made Nijinsky
famous,
Spectre de la Rose;
and a new ballet, Bouquet for Yvonne, in tribute to the memory of Chouteau.
OU School of Dance faculty Pamela Bjerknes, Holt, Ilya Kozadayev and
Clara Cravey Stanley choreograph and stage this program of legendary
ballets.
Events are complimentary unless noted otherwise.
Schedule of events:
Oct. 4-Nov. 15 – Ballets Russes Exhibition, Bizzell Memorial Library, 401 W. Brooks St.
Oct. 6-Dec. 30
– From Diaghilev to Terekhov and Chouteau: An Exhibition
of Material from the Ballets Russes Special Collections and Archive,
Ellen and Richard L. Sandor Gallery,
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, 555 Elm Ave.
Oct.
14 – Lecture by Mary Jo Watson - “The Spirit of the Dance”: Native
American aspects of the Ballets Russes, 5:30-7:30 p.m., Fine Arts
Library.
Oct. 18 – Lecture by Robert Bailey, Ballets Russes lecture and film
“A Brief History of the Gesamtkunstwerk, with Attention to the Ballets Russes” Robert Bailey5-7 p.m.,
Bizzell Memorial Library, Helmerich Collaborative Learning Center, lower level 1.
Advance
purchase tickets for Oklahoma Festival Ballet are $25 for adult; $20
for senior adult, OU employee and military; and $10 for student, plus
processing fee. Tickets at the door are $35
for adult and $15 for student, cash or check only.
To purchase tickets online, go to theatre.ou.edu or call or visit
the OU Fine Arts Box Office at (405) 325-4101, located at 500 W. Boyd
St., in the Catlett Music Center, on the OU Norman campus.
For accommodations, please call the OU Fine Arts Box Office at (405) 325-4101.
Courtesy of the College of Fine Arts, University of Oklahoma
