“One hundred fifty artists will come together in ‘The Rite of Spring,’ a collaboration among the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, dancers from Charlotte Ballet II and Charlotte Ballet’s apprentice program, and young Reach dancers from three local recreation centers,” on April 6 and 7, writes Lawrence Toppman in Thursday’s (3/20) Charlotte Observer (North Carolina). Also on the program is Stravinsky’s “Apollo,” danced by Charlotte Ballet with choreography by George Balanchine. For “Rite of Spring,” “choreographer Peter Chu is … balancing the skills of professional and pre-professional dancers with the slightly unfocused energy of youngsters who may never have been inside a professional theater.” The ballet’s Reach program provides “scholarships for children with natural talent, the potential for training and no money to pay for traditional classes…. Though the symphony has always been a house band for the ballet’s annual ‘Nutcracker,’ the two groups haven’t co-created something this big since a ’90s ‘Carmina Burana’ … Jeffrey Lee, who joined the symphony’s board of directors after serving on its board of trustees, says this project is typical thinking for Mary Deissler, the [orchestra’s] president and CEO … ‘She wants the symphony to be relevant to the artistic life of the city beyond its traditional sphere,’ he says.”
Posted April 2, 2018
