Gala Performance 2007

Gala Performance 2007 features three original one-act ballets: Cain, a mystery, Suite de Ballet: a comedy, and Scenes de Ballet. These original ballets were composed by Brian St. John and choreographed by Kristin Kingsley for the community of Longmont.

Cain, a mystery is based from the Lord Byron’s story of Cain and Abel. This one-act ballet was the first Gala Performance and it premiered in 1999. Two other one act ballets were performed during that first Gala. A survey was distributed to the sold out crowd which asked if the audience would be interested in future original works. The overwhelming feedback was that the Longmont community yearned for more original ballet productions. The wheels were set in motion from that point on to continue to produce a cycle of ballets to be produced by the fine students of LDT with live a orchestra.

Suite de Ballet: a comedy premiered in 2002. This one-act ballet is a spoof on all traditions of ballet (at least as many as we could fit in). The first scene is a Tarantella that has dancers performing with tambourines. Quickly, audience members realize that the Tarantella theme has repeated at least one too many times to culminate with over 50 dancers on stage shaking and banging on these very loud percussion instruments. The Pas de Deux is another scene that gets a snicker or a gaffah. This very long Pas includes a boxing ring. So have you wrinkled your brow? Well, many times couples in a pas de deux (a dance for two people) can…well, get a little stressed out. If the timing is off between dancers and things aren’t going really smoothly, a pas de deux can feel like a fight, hence the boxing ring. Also, this Pas de Deux is long, as I said before. Therefore, the bell signals a halt in the “fight”. The dancers go to their corners and get pumped up by their “coaches” to continue and finish this Pas. Some other highlights include: a garland dance, soloists that are late on stage, a spotlight show, an entrance by the four little swans and a skateboard fanatic. We cannot forget the most overused themed characters in ballets – the dance which includes bugs with wings.

Scenes de Ballet holds it premier in this Gala Performance 2007. The older students are featured in this ballet. It is more of a contemporary style ballet with no story attached to the scenes. The introduction presents all of the dancers and the subsequent pieces bring out soloists, duet, trio, and a quartet. The LDT dancers have excelled to a very high level and a ballet that represented their accomplishments only made sense to produce during this year.

If you missed this Gala, DVDs are available for purchase through the LDT Office.