ballet on tuesday

One of the small luxuries of my employment status is having the time and availability to volunteer at the boys’ school. I have a standing Tuesday morning gig in the first grade to evaluate emerging readers, and, selectively, I chaperone field trips. This morning I accompanied Winston’s class to see the James Sewell Ballet at the O’Shaughnessy Auditorium, and it was a blast.

The top-notch performances were completely (brilliantly, I might add) accessible to elementary students, most of whom have VERY limited attention spans. The Ballet performed pieces choreographed by James Sewell, including “Winter” (set to “Winter” from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons), which stunningly conveyed the season through dance movements suggesting snowball fights and snow angels. Sewell, a Twin Cities native who formerly danced with the American Ballet Theatre in NYC, has also created the “Name Dances” for each of the eight dancers in his troupe. We saw “Hi! My Name is Emily,” set to music by a local composer who used the mechanical sounds of music boxes. During the Q&A at the end, another dancer, who sports significant tattoos across his back and shoulders, told us that his Name Dance explores what it is like to be a tattooed dancer. He explained, as you might guess, that it’s highly unusual for ballet dancers to have tattoos and that most troupes don’t allow them. I’d love to see Chris’s piece.

In addition to the perfect program, I enjoyed observing the first-graders, normally quite energetic and loud, as they became absolutely rapt when the dancers were performing. Winston didn’t tell me much about the post-mortem so we conducted our own on the drive home from school. Concepts of music and movement, as well as the intersection art (dance) and sports (football), were not lost on him. It was pretty exciting to hear his ideas.

I would highly recommend, to anyone who asks, seeing James Sewell Ballet, especially if you like dance and particularly if they’re doing their performances for schools. Go with your child’s class, if you have a chance!