Dance St. Louis’ 2006-2007 Season has something for everyone
Ballet West of Utah will open Dance St. Louis’ 2006-2007 season on October 6-7 at the Fox Theatre with the ultimate Romantic ballet, Swan Lake. Artistic Director Jonas Kåge’s internationally acclaimed, sumptuous production retells the classic story of love and dark magic, as a young woman is doomed to take the form of a swan while a fiendish sorcerer and brave but naïve prince battle over her fate. Flooded with Tchaikovsky’s most haunting melodies, the music of Swan Lake will be played live by the Ballet Orchestra of St. Louis.
On October 20-21 the vibrant acoustics of the Touhill Performing Arts Center play host to the percussive sounds of tap dance superstar Savion Glover in his new Classical Savion. In two hours of bravura solo dancing, Glover creates dazzling dialogues with music of Antonio Vivaldi, J.S. Bach, Felix Mendelssohn, Astor Piazzola, and Bela Bartók as well as intense jazz improvisations, played onstage by a chamber ensemble and jazz band.
The joys and sorrows of everyday Americans are woven into Shapiro and Smith Dance’s Anytown: Stories of America, co-presented by Dance St. Louis and Edison Theatre’s OVATIONS! Series at the Edison on November 17-19. The raw emotional edge of American heartland rock, in songs by Bruce Springsteen and other members of his E Street Band, is matched by Danial Shapiro and Joanie Smith’s no-holds-barred choreography. Anytown follows the tangled lives of three families as they survive infidelity, flood and war while still affirming community and love.
On February 9-10, from Budapest to St. Louis come the Gypsy musicians, vigorous dancers, infectious rhythms, and kaleidoscopic colors of the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble. The panoply of Hungarian history splashes across the Touhill Performing Arts Center stage in dances born of medieval games, herdsmen’s jumping contests, soldiers’ recruitment enticements, and Transylvanian courtship rituals.
On February 16-18, in cooperation with Fox Associates, Dance St. Louis brings back the ever-popular STOMP, the international percussion sensation that celebrates the rhythms and dances lurking within everyday objects like push brooms, trash cans, and even kitchen sinks.
DanceBrazil comes to the Edison Theatre in a co-presentation with Edison’s OVATIONS! Series on February 23-25 with a scorching blend of samba, contemporary dance, and Capoeira, the pyrotechnic Afro-Brazilian martial art that Artistic Director Jelon Vieira describes as “a game – a fight like a dance, and a dance like a fight.”
On February 27 through March 11 at the Fox Theatre, Dance St. Louis and the US Bank Broadway Series present a stunning theatrical event from London’s West End: Matthew Bourne’s new full-length ballet, Edward Scissorhands, based on Tim Burton’s classic movie starring Johnny Depp. A boy, created by an eccentric inventor who dies leaving him alone and unfinished with only scissors for hands, Edward must find his place in a strange new suburban world where the well-meaning community struggles to see past his appearance to the innocence and gentleness within. This touching and witty gothic fairytale is a treat for the whole family.
On March 9-10 the astounding Shen Wei Dance Arts makes its St. Louis debut at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Shen Wei, who was born in Hunan, China and is now based in New York, Shen Wei Dance Arts fuses Chinese opera, sculpture, painting, dance, and theater into contemporary works of surreal, startling beauty.
The season closes on April 27-29 at the Edison Theatre, co-presented with OVATIONS!, with the first appearance in St. Louis of the sophisticated young Aspen Santa Fe Ballet. This chic and charming company is a model of the new face of classical dance – top-flight performers in an eclectic repertory by contemporary European and American choreographers.
The performances have been combined into three different subscription packages. STOMP and Edward Scissorhands are not included on any package. Subscription prices range from $110 to $292, depending on the series and seat location, including discounts for students/seniors. Single tickets range from $22 to $68. Subscriptions are now on sale. Single tickets go on sale several weeks prior to each individual performance.
Call the Dance St. Louis box office at 314-534-6622.
