Ballet Memphis has an abundant history of producing thoughtful programs of the finest curatorial quality, and we celebrate some of that history with you this weekend. AbunDANCE presents the perfect setting. it is, after all, a repertory show, one for which I have selected works that reflect our strongest qualities and showcase the richness of our versatility and our commitment to acquire and perform well-crafted, meaningful work. Each one of these pieces brings to life the ideas and feelings we share together.
At the basis of all that we do at Ballet Memphis, we work as ballet-trained artists. This assures an elegance of bearing and a sense of line that is a strong foundation from which we can depart, often in many directions. Dana Tai Soon Burgess' work, Venetian Reflections, was one of the works created for AbunDANCE: Art in Motion (2009) based on a John Singer Sargent painting at the Dixon Gallery. Its quiet drama and subtle movement vocabulary illustrate the contemporary classical ballets we have created or acquired. It is a fiercely delicate ballet, belying the utter strength it takes to sustain the movement that must be in place to partner with the music's intense fluidity.
Ballet Memphis' own Steven McMahon created Soul Selects Her Society for Interiorworks (2010), an annual dancer-produced season-closer event. We have nurtured many young choreographers, and as our choreographic associate, Steven is one of our success stories. The company has performed his work on stages across America, and it has become part of our most-important and most-danced repertoire. Ballet Memphis does much work to sung lyrics and this was Steven's first foray into this type of piece. He has created more than a dozen works for us and for our Junior Company, so seeing one of his well-crafted, deeply sincere, and first lyric-based pieces is a good way to view is copious talents, and Ballet Memphis' talent for creating significant work through the mentoring of young talent for which we are nationally respected.
Robert Battle, new artistic director for the prestigious Alvin Alley Company, is a longtime friend of Ballet Memphis. I met Robert and saw his solo work, Takademe, years ago when Ballet Memphis was the only American ballet company to be selected to perform in Houston's Dance Salad Festival in 2003. Robert choreographed for us after that for our first Connections series, but it wasn't until AbunDANCE: Joyful Noise that I found a place for Takademe. Ballet Memphis is often the first ballet company to acquire a signature work from well-known modern dance choreographers, and this is one of them. Our commitment to expand our audiences' experiences and our dancers' remarkable athleticism and skill are clearly manifest in this work. Enjoy it fully, as Ballet Memphis is the only ballet company in America with Robert's rights to perform it.
Ballet Memphis is also a company that has a uniquely American persona in its repertoire, its particular physicality, and its open and confident delivery. Over the years we have returned frequently to Mark Godden's glorious Angels in the Architecture, including our first performance in New York in 2000. Angels not only reflects a fascinating piece of American history in the Shaker community, the largest of which was north of us in Kentucky, but it is a bold and compelling work infused with the spirit of the profoundly stirring Aaron Copland score.
I have always felt that the coupling of Mark's poignant choreography with the ecstasy of this iconic American musical suite is a match made in heaven. It takes a very fine ballet company to dance this exacting work. The Shakers, just like those of us who believe in ballet, were idealists. Their hopes for purity and their belief that they could dance into heavenly bliss are tailored hand in glove with what we believe and practice at Ballet Memphis. For 25 years, we have believed in this capacity to look beyond the norm, and we are compelled to be those idealists, those explorers.
Thank you for your part in the journey. There is more wonder ahead.
-- Dorothy Gunther Pugh
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