PRESENTING SPONSOR PROGRAM NOTES 9TH ANNUAL 2016 PERFORMANCES FRIDAY JULY 22 SATURDAY JULY 23 JULY 18–23, 2016 PROGRAM NOTES Honorary Chair Jane Tyler Chair Cathy Weinroth Steering Committee Barbara Fife Norbert Donelly Judy MacLeod Bonnie McCausland Bonnie Sacerdote Randee Seiger Jane Tyler Marcia Welch Dance Festival Advisors Nan Geschke John Loose Marion Martin David Ross Denise Saul Committee Sue Ambrecht Kathleen Hay Margaret Ruttenberg Carol Atkinson Barbara Jones Samantha Sandler Amy Baldwin Mary Jane MacLean Audrey Schuster Mary-Randolph Ballinger Jeanne Miller Catharine Soros Jody Berger Pat Moran Anne Sternlicht Laura Buck Orla Murphy-LaScola Esta-Lee Stone Susan Burbage Franci Neely Merrielou Symes Roxanne Casscells Sally Orr Pam Thomas Jeanne Cohane Valerie Paley Phoebe Tudor Barbara G. Cohen Mary Ann Peglar Jay Wilson John Falk Steve Perelman Suzy Grote Karen Rainwater Robert A. Greenspon, Chair NANTUCKET ATHENEUM David Ross, Senior Vice President and Treasurer Marcia P. Welch, Vice President BOARD OF TRUSTEES 2016 William E. Hannum III, Secretary Samuel Bailey Jr. Bonnie McCausland Trustees Emeriti Kathryn Cramer Brownell Elizabeth McHenry Nan Geschke Annye Camara Jeanne C. Miller Nancy A. Newhouse Porter G. Dawson Orla Murphy-LaScola Honorary Trustees Norbert P. Donelly Bonnie J. Sacerdote Margaret Ritchie Battle Douglass N. Ellis Randee Seiger Mr. and Mrs. Robert Diamond Jr. Joan L. Gulley Jane A. Tyler Lucile W. Hays Patrick Hehir Cathy Weinroth Mr. and Mrs. Richard Menschel Hudson Holland III P. Rhoads Zimmerman Barbara Jones Executive Director Chairs Emeriti Molly Anderson Allan LaFrance Alice F. Emerson Edward J. McCarthy John W. Loose NANTUCKET ATHENEUM DANCE FESTIVAL Featuring stars from the AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE CINCINNATI BALLET Artistic Director Tyler Angle JESSICA LANG DANCE American Ballet Theatre PACIFIC NORTHWEST BALLET Isabella Boylston Skylar Brandt PENNSYLVANIA BALLET April Giangeruso Katherine Williams ROYAL BALLET Calvin Royal III Cincinnati Ballet Patric Palkens Jessica Lang Dance Kana Kimura Laura Mead Clifton Brown Milan Misko Pacific Northwest Ballet Lesley Rausch James Moore Jerome Tisserand Pennsylvania Ballet Lauren Fadeley Alexander Peters Royal Ballet Lauren Cuthbertson Eric Underwood Musicians Vocals Vanessa Upson Piano Susan Walters Guitar Aki Ishiguro This year’s performances Cello John Popham are dedicated to the Violin memory of Wat H. Tyler, Pala Garcia friend and supporter of the Elly Suh Nantucket Atheneum. Viola Elzbieta Weyman JULY 18–23, 2016 3 2016 PERFORMANCES FRIDAY SATURDAY JULY 22 JULY 23 NANTUCKET HIGH SCHOOL MARY P. WALKER AUDITORIUM PROGRAM The Wanderer-transcribed Music: Franz Liszt after Schubert Choreography: Jessica Lang Lighting: John Cuff Premiere: 2016, Nantucket Atheneum Dance Festival Clifton Brown, Laura Mead Milan Misko & Kana Kimura JESSICA LANG DANCE La Chasse Music: Franz Schubert Choreography: Matthew Neenan Lighting: John Cuff Premiere: 2014, Pennsylvania Ballet Lauren Fadeley & Alexander Peters PENNSYLVANIA BALLET 4 NANTUCKET ATHENEUM DANCE FESTIVAL Chroma Pas de Deux Music: Joby Talbot & Jack White III Choreography: Wayne McGregor Lighting: John Cuff Premiere: 2006, Royal Ballet Lauren Cuthbertson & Eric Underwood ROYAL BALLET Invisible Divide Music: Ellis Ludwig-Leone Choreography: Troy Schumacher Source Photography: Paul Maffi Costume Design: Troy Schumacher Original Lighting: Brandon S. Baker Lighting: John Cuff Premiere: 2015, BalletCollective Isabella Boylston, Calvin Royal III, Skylar Brandt, April Giangeruso, Katherine Williams AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE INTERMISSION Cylindrical Shadows Music: David van Bouwel and Johann Sebastian Bach (Concerto in D Minor after Alessandro Marcello, “Adagio”; Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, “Sarabande”), and Henry Purcell (Dido and Aeneas) Choreography: Annabel Lopez Ochoa Original Lighting: Michael Mazzola Lighting: John Cuff Premiere: 2011, Whim W’Him Seattle Contemporary Dance Lesley Rausch, James Moore, Jerome Tisserand PACIFIC NORTHWEST BALLET Patric Palkens Lauren Fadeley & Alexander Peters CINCINNATI BALLET PENNSYLVANIA BALLET JULY 18–23, 2016 5 PROGRAM Qualia Pas de Deux Music: Scanner Choreography: Wayne McGregor Lighting: John Cuff Premiere: 2004, Royal Ballet Lauren Cuthbertson & Eric Underwood ROYAL BALLET Roméo et Juliette Pas de Deux Music: Sergei Prokofiev Choreography: Jean-Christophe Maillot Lighting: John Cuff Premiere: 1996, Le Ballets de Monte Carlo Lesley Rausch & Jerome Tisserand PACIFIC NORTHWEST BALLET American Trio Music: Antonin Dvorak Choreography: Melissa Barak Lighting: John Cuff Premiere: 2016, Nantucket Atheneum Dance Festival Skylar Brandt, April Giangeruso & Calvin Royal III AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE LIVE MUSIC IS MADE POSSIBLE THIS YEAR BY THE GENEROSITY OF ANN AND NORBERT DONELLY. 6 NANTUCKET ATHENEUM DANCE FESTIVAL PROGRAM NOTES NANTUCKET ATHENEUM DANCE FESTIVAL 2016 By Joseph Carman This year’s Nantucket Atheneum Dance Festival (July 18-23) is all about the new. Among the eight works presented on the culminating performance evenings of July 22 and 23, there are two world premieres, and, apart from Jean-Christophe Maillot’s Roméo et Juliette (1996), all the ballets have been choreographed in the 21st century. Refreshingly, three of the pieces were created by established women choreographers. Tyler Angle, the dance festival’s artistic director, has pivoted away from classic warhorses and the works of Jerome Robbins and George Balanchine this season to show the brilliant work that today’s choreographers are producing— to emphasize the “now” of ballet. Angle feels passionately about the work of the dance makers produced on the program. He has also secured an impressive roster of dancers from the Royal Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Pennsylvania Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet and the Jessica Lang Company. Qualia Wayne McGregor, one of the world’s most revered choreographers of contemporary ballet, was appointed Resident Choreographer for the Royal Ballet in 2006. His visceral, hyperphysical movement style has pushed dancers beyond the boundaries of classical ballet vocabulary, while retaining the sheer beauty and formality of the art form. Qualia, titled after a philosophical term which connotes a raw sensory experience, was the first ballet McGregor choreographed for the Royal Ballet (2004). “I had seen Qualia, a while back in London and it was the first time I had seen his very distinct movement style,” says Angle. “I hadn’t seen dancers at the Royal, who are so beautifully trained in a style of such beautiful restraint, dancing with this kind of abandon. To see all these dancers in a completely different vernacular was very impressive.” The sensual pas de deux from Qualia, set to a score by the electronic musician Scanner, is emblematic of McGregor’s unique style, in which the interconnectedness and intertwining of two dancers is ingeniously crafted. JULY 18–23, 2016 7 PROGRAM NOTES Chroma McGregor’s Chroma (2006), choreographed for the Royal Ballet to a commissioned score by Joby Talbot, is one of the first great dance masterpieces of this century. Having won a Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production in 2007, the piece has since been absorbed into the repertoires of many of the greatest dance companies, from the San Francisco Ballet to Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. The pas de deux from Chroma ferociously explores the theatrics of human bodies in their interchange of thoughts and emotions. Cylindrical Shadows Annabelle Lopez Ochoa has often gravitated to storytelling in her ballets. Her Cylindrical Shadows, created for Pacific Northwest Ballet in 2012, takes a less literal narrative approach, instead evoking the memories of trauma. The source material for Cylindrical Shadows, performed to a collage of music by David van Bouwel, Johann Sebastian Bach and Henry Purcell, stems from a moment when Ochoa learned of the sudden, unexpected death of a dear friend. The piece explores how humans process and survive such disruptions. “I personally believe that there is no difference between life and death; they are not opposite, as we are taught to believe,” says Ochoa. “They are both part of a single continuum— the continuum of life.” La Chasse La Chasse, a duet choreographed by Matthew Neenan, Pennsylvania Ballet’s Choreographer in Residence, was inspired by a dynamic 1911 Cubist painting by French artist Albert Gleizes that depicts a vibrant hunting scene. Set to the second movement (Andante con moto) of Franz Schubert’s Piano Trio No. 2 in E-flat major for piano, violin, and violoncello, the ballet captures the propulsion of Schubert’s score with its shifting moods. Angle comments, “There are undercurrents of a story or a setting in which you get these kinds of emotional vignettes, as an in Ochoa’s work. I look at these pieces as possessing their own emotional paradigm about loss or community.” The two dancers of La Chasse circle each other, connect and separate in a touch-and-go interplay of human poetry. 8 NANTUCKET ATHENEUM DANCE FESTIVAL PROGRAM NOTES The Wanderer-transcribed Angle’s passionate love for Schubert’s compositions also includes Die schöne Müllerin (Op. 25, D. 795), the composer’s song cycle based on poems by Wilhelm Müller. The score is considered one of the finest examples of lied, the genre of German songs of the Romantic period for solo voice with piano accompaniment. Angle had seen Jessica Lang’s company perform her piece The Wanderer, set to the complete Die schöne Müllerin song cycle at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival.