Chautauqua School of Dance students perform “Waltz of the Flowers” from Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, choreographed by Bonnefoux-McBride Artistic Director of Chautauqua School of Dance Sasha Janes, accompanied by the Music School Festival Orchestra, on July 24, 2023, in the Amphitheater.
Tonight, rising young talent representing the future of their artforms will take center stage with a versatile program.
“Chautauqua is really the embodiment of different artforms — the collaboration between departments is what makes it so special,” said Rebecca Tong, the 2017 David Effron Conducting Fellow and tonight’s guest conductor.
At 8:15 p.m. tonight in the Amphitheater, Chautauqua’s School of Dance and Music School Festival Orchestra will perform for a night of interdisciplinary collaboration and art.
“We have such talent in the ballet department. All the dancers today are the future of the dance world — and the same thing with the musicians,” said Patricia McBride, director of ballet studies and principal repetiteur at Chautauqua’s School of Dance. “To be together on the same program is so exciting for the students to hear live music. There’s nothing like it.”
Sasha Janes, the Bonnefoux-McBride Artistic Director of Chautauqua School of Dance, said that the repertoire for this evening’s performance consists of a selection of pieces first performed at the School of Dance Student Gala on July 14.
After that recent performance, the dancers have had the opportunity to revisit their repertoire and refine the performances ahead of tonight.
“It’s good to have this week just to go back and really clarify some things and clean some things up, especially now that we’ve seen it onstage,” Janes said.
The program will include Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92; Franz Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 38; Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini,” Op. 43; and Igor Stravinsky’s “Capriccio.” Tong finds that Chautauqua not only does a great job of combining interdisciplinary forms of art, but merging traditional works with fresh pieces for an engaging balance.
Beethoven’s Seventh is a vibrant celebration of nature, the last movement taking on a sort of reckless ecstasy that operatic composer Richard Wagner called “the apotheosis of the dance.” Haydn’s Symphony No. 38 is an earlier piece of his, nicknamed the “Echo Symphony” due to the mimicry in the second movement between violins.
Rachmaninoff’s piece was composed in 1934 and had already established itself in standard repertoire by 1935. Stravinsky’s “Capriccio” is a traditional three-movement piece, but is otherwise untraditional in its amalgamation of styles.
The Stravinsky piece serves as a backdrop to “Rubies,” one of three acts in legendary choreographer’s George Balanchine’s “Jewels” ballet — considered to be one of his master works. As the MSFO performs the Stravinsky from the orchestra pit, dance students will perform “Rubies” on the stage above them.
McBride is a former distinguished prima ballerina with the New York City Ballet, and worked extensively with Balanchine — many of his greatest works were choreographed for her.
“The genius of Balanchine and Stravinsky together is very powerful,” she said. “It’s wonderful for me to pass it on to these beautiful dancers that I love.”
Janes said that the addition of a live orchestra performing with the dancers elevates the evening to the level of live theater.
“There’s a lack of predictability,” Janes explained. “When there’s an orchestra — maybe it’s a little bit slower, maybe it’s a little bit faster — and that will lend itself to some really interesting things on stage. How do the dancers react to that, what do they do to compensate for that? It may bring out something that’s really beautiful that we haven’t even seen before. That’s live theater; that’s the way theater should be seen.”
While School of Dance students and the MSFO have little opportunity to rehearse together, Janes said the students still find ways to collaborate and understand each others’ work ahead of the performance, and it’s been “invaluable” to have Tong in the studio to get an idea of everything, Janes said.
Janes hopes the audience will understand and appreciate the technical feats that the dancers are demonstrating.
“It’s a test for a professional to do some of these things,” he said.
For Tong, she’s most looking forward to working with these young musicians because “they’re hungry for everything,” and it’s simply different performing a piece for the first time rather than the 40th. Passion is vital for artists when they’re thinking about pursuing a career in music, and she encourages the MSFO students to cultivate that passion, with the mindset that in a few short years, many will likely be each others’ professional colleagues.
“I definitely want (the musicians) to feel the energy; I want to bring passion and imagination — we want to share it with our audience,” Tong said.
