Students of the Chautauqua School of Dance take a bow following their performance of Balanchine’s “Rubies,” staged by Patricia McBride, July 14 in the Amphitheater.
As the School of Dance wraps up its 2024 season, students will take center stage once again at 2:30 p.m. Sunday in the Amphitheater for the Chautauqua School of Dance Student Gala II.
At the beginning of the season, the dancers performed a selection of pieces with only a few weeks of rehearsal together. Sunday, they will showcase their progress with a program comprising the same pieces they performed previously — plus some new additions.
Sasha Janes, Bonnefoux McBride Artistic Director of Chautauqua School of Dance, said the closing performance is a great way to demonstrate the dancers’ progress.
“The transformation is huge,” Janes said. “It’s not just about learning choreography; it’s about adjusting to different styles and working in a different way that maybe you’re not used to.”
Sunday’s program includes the original pieces performed in the first Gala, with the addition of works choreographed by the Pre-Professional student dancers themselves, which is a big component of Chautauqua’s program.
“It’s something you wish for your company to do. The quality of what we’re doing and what we’re being exposed to — or what Chautauqua is being exposed to — it’s very easy to forget that this is actually a school of dance,” Janes said.
The afternoon includes works like Kara Wilkes’ “In The Trees,” Janes’ “Rhapsodic Dances” and George Balanchine’s “Rubies.” Janes also said the Festival dancers will have new material to showcase during the performance, which he finds exciting. All told, the performance will include 13 different pieces.
While the program for Sunday’s performance consists of many works showcased at the beginning of the season, Janes said dancers — 55 total this summer, across both the Pre-Professional and Festival cohorts — have opportunities to try different roles as the season continues, to ensure that they all get those experiences.
“We try to make sure everyone gets an opportunity to try some of these roles on the stage,” he said.
The students, he said, bring added and undiscovered artistry to his own choreographed pieces in new and exciting ways.
“They bring out some musicality that I actually hadn’t noticed before, so they continue to evolve within the pieces themselves,” Janes said. “For me, that’s a highlight — to see some of the choreography that is just so sophisticated, which is really encouraging for the art form and the future of dance, to have all those new voices up and coming.”
Sunday will provide a glimpse into some of what the dancers have worked on, but by no means everything.
“I want to make sure we showcase so much of what we’ve done this summer,” Janes said. “And that’s not everything we’ve done. We really could make a three- or four-hour show.”
Janes said he hopes Chautauquans will grasp the athleticism, strength and determination required of the dancers to stage 13 pieces in one program — the dancers have been working hard at rehearsals six days a week for the entire time they’ve been at the Institution.
“The quality and the quantity of material that they’ve learned is unbelievable,” he said.
