Chautauqua School of Dance alumni Colin Canavan, Sajal Janaswamy and Aram Hengen rehearse for Chautauqua School of Dance’s production of “Wuthering Heights” Monday in the Amphitheater.
NORA SMITH
Staff Writer
Chautauqua School of Dance alumni Aram Hengen and Sajal Janaswamy rehearse for the upcoming production of “Wuthering Heights” Monday in the Amphitheater.
Many Chautauquans are undoubtedly familiar with Emily Brontë’s famed novel Wuthering Heights, and perhaps also with film adaptations of the book; fewer, perhaps, have witnessed a ballet adaptation of the tale — until tonight.
At 8 p.m. tonight in the Amphitheater, Chautauqua School of Dance will transport audience members into the tragic story via Bonnefoux McBride Artistic Director of Chautauqua School of Dance Sasha Janes’ balletic rendition.
Having originally premiered on Charlotte Ballet’s stage in 2017, Janes’ “Wuthering Heights” will now take on the Amphitheater stage for a performance Janes said he encourages audience members to stay for until the last second.
“I don’t enjoy going to a dance and coming away from it not feeling emotionally involved or emotionally moved,” Janes said. “So, I’m hoping that’s what the audience feels by the end of this. I’m hoping there won’t be a dry eye in the audience by the time we finish.”
Returning to Chautauqua Institution to take the audience on this journey are five dancers, all of whom are previous School of Dance students and are either alumni of or current students at Indiana University.
“The dancing is very athletic,” Janes said. He said the roles of Heathcliff and Catherine are particularly demanding and “completely exhausting” for the dancers who assume these roles.
“They truly are like Olympic athletes,” he said.
Rehearsals originally began in early June in Indiana and then resumed two weeks before the performance, welcoming dancers Emily Hain, Sejal Janaswamy, Aaron Anker, Colin Canavan and Aram Hengen back to Chautauqua. The production will feature current students as well.
“I think it’s really cool that a group of dancers who previously were at the School of Dance here are now back to perform with the School of Dance,” Anker said. “I hope it’s inspiring for the kids in the School of Dance.”
Canavan said, despite it being four years since last working with Janes, it feels like no time has passed at all. Further, Canavan said the music Janes selected for the ballet fits each scene wonderfully, while matching the energy and motion of the storyline.
“It’s essentially trying to portray that text into movement and still make it comprehensible to the audience, which is very complicated,” Janes said, adding that music is a driving force of the narrative.
The performance includes numerous English composers and also electronic music that enhances an edgy and compelling effect. In addition, throughout the ballet, there’s an underscore of wind blowing in the background, something Janes included to maintain the “cold, stark, grayish feeling” of the story.
“Sasha took the most important parts of the book and then tied it all together into a cut action type of ballet instead of it being a regular stream-of-consciousness ballet,” Hengen said.
Hain said working with Janes has been enjoyable. She said she sees him as a mentor because, although he expects a lot from the dancers during rehearsals, he’s very accommodating when welcoming new dancers into roles they’ve never performed before and allowing them to take on the characters and choreography in ways that suit them best.
Anjuli Paul, pre-professional dancer, Aaron Anker, alumnus, and Rebecca Janes, School of Dance faculty member, rehearse Monday.
In addition to transforming the written storyline of Wuthering Heights into one of movement and passing the choreography and characters onto new dancers, the production itself had to be transformed to fit the limits of the Amphitheater.
Janes said the original production for Charlotte Ballet had large sets, including two 18-foot-tall walls that would move around the stage for scene changes. However, due to safety reasons and other technical concerns, the production is carrying on without major sets, which has created obstacles to set transitions.
“Hopefully their storytelling and the choreography stands on its own without the sets …” Janes said. “There are things that you can hide when you’re setting scenes up, but everything’s just out in the open at Chautauqua. I had to really rethink technically how to get everything on and off the stage, how the performers enter and exit the stage.”
Jenni Propst, lighting designer and production manager, said these technical transformations have been difficult, but she’s thrilled to see the story come to life, especially from dancers she once knew as students.
“Watching these professionals that I once knew as students, it’s so cool,” Propst said. “They are so phenomenal. I was distracted by how amazing they were during rehearsal yesterday, because they’re so gorgeous that I’m like, ‘Wait, I have to pay attention to my cues and not be enthralled with their dancing.’”
