20th Anniversary Tour 2015 / 2016

ASPEN SANTA FE BALLET
PHOTO: SHAREN BRADFORD
20th Anniversary Tour 2015 / 2016
crucial revenue diversification. Under this hybrid business model, a roster
of arts activities takes wing, year-round, in both cities. Performance,
education, presentation and community outreach all join in the mix.
Within this innovative structure, ASFB anticipates its 20th anniversary
season in 2015-16.
New commissions
ASFB’s mission places the highest priority on developing new
choreography and nurturing relationships with emerging
choreographers. The company fostered the early careers of now indemand global dance makers like Nicolo Fonte (eight commissioned
Fonte works in the ASFB repertoire), Jorma Elo (three commissioned Elo
works), Edwaard Liang, Jacopo Godani, Helen Pickett, Cayetano Soto,
Alejandro Cerrudo and others. Works by late 20th century masters –
William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián, Twyla Tharp – round out the repertoire.
“We value building relationships with choreographers who become
integral to the company. The natural beauty of our surroundings has a
profound impact on creativity and our choreographers find it inspiring to
create here,” says Mossbrucker, ASFB’s artistic director.
Aspen Santa Fe
Ballet History
Ballet’s dynamic story in the American West
In 1996 Aspen Santa Fe Ballet Founder Bebe Schweppe invited Tom
Mossbrucker and Jean-Philippe Malaty to create a ballet company in
Aspen. A unique, multidimensional arts organization developed rapidly
from the ballet school Schweppe had established in the Rocky Mountains.
“Bebe’s vision for Aspen to have its own ballet company was the project of
a lifetime,” says Malaty, ASFB’s executive director. “We embarked together
on a serendipitous adventure. Eighteen years later, the connection
between the dancers and our two communities is deep and inextricable.”
Forging a new frontier
The company began modestly, with six dancers. Growth was organic.
Friends in the field – Gerald Arpino, Trey McIntyre, Septime Webre,
Dwight Rhoden – offered start-up repertoire. Moses Pendleton’s highly
popular Noir Blanc was a seminal event for the young ASFB. It launched
a tradition of commissioning new works. An open, exploratory style
emerged as Mossbrucker and Malaty tapped the creative scene in Europe
where classical ballet was breaking from its boundaries. The athletic
and adventurous American dancers found themselves at a crossroads
of dance history. The divide between ballet and modern dance was
dissolving.
Innovative business model
In 2000 the Aspen, Colorado-based ballet company forged a dual-city
relationship with Santa Fe, New Mexico, broadening its scope and lending
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PHOTO: SHAREN BRADFORD
National reputation
Based for eighteen years in the American West, ASFB now sits at the
vanguard of its field, brandishing a strong national reputation. Repeat
engagements at the American Dance Festival, Harris Theater for Music and
Dance, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Joyce Theater, The Kennedy Center,
Saratoga Performing Arts Center and Wolf Trap testify to the company’s
popularity and ability to please audiences. Overseas invitations arrived
and ASFB embarked on international tours to Brazil, Canada, France,
Greece, Guatemala, Israel, Italy and Russia. Premier funders – National
Endowment of the Arts, Joyce Foundation, Wolf Trap Foundation, Dance
St. Louis, Jerome Robbins Foundation and Princess Grace Foundation –
have supported ASFB’s growth.
Flamenco joins the fold
In January 2014 Aspen Santa Fe Ballet announced with pride the addition
of Juan Siddi Flamenco Santa Fe under its arts management umbrella.
The collaboration with the seven-year old flamenco company provides
the benefits of economies of scale and other business synergies, as well
as a simpatico artistic alliance. The addition of Juan Siddi Flamenco
Santa Fe is a further expression of ASFB’s core mission. It represents an
opportunity to celebrate cultural heritage, expand diversity, serve as a
catalyst for new ventures and play a role in fortifying a heritage art form.
Accolades into the future
In recognition of their pioneering and innovative model for American
dance, Tom Mossbrucker and Jean-Philippe Malaty were honored by the
Joyce Theater Foundation with the Joyce Theater Award in 2010.
The 2014-15 season sees the company’s return engagements in Denver,
Pittsburgh, Tucson and debuts in Akron, East Lansing, Penn State and
San Antonio, as well as the Canadian capital, Ottawa. The company
anticipates its seventh presentation at New York’s Joyce Theater. The fast
evolving Aspen Santa Fe Ballet looks to a bright future with energy and
optimism.
Dear Presenters,
Greetings from the American West. It is hard to believe that Aspen Santa Fe
Ballet will soon celebrate its 20th anniversary! We wish to keep you abreast
of our news and what lies ahead for Aspen Santa Fe Ballet.
Last season, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet enjoyed debuts in Los Angeles, Purchase
and Escondido; and return engagements in Portland, Laguna Beach, Maui
and Princeton. The company performed at Chicago’s Harris Theater for
Music and Dance, and in a special honor, closed the summer Festival at the
famed Jacob’s Pillow – our fifth appearance there.
The company has expanded its ranks to eleven skilled and charismatic
dancers who slip lithely through a diverse array of engaging choreography.
The newly commissioned The Heart(s)pace by longtime collaborator Nicolo
Fonte was a highlight of last season and has become a touring staple
alongside works by Cayetano Soto, Norbert De La Cruz, Alejandro Cerrudo,
Jorma Elo and Jiří Kylián. Works by all of these acclaimed choreographers
are available for our 20th Anniversary Tour in 2015-16.
Looking ahead, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet is pleased to make debuts in Akron,
Burlington, Penn State, Virginia Tech, San Antonio, East Lansing and
Ottawa. Return engagements to Pittsburgh, Beaver Creek, Denver, Omaha,
St Louis, Tucson and Los Angeles round out a busy touring season that also
includes a week-long run at the Joyce Theater in New York, our seventh
presentation there.
The biggest news this season is the acquisition of Juan Siddi
Flamenco Santa Fe. In an unprecedented and innovative act of arts
entrepreneurialism, this iconic Santa Fe ensemble of extraordinary
dancers and musicians has come under the management of Aspen Santa
Fe Ballet.
PHOTO: JANA CRUDER
Over the course of our history, we have come to know many of you and
have had the great pleasure of performing for your audience. On the cusp
of our 20th anniversary season, we thank you all for your efforts in bringing
dance to your community. As always, we hope you will include Aspen
Santa Fe Ballet on your dance card! Our agents Cathy Pruzan (US and
Canada) and Margaret Selby (international) would love to hear from you.
Tom Mossbrucker
Jean-Philippe Malaty
FOR BOOKINGS PLEASE CONTACT:
USA and Canada:
Cathy Pruzan
Artist Representative
4709 Paradise Drive
Tiburon, CA 94920
phone 415-789-5051 | fax 415-789-5055
cpruzan@aol.com
International:
Margaret Selby
Columbia Arts Management
1790 Broadway, 16th Floor
NY, NY 10019
phone 212-841-9554 | fax 212-841-9770
mselby@cami.com
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PHOTOS: SHAREN BRADFORD
Threading
the
Needle
Seeking a fresh
perspective,
choreographer Nicolo
Fonte swims upstream
— while being careful
not to cut across the
grain.
by Zachary Whittenburg
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Nicolo Fonte has just completed his eighth original work for
Aspen Santa Fe Ballet: an octet choreographed to three movements from
Italian composer Ezio Bosso’s second symphony, called Under the Trees’
Voices.
By phone from Colorado, Fonte sounds at ease. “We finished yesterday,”
he clarifies. “Now it’s just looking at it, tweaking it and working with the
dancers, although it’s in great shape and I don’t want to overcorrect it.
That can really kill the spontaneity and the joy, you know?”
As Fonte explains further what he means by the twin dangers “overprepared” and “over-ready,” it’s apparent that, for him, “completed” and
“finished” hold unique meanings in this particular context. A dictionary
might define them as “consummate” or “lacking nothing” but, for this
choreographer, such finality means a kind of death for a piece still three
weeks away from its world premiere.
“I told Tom [Mossbrucker, ASFB’s artistic director], ’Don’t rehearse it every
day when I’m gone next week,’” Fonte continues. “‘Go two, maybe three
days without running it in the studio. I don’t want the dancers discovering
everything about it before they get onstage.’ I like it when they can take
responsibility and are involved in the decision-making process.”
The Heart(s)pace skips the first two movements of Bosso’s 2012
composition and dives right into its driving, ecstatic middle, a scherzo
for strings. Bosso’s fourth section, the ballet’s middle, lays long, plaintive
phrases over first pizzicato, then a storm. Both the score and choreography
conclude in a presto finale.
Company member Paul Busch, 25 and also a pianist, half-jokingly
complains that he appears only in the first and third scenes of Fonte’s new
work. “My favorite music is the pas de deux, which I don’t dance,” he says,
referencing The Heart(s)pace’s centerpiece duet for Peter Franc and Seia
Rassenti, “which has been hard for me because I’m so madly in love with
it.” Busch finds more than enough inspiration for his role in the bookend
movements, however, thanks specifically to their frequent shifts in tone.
“There’s a regality, there’s sensitivity, quiet, sadness, joy, bursts of energy
and parts that are very rhythmic,” he explains. “The music brings out…it
demands so many different qualities from our dancing.”
What neither the music nor the choreography does is brood. By design,
The Heart(s)pace bucks certain shadowy trends in contemporary dance.
Audiences and performing-arts presenters alike wonder whether it’s time
to declare the apotheosis of a Northern European aesthetic — born in
the early ’90s and recognized for dimly lit, slightly hostile and clinical
compositions — over and done.
Not that being among the first to propose a new paradigm is easy, say
Fonte and Mossbrucker. Just because viewers are ready for something
different doesn’t mean they’ll eagerly consume whatever’s offered. What
the hard-edged, cold world of choreography today handily avoids is
sentimentality, and neither men see the answer in a pendulum swing.
In late November, just more than halfway through the creation of The
Heart(s)pace, Fonte openly expressed his concerns about how exactly to
paint a more luminous picture.
“I want to keep the integrity of my work, of what I do. I also want to see
how to incorporate more light, both in terms of the audience being
able to see more clearly what’s happening onstage, and generating
more positive feeling, a celebratory feeling…without becoming cheesy.”
(Perhaps paradoxically, Fonte sought to accomplish this in part by
spending his first week with ASFB’s dancers in total privacy. “I almost got
curtains for the windows,” he says, “and made people knock on the door
— I was that serious.”)
Echoing Fonte’s concerns about simply exchanging astringent gloom
for cloying gloss, Busch confesses that, onstage, the depth of a feeling is
more important for him than its type.
artist whose manner in the studio is more day than night, more summer
than winter. “Nicolo’s extremely positive in the studio, which allows
everybody to move freely and their creative juices to flow… It’s rare that
you find someone so comfortable and fun, who’s so easy to have a backand-forth with during something as difficult as the creative process.”
ASFB dancer Sadie Brown, 22, agrees: “He never seems stressed. I guess
he must have some pet peeves, but I haven’t discovered any of them yet.”
I ask the choreographer what he focuses on with the cast. “Intention,”
he says plainly. “Helping them identify, at every moment, why each next
step is what it is.” He’s silent for a second, then continues.
“You know, dance is a complicated thing. What we’re doing in
contemporary dance is, in general, abstract. We’re not dealing in literal
narratives anymore. I do, however, have trouble with empty gestures
and we’ve been working on that from the get-go. Most younger dancers
today are very good at being cold and edgy. Aloof. That’s where we are
right now, in this art form — that’s still in vogue at the moment. Not that
there isn’t any fury in The Heart(s)pace, but it’s more about the human
heart. Every movement needs to be motivated by a sense of compassion.
Without it becoming sentimental, without any overacting. It’s hard to
find that balance.”
Boulder, Colorado native Zachary Whittenburg has written dance and culture stories
for numerous publications including Dance International, Dance Magazine, Dance
Teacher, Dance Spirit, Hoy, Pointe, Time Out Chicago, Total Theatre UK, Flavorpill
and the Windy City Times. He is also Manager of Communication at Hubbard Street
Dance Chicago.
“If the choreography generates the mood within me, if it’s inspiring and I’m
moved by it to make it real then, yes, I can be joyful onstage. Otherwise I
won’t be, because it’s fake. I don’t smile in photos often. I’m a fairly serious
guy, and very shy. So this common quality of contemporary dance right
now, that seriousness that the public so often sees, is comfortable for me.
While the exuberant characteristics of The Heart(s)pace represent
something of a departure for Fonte the choreographer, they’re not
unexpected by some familiar with Fonte the person. This project marks
the second time dancer Peter Franc has originated a role for him, the first
while a member of Houston Ballet. The 27-year-old dancer describes an
ASFB ON TOUR 2015
ASPEN SANTA FE BALLET
August 20-24
Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival
Becket, MA
October 22-26
Joyce Theater,
New York, NY
October 5
Akron, OH
October 30
Blacksburg, VA
October 11
Pittsburgh, PA
December 13-14
Aspen, CO
October 14
University Park, PA
October 18
Burlington, VT
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February 19
Omaha, NE
April 10
San Antonio, TX
February 20-21
Denver, CO
April 16
East Lansing, MI
February 27-28
St. Louis, MO
May 20
Burlington, ON, Canada
December 20-21
Santa Fe, NM
March 24-26
Tucson, AZ
May 21
Markham, ON, Canada
January 22
Beaver Creek, CO
March 28
Los Angeles, CA
May 23
Ottawa, ON, Canada
PHOTO: ROSALIE O'CONNOR
2 0 1 4 / 2 0 1 5 S E A S O N
ASPEN SANTA FE BALLET
2015/2016 TOURING REPERTOIRE
Aspen Santa Fe Ballet’s repertoire, ranging from accessible
to sophisticated, resonates with energy and eclecticism. A house-style
emerges across this diverse dance menu, layering American athleticism
on a base of European refinement. The company’s identity is tethered to
its repertoire, which speaks a complex language, challenges audiences
and advances the art form.
leading choreographers whose important first assignments came from
ASFB. Many ballets have gone on to grace the repertories of renowned
global dance companies. Nurturing lasting relationships with dance
makers is a company hallmark. Among the choreographer-collaborators
creating multiple works on ASFB are Alejandro Cerrudo, Jorma Elo, Nicolo
Fonte, Trey McIntyre, Moses Pendleton and Cayetano Soto.
Since its inception, ASFB has been deeply committed to commissioning
new works. Of the 28 ballets created since 1996, many are by world-
Beautiful Mistake
ASFB Commissioned Work
Choreography: Cayetano Soto
Music: Ólafur Arnalds, Charles Wilson
Underwritten by: Toby Devan Lewis
Premiere: July 6, 2013
"Nothing in this ballet — not a beat nor a move — seems less than purposeful. A massive abstract exploration of shifts of body weight manifest in
exceptional partnering. Soto’s splendid co-conspirators are the sleek, detaildriven ASFB dancers who nail his skewed contortions—the asymmetric
dance-design, off-kilter lifts, zigzagged body wrappings. It all has integrity,
class and taste, and enjoys the high level of combined individual artistry
that is the hallmark of this 17-year-old boutique dance troupe."
– Debra Levine, dance writer for The Los Angeles Times
Specialized technical requirements:
Grey marley, special electric with 30 PARcans, split black, manually
operated electrics
Run Time: 19 mins
PHOTO: ROSALIE O'CONNOR
1st Flash
Choreography: Jorma Elo
Music: Jean Sibelius
Premiere: September 18, 2003, Nederlands Dans Theater
“Magnificent use of light and dark, 1st Flash was a seamless cross of classical dance and sharp linear movements...precision-driven choreography.”
– Examiner.com
Specialized technical requirements:
Grey marley
Run Time: 19 mins
PHOTO: ROSALIE O'CONNOR
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Last
ASFB Commissioned Work
Choreography: Alejandro Cerrudo
Music: Henryk Górecki
Underwritten by: The Joyce Theater Foundation and Toby Devan Lewis
Premiere: July 13, 2012
“Last hit its stride immediately. [Alejandro] Cerrudo had the men whoosh
their partners in low circles, the women's legs open, toes lightly skimming
the ground. A male bird, fallen, pivoted on one strong arm; a girl oozed
through the narrow space below his hovering body — a quiet miracle.”
– Debra Levine, The Los Angeles Times
Specialized technical requirements:
Grey marley, manually operated upstage blackout and electric, split
black
Run Time: 18 mins
PHOTO:SHAREN BRADFORD
The Heart(s)pace
ASFB Commissioned Work
Choreography: Nicolo Fonte
Music: Ezio Bosso
Underwritten by: Kelli and Allen Questrom
Premiere: February 14, 2014
Specialized technical requirements:
Grey marley, top and bottom pipe (1" and 1 1/2" interior diameter) at an
overall length of 23'-6" each for a cyc sidewall (provided by ASFB). 6 of
the 8 side booms (wings 2-4) to be at least 16' tall. Up to three flymen
may be required depending on house labor rules.
Run Time: 24 mins
PHOTO: SHAREN BRADFORD
OVER GLOW
ASFB Commissioned Work
Choreography: Jorma Elo
Music: Felix Mendelssohn and Ludwig van Beethoven
Underwritten by: Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts with
additional support by Kelli and Allen Questrom.
Premiere: July 12, 2011
“It’s an unexpected love letter from Elo – one of the kings of contemporary –
to the art of ballet, where it all started long ago.”
– Janine Parker, The Boston Globe
Specialized technical requirements:
Grey marley, seamless bounce and cyc or RP
Run Time: 25 mins
PHOTO: ROSALIE O'CONNOR
8
Return to a Strange Land
Choreography: Jiří Kylián
Music: Leoš Janáček
Underwritten by: Sherry and Eddie Wachs
ASFB Premiere: February 15, 2013
“In the summer of 1973, the former director of the Stuttgart Ballet asked me
to create a ballet in John Cranko’s memory. The title is a contradiction. How
can you return to a land where you have never been before? This ballet is
about death and reincarnation: disappearance, reappearance, death and
rebirth were its main sources of inspiration. At the end, the sensation is
created that something abstract has taken life from inside the bodies. The
return, full of yearning for the past, takes us to an apparently well-known
place, to an unknown presence. Can it be the premonition of death?”
– Jiří Kylián
Specialized technical requirements:
Black marley, seamless bounce and cyc or RP, scrim
Run Time: 20 mins
PHOTO: ROSALIE O'CONNOR
Square None
ASFB Commissioned Work
Choreography: Norbert De La Cruz III
Music: Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto, Michelle Ross, George Frederic
Handel, Aphex Twin
Underwritten by: The Jerome Robbins Foundation’s New Essential
Works (NEW) Program with additional support by Dr. Dan Luedke, in
honor of his wife, Dr. Susan Luedke.
Premiere: April 13, 2012
“Ambitious and expansive … the kind of work that one would expect from
a young choreographer eager to explore the inexhaustible possibilities of
movement. Square None made imaginative use of the dancers’ athleticism
in its pursuit of abstraction. But the piece also yielded moments of grace
that suggested that De La Cruz is as much a poet as … a craftsman.”
– Calvin Wilson, The St. Louis Post Dispatch
PHOTO: ROSALIE O'CONNOR
Specialized technical requirements:
Black marley, manually operated electrics, requires instrumentation and
circuiting beyond technical rider specifications
Run Time: 18 mins
New Commission by Alejandro Cerrudo
Premiere: July 2015
This is the second commissioned work by Cerrudo for ASFB
PHOTO: ROSALIE O'CONNOR
For further information regarding technical requirements for
these pieces, as well as other general company information,
please see our tech rider located at
www.aspensantafeballet.com
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