CRB laid out a wide range of classical and contemporary ballet works in their Fall 2024 Gala, featuring six pieces. 

On November 8, Columbia Repertory Ballet (CRB) hosted its Fall 2024 Gala at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center. CRB was founded in 2019 and has programmed a range of classical and contemporary works. There were six shows on the program, opened with “Notes & Letters,” choreographed by Emily Kikta, and closed with “Be Right Back,” choreographed by Michael Foley, a nod to the eclectic scene of contemporary ballet. 

I had never been to a ballet performance before, so everything, literally, was new to me. “Notes and Letters” featured two pairs of dancers, Alexis Aiudi (CC’ 25) and Michael Shavelle (CC’ 27), and Samantha Sacks (CC’ 22) and Andrew Fleischner (CC’ 26). The contrast between the two couples was very captivating. There was a tug and pull between the first pair, with a dramatic tension built in the chasing and running away, juxtaposed with another pair of dancers whose movements were in partnership, symbiotic, with each other. Their moves mirrored each other, and the male dancer helped spin her as she twirled. Exiting, they were still in harmony. 

“Shades Pas de Trois” from La Bayadere, the second performance, choreographed by Marius Petipa featured three dancers in fairy-esque dresses, played by Maria Pia Molina (CC’ 26), Sasha Perkins (BC’ 26), and Carolina Rivera (CC’ 26), with a harmonious sequence that segued into solos of each dancer. The “Quartet” by Anna Hughlett was performed by Tatianna Heintz (CC’ 26), Emi Horkan (CC’ 28), Katherine Kuckhoff (GS’ 25), and Fiona Witty-Daugherty (CC’ 28). Four dancers dressed in a simple black dress, with each performer symbiotically connected to each other through the nimble dance sequence. I was also struck by the couple dancing in “Hereafter,” played by Carolina Rivera and Koa Chun (CC’ 27), which embodied the theatrical aesthetic of a tragic love story. It was a performance rich with simple grace. 

Excerpts from Act II of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, an eternal ballet classic, were performed on stage, with dances from the big swans, danced by Hortense Pelletan (CC’ 25) and Keira Gutierrez (CC’ 28), the cygnets, danced by Alexis Aiudi, Emily Choi (BC’ 26), Elizabeth Hasapis (CC’ 25), and Shiori Horton (BC’ 25), and Prince Siegfried, danced by Jonah Schwartz (CC’ 28), who in this act, begins to fall in love with the cursed Odette, played by the dancers of the big swans. Tchaikovsky’s music lent an idyllic trance to the moment, but when the last chord ended, the trance had ceded, and Prince Siegfried tumbled off the stage. Danger was coming. 

Swan Lake was followed by the last piece of the night, “Be Right Back,” with music from Jani R, Mississippi John Hunt, and Claude Debussy. The music stretched from the classical canon to American country blues a la Mississippi John Hunt. The genre crossover was also visible in the dance formations and movements. The more than a dozen dancers for this piece felt like an embrace of popular dance stages that we see by our favorite pop stars, featuring a large group of dancers repeating the same movement. The previous pieces had a clear visual center, with people standing in the front or back, dressed differently to indicate roles, and more or less aligned in lines on stage. This pattern was disrupted in “Be Right Back,” where the overflow of people was in strong contrast to the limited physical movements of the dancers in the first quarter of the performance. There was much more upper body movement and a wider range, too, with dancers dropping to the floor, for example. However, the presence of familiar ballet movements were constantly present and seamlessly woven. 

To witness the Columbia Repertory Ballet’s gala was truly a pleasure. CRB’s programs highlighted the stunning lineage of ballet, from the classics that gesture to ballet’s origins in Europe to its contemporary innovations that take inspiration from other dance forms like modern dance and other musical forms, such as Black American country music. CRB’s program displayed a stunning movement of ballet’s singular ability to hold dynamic musical influences and beloved classics.

Performer via Flickr