FIREBIRD
Diaghilev Revisited
WHEN: March 14, at 8:00 PM
WHERE: The Theatre at Raritan Valley Community College, 118 Lamington Road, Branchburg
TICKETS: $25, $35
www.rvccArts.org, 908.725.3420
Subscribers' packages are available for many Theatre series. Senior citizen, student and group discounts are also available.
Before the ballet, patrons can enjoy a discounted meal at Verve restaurant in nearby Somerville, NJ. Ticketholders can dine at Verve between 5:30 PM and 7:30 PM on March 14, 2015 and receive 20% off food items from the regular menu or a special 3-course prix fixe meal for just $40. Customers must present their ballet ticket or online purchase confirmation to receive this special Verve discount. Verve is located at 18 East Main Street in Somerville.
Firebird, part of The Theatre at RVCC's Major Artists series, will feature an evening of ballets inspired by the 20th-century works of Sergei Diaghilev's revolutionary Ballets Russes: Artistic Director Douglas Martin's Firebird, set to a compelling score by Stravinsky; Martin's Rite of Spring, also set to music by Stravinsky; and Kirk Peterson's Afternoon of a Faun (L'après-midi d'un faune), set to Debussy's provocative score.
In his review of ARB’s premiere of this program, Patrick Kennedy, dance critic for Broadway World, wrote that the evening is “a revisitation of the balletic past that was taut, nimble, and modern in about the right measure.”
All the works on the program have been met with critical acclaim. Tony Angarano, dance critic for The Courant, says of Kirk Peterson’s Afternoon of a Faun that the “movements seem like the natural expression of Debussy's heated music....a re-interpretation [with] stunning impact.”
Martin’s Rite of Spring transports the original libretto of Nijinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps—a story based on pagan ritual and sacrifice—to a competitive 1960’s office environment. NJ dance critic Robert Johnson describes it as, “part sentimental tribute and part screwball comedy” which “avoids primitivist clichés and, in gender parity...manages to find a concept still radical enough to make audiences squirm.”
Just as Martin infused Rite of Spring with a feminist statement, he layers a gender twist onto the classic Firebird libretto. In his version of this classic Russian folk tale, the namesake character is portrayed by a male rather than a female dancer. Jerry Hochman of CriticalDance refers to the ballet as “visual dynamite.”
“These Diaghilev-era ballets introduced western audiences eastern pageantry and lore and also to the artists that would go on to define art in the 20th century,” ARB Artistic Director Douglas Martin explains. “Exploring that history and expounding upon it is essential to the identity and personality of our work and our unique Firebird program.”
