Fête De Danse: A Celebration Of Ballet

Fête De Danse: A Celebration Of Balletby Robin CaudellPress-Republican, Out & About, July 28-August 4, 2005PLATTSBURGH – Outside the Guibord's Dance Studio, sheeting rain was an appropriate accompaniment to choreographer Julia K. Gleich's new ballet, commissioned by Norte Maar for Collaborative Projects in the Arts.The ballet, not named at this writing, was inspired by the "Odyssey."A man journeys and encounters characters who embody compassion and peace, war and pain, choices and knowledge.  Others possess cleansing or balancing attributes after periodic discord.Guibord's Dance students – Janine Kemp, Katie Duffy, Alyssa Crockett and Sierra Boyea – rehearsed with professional dancers Carmen Nicole, Maggie Strader, Marc St.-Pierre and Ricky Deiter III."I never know what I'm going to do," said Gleich, who is based in London."I didn't know who I was going to be working with this year. I came up and scoped them out and gauged their energy. I started building material, and it tells me where to go."The music progresses from classical to folk to Philip-Glass frenetic. The ballet is composed of unusual triads and climaxes with a pas de trois."It has a feeling of symmetry for me," Gleich said.She approaches music as a purist."I like it to be part of what I'm doing and not just background music," Gleich said. "It creates a constraint, and I like constraints."The full-length ballet premieres tonight as part of the "Fête de Danse" at the Rouses Point Civic Center.The program features Gleich Dances Contemporary Ballet, Albany Berkshire Ballet, Burklyn Ballet Theatre, North Country Ballet Ensemble and the Short School of Irish Dancing.This year marks Gleich's second return to the celebration of dance in Rouses Point."This is a rare opportunity a choreographer has had to create a full-length ballet," said Jason Andrew, dancer/instructor and co-founder of Norte Maar.The Albany Berkshire Ballet performs "Rockwell Suites," short ballets inspired by the "Saturday Evening Post" covers of Norman Rockwell. The suites include "The Marriage License," which depicts a joyous couple before a sleeping clerk, and "The Mirror," which captures the star-struck dreams of a little girl gazing at a celluloid diva.The North Country Ballet Ensemble performs a new work by choreographer Molly Faulkner."She is one of our master teachers in the conservatory," Andrew said. "The ballet was created in a week. It was a lot of long rehearsals. The kids responded well."Decked out in Celtic-embroidered dance dresses, the Montreal-based Short School of Irish Dance will perform three traditional dances."The dancers are all from the North Country and they train at that school," Andrew said.The program closes with an excerpt from "Beauty and the Beast" by the Burklyn Ballet Theatre under the artistic direction of Joanne Whitehill."They are returning for the second year," Andrew said. "They're coming from Johnson, Vt.""Fête de Danse" offers dance lovers who are unable to travel and those who have never attended a ballet performance a chance to engage in this performance art.""Fête de Danse" offers a chance to escape a chaotic, confusing world and marvel how bone and muscle can move beneath flesh, how emotion can ripple out from the dancers."It celebrates the human imagination and the experience of being able to dance," Andrew said.