Addressing the audience before the first of two recent outstanding performances at Riverside Theatre by the Chicago Repertory Ballet, Adam Schnell, Artistic Director/CEO of Ballet Vero Beach, said he had been asked by a patron, “Will I like the show?” His reply to her was, “What do you think?”
As is true of all art forms, he recognizes that contemporary ballet might not be for everyone; especially the uninitiated. But judging from the audiences’ overwhelmingly positive responses, the answer was a resounding yes.
“The performance was electrifying. Seeing contemporary ballet – in Vero Beach yet – was an adventure in dance movement,” raved Sue Sharpe. “Contemporary ballet gives the audience the freedom of interpretation. Bravo to the Chicago Repertory Ballet, as well as Adam [Schnell] and Camilo [Rodriquez, Ballet Master].”
Schnell, a longtime friend of the talented Wade Schaaf, founder and Artistic Director of the Chicago Repertory Ballet, had invited the company to open the Ballet Vero Beach 2015-16 season. The troupe also shared its expertise, instructing students enrolled in the fourth annual Riverside Dance Festival.
In between the two performances, audience members and patrons had been invited to attend a Summer Sunday Supper at Riverside Children’s Theatre’s Ann Morton Theatre, where they had the opportunity to mingle with artistic staff, professional dancers and students, while dining on a buffet dinner from Osceola Bistro. The fundraising event was sponsored by Girls on Pointe and the George E. Warren Corporation.
“I find the contemporary ballet delightful but challenging; mind-expanding,” said patron Richard Stark at the dinner.
“There was such amazing movement of the dancers,” agreed wife Diana. “There was such a variety tonight; everything was different.”
“The Atlantic Classical Orchestra has often had pieces that would expand the mind with something you were not used to,” added Richard Stark. “To go to the ballet and expect traditional and see contemporary; it’s delightful. We didn’t have professional ballet in Vero until Adam came.”
Asked what advice she would give aspiring young dancers, Danielle Mathews, a founding member of the Chicago company, said, “Do it all. Just as with everything, every opportunity you get, take it. The more versatile you can be the better. That’s what I tell all my students. You never know what a choreographer will want you to do.”
Lilley Gallagher, 15, an attendee of the two-week dance intensive, was one of several fortunate students invited to experience the thrill of dancing alongside the professional dancers on the Stark Stage, performing in “A Beautiful Thing is Never Perfect.”
“I was 10 years old when I saw my first professional show at Lincoln Center; the New York City Ballet’s Nutcracker,” said Gallagher. “It was just amazingly beautiful; the dancers were technically flawless. I was just overwhelmed.”
Inspired by the performance of students from the American School of Ballet who were around her age, she thought to herself, “Why can’t I do that?”
To the delight of dinner patrons, still other students from the Riverside Dance Festival showed off their skills with an energetic performance choreographed by Matthews, dancing to an upbeat mix of summer-themed songs.
“The dancers from Chicago worked with them for two weeks,” said BVB board member Ann Alleva Taylor, whose 10-year old daughter Charlotte was enrolled in the program. “These kids were dancing seven hours a day.”
