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The Washington Ballet visits, offering classes and performances. Organizers hope the company's residency will become an annual event.
By MARTY CLEAR
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 6, 2003
Ballet has never really found a steady audience in the bay area, but a new collaboration between the Washington Ballet and the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center may begin to change that.
The prestigious D.C.-based company is in town this week to perform, teach master classes, hold open rehearsals and study with Haydee Gutierrez of the center's Classical Ballet Program. And though the details haven't been hammered out, officials of both the Washington Ballet and the performing arts center say they expect the company's visit to become an annual event.
"We're coming down for this residency, which we hope will be a multi-year arrangement," said Septime Webre, artistic director of the Washington Ballet. "I think the performing arts center is a really amazing place to dance."
The most visible aspect of the collaboration will be this weekend's two performances. On Friday the Washington Ballet will perform Webre's Carmen, a short ballet based on the Bizet opera, along with Blue Until June and Rubies.
Blue Until June, by Trey McIntyre of the Houston Ballet, is set to music by Etta James. Webre describes it as a "raucous romp for eight dancers, a great fusion of jazz and ballet."
Rubies is one of George Balanchine's best-known works.
On Sunday the company will return to the center's Carol Morsani Hall with another original ballet, Webre's Peter Pan.
"It's very special to me because, at 41, I'm still nursing my own Peter Pan syndrome," Webre said. "The theme of the story is important for adults as well as children. It's important to nurture the childlike within us, even as we grow older."
With the exception of Blue Until June, all the pieces in this weekend's performances have recognizable names. That marquee value was important to performing arts center officials, Webre said.
But that doesn't mean the company is pandering to provincial audiences. All four pieces are part of the repertory the Washington Ballet performs at its home at the Kennedy Center, and all are serious works that challenge the dancers, the choreographers and the audience.
That's especially true of Carmen. Webre takes a nontraditional view of the title character, seeing her as "the first truly modern woman of the theater."
"I see her as an independent and strong woman who values her independence more than anything, even her love for a man," Webre said.
His treatment of the Bizet story has a bullfighting motif, reflecting Carmen's fierce and wild nature.
Peter Pan should make a nearly ideal choice for parents who want to introduce their children to ballet, but Webre stresses that his ballet is not aimed specifically at children.
"I think adults will enjoy this," he said. "There are lots of opportunities for great dance. It was a particular challenge to choreograph for a crocodile."
Carmen might be a little complex for children, Webre said, but should appeal to artistically minded teens.
Besides the commercial value of well-known titles, Webre and the Washington Ballet are planting the seeds of audience development. If the Washington Ballet's residency does become an annual event, it will be the first ballet company to have any kind of regular affiliation with Tampa since the demise of the artistically spotty Bay Ballet Theatre in the mid 1990s, and building audience support will have to be a key part of its mission.
PREVIEW: The Washington Ballet performs Carmen, Rubies and Blue Until June, at 8 p.m. Friday and Peter Pan at 2 p.m. Sunday at Carol Morsani Hall at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, 1010 N MacInnes Place, Tampa. Ticket prices are $19.50-$49.50. Call (813) 229-7827.