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Stage

Company has plans for bay area

With two shows in Tampa this season and four scheduled for the 2007-08 season, the Orlando Ballet is extending its reach.

By MARTY CLEAR
Published May 3, 2007

Tampa has taken a few stabs at building and maintaining a high-quality professional ballet company. None have really taken hold.

With this weekend's production of Swan Lake, the respected Orlando Ballet steps into the void to become Tampa's de facto ballet company, planning four performances at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center in the 2007-08 season.

"Last (season) we did the Nutcracker, and this year we're doing The Nutcracker and Swan Lake, " said Bruce Marks, artistic director of the Orlando Ballet. "Next year we're offering a full subscription season" with The Pirates of Penzance (during Gasparilla), Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker and a program of three dances by Twyla Tharp.

Orlando Ballet has never before made a serious effort to expand to another city, Marks said, but early indications for its success here are encouraging.

"The Nutcracker did very, very well both years, " he said. "We love Tampa. And we love your theater."

Swan Lake, one of the five ballets the company performs this season at its home base, the Bob Carr Performing Arts Center, is a logical choice to help introduce Orlando Ballet to Tampa audiences.

It's the most famous ballet in the world, ahead of The Nutcracker in most other countries.

"It's interesting that Swan Lake has become the ballet, " Marks said, "because when it was first presented it was not a success."

But since its debut in the late 19th century, Swan Lake has steadily grown in popularity. Tchaikovsky's familiar music is one factor, but the story line - in which a prince falls for an elegant, swanlike woman but is later tricked into declaring his love for an evil woman in disguise - offers a lot of appeal for audiences and for artists.

"There's something compelling about that dual role, where one woman runs the whole gamut, from the paragon of virtue to most evil person you can imagine, " he said.

Marks said this production also benefits from Orlando Ballet's exceptional corps of dancers. He credits the quality to his predecessor, legendary dancer Fernando Bujones, who led the company from 2000 until his death in 2005.

"Bujones attracted some amazing young dancers who came to Orlando not for the money, but because they wanted to work with him, " Marks said. "Fortunately they've decided to stay on."

If you go

Orlando Ballet's Swan Lake, 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center's Ferguson Hall. $18.50-$59.50 plus service charge. (813) 229-7827 or www.tbpac.org.

[Last modified May 2, 2007, 13:19:31]