Photo by Alex Clark
A fully produced concert of classical and contemporary ballet by the Nancy Einhorn Milwaukee Ballet II (MBII) has graced each South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center season since 2011. The 17 dancers in this year’s program have come from Japan, Ireland, Australia, the Dominican Republic and from across the U.S. to complete their professional training with Milwaukee Ballet. They fill out the casts of the company’s season and present a multitude of stylish outreach concerts for schools and community organizations, but it’s here that the dancers really show what they can do.
The two performances on Saturday, Jan. 30, will include excerpts from the canonical 19th-century Russian classic La Bayadère and a neoclassical Prólogo Para Una Tragedia Othello from Cuba based on Shakespeare’s Othello. In addition, three world premieres by visiting and resident choreographers will showcase the dancers’ artistry and range. A casual talkback follows both performances.
How can La Bayadère, created in St. Petersburg by the Imperial Russian Ballet in 1877, rematerialize in South Milwaukee today? MBII directors Rolando Yanes, Mireille Favarel and Karl von Rabenau study videos of the many versions handed down in companies around the world before choosing the one they believe will serve their dancers best. They learn it themselves and then pass it on, adapting the moves to the dancers as warranted. “Because in the end,” Yanes says, “we want them to look beautiful.” Cuban videos of Prólogo Para Una Tragedia Othello were harder to find, but Yanes, Cuban born and trained, managed to reconstruct it. It demands good acting from its Desdemona and Othello. “It’s a good way to guide these dancers to Milwaukee Ballet’s style,” he says. Some MBII dancers may join the company.
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The revivals are enchanting but it’s the new work that makes this a treasured annual event for me. Milwaukee Ballet resident choreographer and former dancer Petr Zahradnícek is making “Morning Routine.” Seen in rehearsal, it’s a warm-hearted reverie on a ballet dancer’s daily life. Guest choreographer Ilya Kozadayev’s “Void,” set to “Winter” from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and seen in rehearsal, is an intensely dramatic, fast-paced, multi-focus mix of classical and contemporary virtuosity. Guest choreographer Lee-Wei Chao, who danced with Yanes in Milwaukee Ballet in the 1990s and now works in San Francisco, contributes “Fragment.” “He doesn’t care about your body type or look,” Yanes says of his friend’s work. “He cares what your body can do and what emotions you can show.”
See the show at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Jan. 30, at the SMPAC, 901 15th Ave., South Milwaukee. For tickets, call 414-766-5049 or visit southmilwaukeepac.org.
