By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Verb Ballets is pool putting the moves on ArtsX.
The annual arts gala is being held tonight (Saturday, Dec. 1) in the Fine Arts Center and the Wolfe Center for the Arts on The Bowling Green State University campus.
The Cleveland-based dance company will be the special guest performers.
This is the first time ArtsX has brought in a featured guest without a connection to the university.
That marks a further step in the development of the gala that started 14 years ago.
Verb Ballets is a fitting artist for this year’s theme “Let the Arts Move You.”
The company moves in a variety of ways. The full-time company of classically trained dancers mixes both classic and contemporary ballet, said Jen Garlando, Verb Ballets’ director of marketing.
The ballet’s performances at 5:30 and 7 p.m. in the Donnell Theatre at ArtsX will demonstrate that range.
The company will open with the Grand Pas de Deux from Don Quixote by the great 19th century Russian choreographer Marius Petipa and the music of Ludwig Minkus. Staging is by the legendary Cuban choreographer Laura Alonso. The classical pas de deux shows both technical virtuosity and glamour. The piece comes from the company’s ongoing exchange with Cuban dancers, Garlando said.
“K281” choreographed by Adam Hougland brings together modern and classical moves for a quirky and humorous take on a beloved Mozart piano sonata.
From Mozart, Verb Ballets will move to a DJ mix of industrial sounds to create driving pulse for “Between the Machine” by Charles Anderson.
In a cross-cultural exchange, the choreography for Ravel’s “Bolero” will blend Indian and modern dance styles. “Its drive, propulsion, and intensity build with the famous crescendo” is how the company describes the work. “The piece, choreographed by Heinz Poll, the company’s founder, is a visual masterpiece set to the driving force of the well-known score.”
Romanian dancer Daniel Precup set the company’s premiere of “Ne Me Quitte Pas,” a song about the complex struggles of love by the French singer-songwriter, Jacques Brel.
The performances will be the culmination of Verb Ballets’ residency here. The dancers worked with Bowling Green middle school and high school students on Friday, and university students in both dance and musical theater on Saturday.
This is the fourth year ArtsX has brought in guest performers. Those past performances have featured circus acts, aerialists, and puppeteers.
The dance company is an appropriate visitor this year given the pending move of BGSU’s dance program into the Department of Theatre and Film. It was the School of Human Movement, Sport, and Leisure Studies.
The annual exhibit of faculty and staff work will be on display as part of ArtsX.
When the gala began 14 years ago, it was a way of bringing together the sales held by the various art clubs with collaborations from other campus arts programs and University Libraries.
Even then, Dennis Wojtkiewicz, the art faculty member was involved in launching it, envisioned something larger. It’s taken awhile, he said this week. Now it’s coming into its own.
The opening of the Wolfe Center in 2012 offered a whole new venue for ArtsX, with more space for theatre, film, and music.
The Wolfe’s massive lobby serves as a stage for a rolling evening of performances while the Donnell hosts featured performances from visitors and university talent.
The art club sales are still one of the anchor events, offering an arrayed of distinctive hand crafted items at bargain prices.
But everyone on the arts scene gets into the act — filmmakers, actors, writers, musicians, dancers, and visual artists.
This along with Bravo! BGSU is the chance to experience the arts at BGSU all in one night.
ArtsX is the decidedly more rambunctious, unpredictable affair driven more by student energy.
Visitors are never sure of what will await them as they turn the next corner.
