Ballet offers some spice as season comes to a close

IIf variety is the spice of life, Oklahoma City Ballet has you covered. The remainder of Oklahoma City Ballet’s season is all about variety. Both “Future Voices” (March 9‐12) and “Shorts” (May 5‐7) showcase a wide variety of different dance and music in one evening.

“FUTURE VOICES”

Oklahoma City Ballet is pleased to present “Future Voices: A Choreographic Showcase,” now in its fourth year. This audience favorite cel‐ebrates the process of choreography and dance in its purest form. With no sets or complicated costumes, audi‐ences get a close‐up view of dancers in the intimate setting of the world’s most iconic dance studio. Future Voices features several short works by up‐and‐coming choreographers, many of whom are company dancers.

This year’s Oklahoma City Ballet choreographers include:

• Ryland Acree III, Corps de Ballet

• Alejandro González, Soloist

• Roylan Ramos Hechavarria, Principal

• Alexandra Schooling, Corps de Ballet

• Mayim Stiller, Corps de Ballet

They’ll be joined by current OKC Ballet artistic staff members, both pre‐vious Future Voices participants:

• DaYoung Jung, Rehearsal Director

• Benjamin Tucker, Associate Rehearsal Director/Principal Character Artist

Each choreographer selects their own music, costumes, dancers, and movements to bring their world‐pre‐miere creations to life. At the end of the production, Artistic Director Ryan Jolicoeur‐Nye will lead a Q&A session with the choreographers and the audi‐ ence.

Tickets for all five Future Voices per‐formances are gen‐eral admission, and just $20 will provide prime seating in the Inasmuch Foundation Theater at the Susan E. Brackett Dance Center, March 9‐12.

Future Voices | March 9‐12 | Susan E. Brackett Dance Center‐ 6800 N. Classen Blvd. Get tickets now at okcballet.org

“SHORTS “

See three iconic ballets (by some of ballet’s greatest choreographers) in one performance! Shorts, formerly called a mixed bill, features several short ballets in one production, with intermissions between each. On May 5‐7, Oklahoma City Ballet will close the Civic Center season with a collec‐tion of three short ballets by three of the most iconic choreographers of the 20th century.

Shorts are often patrons’ favorite productions because they frequently feature contemporary dance, and for those of us who love variety, it’s a sampler platter of different move‐ments, music, and sets. If you don’t like what you’re seeing, just wait 20 minutes. This production will feature classical, modern, and western (yes, western) dance!

Gerald Arpino’s “Birthday Variations”

• A happy, classical piece featuring Verdi’s opera‐ballet music

• One male dancer and five female dancers

• This 20‐minute work debuted in 1986

• Oklahoma City Ballet will perform Birthday Variations in Chicago on September 24

George Balanchine’s “Western Symphony”

• A blend of ballet and American folk dancing

• Featuring music such as “Red River Valley,” “Good Night Ladies,” and “Oh Dem Golden Slippers”

• Utilizes an enormous cast of 26 dancers on stage for a grand finale

• Balanchine had a fascination with the America west, which inspired this work (and perhaps his marriage to Oklahoma ballerina Maria Tallchief)

Twyla Tharp’s “The Golden Section”

• Fast‐paced, energetic, explosive, and challenging for dancers

• Featuring music by David Byrne (of Talking Heads fame)

• 13 dancers wear gilded athletic outfits as they soar through the space

• 16‐minute piece in four sections

SHORTS | May 5‐7 at Civic Center Music Hall

Get tickets now at okcballet.org