Art meets dance in Carpenter Theatre ballet

By Debora Timms

Expect to see art in a whole new way when the James River Valley Chapter of The Links brings Columbia City Ballet’s “Off the Wall and Onto the Stage: Dancing the Art of Jonathan Green” to Richmond’s Carpenter Theatre at Dominion Energy Center on March 10.

“We thought it would be an awesome opportunity to present to our community a ballet of this kind,” James River Valley Chapter President Janipher Robinson said in a recent phone interview. “It’s a very unique concept and an unusual ballet.”

Created by Columbia City Ballet’s Artistic Director William Starrett in 2005 as a tribute to renowned contemporary artist Jonathan Green, the ballet has been called “an ingenious idea” by the New York Times and a “soulful slice of work” by the Tampa Tribune.

Mr. Green’s vibrant paintings depict Gullah life on South Carolina’s Lowcountry coast.

The Gullah/Geechee people are descendants of enslaved Africans from west and central Africa. They were forced to work on plantations along the lower Atlantic coast that were often isolated from the mainland. Glimpses into the unique culture they created are represented in more than 1,700 works by Mr. Green.

The $1.2 million production uses choreography, dazzling costumes and a musical mix of jazz, gospel, classical, Caribbean and Motown to bring 22 of the artist’s paintings to life on the stage.