Culture Principal ballerina coming to teach Tower Dancers

By Megan Williams Culture Editor

The Hillsdale College

Tower Dancers will be hosting ballet répétiteur Carla Lippert from Jan. 20-25 to stage the “Pas de Quatre” ballet.

To celebrate the program’s 20th anniversary, junior Emma De Nooy, sophomores Ashley DeMay and Laura Luke, and freshman Emma Shaw will perform the ballet at the spring recital in April.

Assistant Professor of Dance Holly Hobbs organized Lippert’s visit to Hillsdale, and said she was very excited to see how the students will learn from her expertise.

“I’m certified in American Ballet Theatre’s national training program,” Hobbs said. “I reached out to a colleague who is an instructor for the training program and asked if there was anyone who could stage the ‘Pas de Quatre’ to our students, and she gave me Carla’s name.”

A soloist for the American Ballet Theatre, principal dancer for the Boston Ballet, and an avid instructor, Lippert specializes in teaching classical ballet technique, pointe, and variations, along with staging the major works of the classical ballet repertoire, like the “Pas de Quatre.”

During her five days in Hillsdale, Lippert will stage the entire 20-minute ballet with the four student performers. Practicing everything from choreography to specific technique, the dancers will spend their afternoons with Lippert, and use the rest of the semester to perfect the production.

“Our rehearsal schedule will be more intensive than a normal residency because ‘Pas De Quatre’ has such a legacy of performance and excellence,” Luke said. “We will spend around 25 hours in the studio between Friday and Wednesday.”

This ballet was choreographed and first performed in London in 1845, and is one of the most famous ballets from that period. Hobbs said dancers moved very differently during the Romantic period. From arm movements to technique, this ballet was a very different style than what is often performed now, which is why the Tower Dancers looked for Lippert’s expertise.

“It’s a very old and historic piece, so I’m excited to perform it,” De Nooy said. “Being able to learn the ballet from a former soloist and principal with two major American ballet companies is an incredible opportunity.”

With only four women performing the ballet, Luke said this would be a great chance to build a relationship and work closely with a ballet master.

Hobbs said this ballet provides exquisite cultural insight into 19th- century Europe. Not only were ballerinas and performers well-known, they were the equivalent of star athletes like Lionel Messi and Christiano Ronaldo. Along with fame, these dancers had the ego to match, Hobbs said, which is why their presence on the same stage was such a phenomenon.

“‘Pas de Quatre’ brought together on one stage, the four greatest rival ballerinas of the time – in order of appearance, Lucile Grahn, Carlotta Grisi, Fanny Cerrito, and Marie Taglioni,” Hobbs said. “Each ballerina has an individual variation, which are performed in succession between an opening and finale that are danced by all the ballerinas together. These variations were choreographed for the ballerina premiering in each role and were designed to display the best features of each.”

Hobbs, who is teaching a course on the history of dance this semester, said the combination of learning the context of Romantic-era pieces and performing them on the stage will give students a holistic view of the period. Even for students not interested in dance, this performance invites the whole of campus to experience a piece of history.

“The staging of the ballet “Pas de Quatre” provides a tremendous opportunity for students to experience history in an interactive way,” Hobbs said. “It will invite students to examine Romanticism across disciplines, including but not limited to theater, literature, visual art, and music.”

The dance will be performed during the second half of the Tower Dancer’s 20th anniversary recital in April. The first half of the performance will feature a variety of different styles and choreographers.

Tower Dancers will be casting works for two guest artists that are coming later in the spring semester, along with a ballet staged by Hobbs a few years ago. Adjunct Professor Sean Hoskins will set a modern piece, and senior Alexander Himebaugh will choreograph a dance for the performers.

After Lippert’s residency, the Tower Dancers will host student auditions for the opportunity to perform in the spring recital and join the company. Auditions will be held on Jan. 28 in Markel Auditorium.