Everybody Dance Now!

Tuesday, August 7, 2007 - Hello everybody out there in opera land! Today's blog is all about dancin'. First up, a pas de trois for the general director, the set designer, and Fisher Theatrical our carpentry shop. Set designs for Alcina were submitted to Fisher Theatrical last week for costing. Step, step, shuffle side shuffle side. This week we got said costing. Leap back in horror with jazz hands! As has often been the case, the projected cost seems to be a little higher than the budget; okay, a lot higher. Isadora Duncanesque lamentation pose. Don't worry, the dance is not over. Now the designer, the carpenter, and the general director begin an intricate minuet around each other, each occasionally pausing to toss something aside, fold something a bit smaller, or create something out of a different material, preferably one that is already in hand. It can be quite beautiful for those who find algorhythms or Italian train schedules beautiful, but rest assured, the dance will, as it always has, end up with everyone beaming and taking a bow at the footlights. In the mean time, could everyone please refrain from saying "Break a leg"?

Next up - Tony Wilson! Tony has just agreed to be the choreographer for Tobias and the Angel. For those of you who don't know Tony, he's on faculty at the Baltimore School for the Arts, and choreographed the stunning Dance of the Shepherds for Opera Vivente's Amahl and the Night Visitors last season. His alternately lithe and limpid style is ideally suited to the kaleidoscopic textures of Jonathan Dove's music, and the profound humanity that he elicits from his dancers chimes nicely with the spirit of the work. I'm also thrilled that Tony will be using dancers from the school as he did last year for Amahl. The BSA students were wonderful to work with and astounded us all with their poise, talent, and professionalism.

And finally. . .well the last item is more a teaser than an actual dance routine at the moment. I've approached Tommy Parlon, a Washington DC based choreographer that I last worked with on a production of The Bartered Bride at Anne Arundel Community College to come up with a pop inspired, "step the yard", NSyncesque version of the famous (or maybe it's infamous) Can-Can from Orpheus in the Underworld. Tommy has a great grasp of a variety of styles as well as a fantastic sense of humor. This clearly showed in the bus and truck Cirque du So-so Soleil routine and the Slutty Crab-shack Waitress Watusi that we developed for The Bartered Bride, so I have high hopes should he be able to do Orpheus in the Underworld. Fingers crossed!

And with that, I now must shuffle off to. . . well not Buffalo. Hmmmm, shuffle off to Baltimore works just as well. Since the other project I'm currently engaged in is translating Orpheus in the Underworld, I'm all over words that have the same number of syllables nowadays. Stay cool!

John Bowen, General Director and Very Amateur Hoofer