Dance Theatre ends season
By Casey Gillis on May. 12, 2010
(434) 385-5525
Dance Theatre of Lynchburg’s annual Ballet Today performance will feature a piece Artistic Director Keith Lee hasn’t staged here since 2004.
“Sidewalks of New York” is a full-length dance that he says is “theater dance at its finest. It really has the (feel) of a Broadway show. It’s really entertaining.”
Lee choreographed the piece, which also includes a baseball game sequence, as a love letter to the Big Apple and Tin Pan Alley, the name that was given to a collection of New York-centered musicians who worked in the same Manhattan district and dominated popular music during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
“What I love about it is it’s my hometown back in the old days,” he says. “There are some really vivacious characters in it.”
Ballet Today, scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday, will feature four other Lee-choreographed pieces.
Three — “Partita de Paradise,” “The Dying Swan” and “Allelujah” — have been performed here before.
“Variation for 3,” a pointe piece set to the music of Gottschalk, is Lee’s newest; he was inspired to put it together after after hearing a local pianist perform the composer’s music.
“Once I heard the score, I was really hooked.”
Lee says the choreography has a Latin tinge to it.
“It’s very dynamic,” he says. “It’s a challenge for the three dancers.”
Tickets to the performances, which are all held at Dance Theatre of Lynchburg at 722 Commerce St., are $10 for adults and $7.50 for students and seniors.
Call (434) 846-6272 or visit http://www.dancelynchburg.org for more information.
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