SPAC features new ballet videos Shot on its grounds
Original videos made for venue’s Ballet Month
There will be ballet dancers at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center this summer, and they will have an audience. It just won’t be like during any of the previous 54 summer residencies of New York City Ballet at SPAC.
This week, the performing arts center introduces the first two of four original online videos created for and shot within the past month on the grounds. The pieces are set to music, performed by fellow resident companies the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, that was scheduled to be heard this season before SPAC canceled all of its live classical programming as part of the effort to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
“In a time when the usual parameters and processes of presenting live performance have evaporated, SPAC has been reinventing itself,” Elizabeth Sobol, president and CEO, said in a statement.
The videos were created by Emily Kikta and Peter Walker, City Ballet dancers, choreographers and videographers whose projects have been seen at SPAC in past seasons but not previously with music by the other two resident companies. In all, seven dancers and four choreographers participated in the videos, which were shot over 14 days in June.
The first video went online Tuesday. The remaining will roll out at 9:30 a.m. Thursday and next Tuesday and Thursday, culminating at 8 p.m. July 25 with the release of a long-form piece incorporating the earlier works and additional material, Sobol said. All may be viewed for free at spac.org and on SPAC’S Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. The project, named SPAC Reimagined, is part of what SPAC is calling Ballet Month.
“Over the past four years, we have expanded SPAC’S mission to more closely connect the venue’s beautiful natural setting with the arts,” Sobol said. “This new series continues to showcase dance and music in a fresh, interesting and more approachable context, while also providing a unique opportunity for our community to experience the magic of SPAC safely in an engaging, virtual environment.”
City Ballet dancers featured in the videos are Devin Alberda, Christina Clark, Uma Deming, Meaghan Dutton-o’hara, Anthony Huxley, Kikta and Walker. The pieces were choreographed by Alberda, Clark, Kikta and Walker. All were tested for COVID-19 prior to coming to the Capital Region and adhered to federal guidelines for the prevention of the spread of the disease, Sobol said.
Kikta and Walker, City Ballet dancers since 2010 and 2011, respectively, have had their choreography performed by their home company as well as the School of American Ballet and Jacob Jonas the Company. Walker’s work also will be seen in the upcoming film “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” by Charlie Kaufman (“Being John Malkovich,” “Adaptation,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”).
Sobol said, “We feel fortunate to have this artistic gift to share — something to fill, if just a little, the enormous void created in a ballet season without New York City Ballet.”
SPAC Reimagined was underwritten by donors including The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, Patricia Carson, Leslie and Richard Curtis, Robert Schulman, Stuart and Merrill Coleman, Michael Popkin, Donya Bommer, and Charles and Deborah Adelman.