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The quintet — Lisa Jelle on flute, Gail Lehto Zugger on clarinet, Melissa Stevens on oboe, Betsy Sturdevant on bassoon and Kimberly McCann on horn — will perform light fare, including “Sweet Georgia Brown” and music by the band Queen. 6:30 p.m. Wednesday free
Ballet rehearsals frequently feature dancers executing pirouettes and plies. Most are unlikely to include slips and slides.
Then again, most ballets don’t include water.
In recent weeks, dancers at BalletMet have been preparing for the world premiere of “Airavata.” Choreographed by Artistic Director Edwaard Liang, the ballet will present six dancers who will perform while water mists and then pours from pipes positioned above the stage of the Riffe Center’s Davidson Theatre.
The ballet, part of the triple bill “Art in Motion,” will make its debut Friday. The program will continue through March 25.
“‘Airavata’ is an Indian name, and it’s usually a male Indian name, and it means ‘ child of water,’” Liang said.
The dancers think the addition of water has its pluses and minuses.
“It enables you to do things that you can’t do otherwise, mostly involving sliding on the floor,” said Michael Sayre, 22.
“But the trade- off is that it is, obviously, rather slippery.”
Jumps and turns are out, said Grace-Anne Powers, but the ability to slide makes up for such restrictions.
“In the pas de deux, it’s just really beautiful,” said Powers, 26. “The man will toss you across the room, and you’ll just keep going.”
In fact, partnering is possible on the slippery surface — if it’s done carefully.
“Lifting someone in place is fine,” Sayre said. “It’s just when you’re trying to carry them and walk with them — I had a big wipeout, where my partner fell on me.”
The cast of four men and two women will wear flat ballet shoes; pointe shoes for the women was a step too far.
“Unfortunately, the girls’ pointe shoes disintegrate when they get wet,” Powers said.
“Airavata” unfolds in a future when water is scarce and technology is absent; Liang uses the setting to ponder questions about how human beings would react to such a scenario.
“Would we become more ( of a) pack mentality?” Liang said. “Would we get more primitive or animalistic? Or would we tap into more of the mysticism part of culture?”
In the first half, five dancers become a pack; Sayre’s character stands apart from the group.
“They come across my character ... and prey on him until the rain comes halfway through,” Sayre said. “That changes everything. ... They literally see their reflection in the water and see what they’ve become and have a new way of interacting with each other that’s perhaps a bit more human.”
During the course of the ballet, the rate of falling water will increase.
“The technical aspect of how much rain we can actually sustain on the stage before it goes somewhere I think is going to determine how hard it’s going to rain,” said Gabriel Gaffney Smith, 32, who also composed the score. “It’ll start with a slight mist and then it’ll go through an emotional roller coaster of (a) downpour.”
Preceding “Airavata” will be ballets choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon (“Fool’s Paradise”) and Gustavo Ramirez Sansano (“18+1”). The order of the dances, however, was dictated by the practicalities of working with water.
“You can’t really open with it in terms of cleanup; you can’t have it (as) the middle ballet,” Liang said. “You have to have it at the end so that there’s enough time to clean it up and reset the stage.”