By Clare
Croft
Austin
American-Statesman
Thursday,
May 08, 2008
All
classical
ballets rely
on
spectacle,
but "Don
Quixote"
redefines
balletic
spectacle —
in many
productions,
the cast
includes a
live donkey.
The scale
makes it an
appropriate
choice for
Ballet
Austin's
Long Center
debut this
weekend.
"I wanted
something
big and
splashy with
gorgeous
sets and
costumes — a
real
celebratory
event," says
Stephen
Mills,
Ballet
Austin's
artistic
director.
Mills staged
Austin's
production,
a hybrid of
choreography
passed down
from the
original
19th-century
Russian "Don
Quixote"
ballet and
its
best-known
American
version,
staged for
American
Ballet
Theatre by
Mikhail
Baryshnikov.
For dancers,
spectacle
translates
into
virtuosic
technique.
"Don
Quixote"
closes with
one of the
best-known
pas de deux
in dance
history, the
grand pas de
deux for
lead
characters
Kitri and
Basilio. (In
Ballet
Austin's
production,
Michelle
Thompson and
Ashley Lynn
share the
role of
Kitri; Frank
Shott and
Jim Stein
alternate as
Basilio.)
"Don
Quixote's"
solo
variations
and pas de
deux are
vital to
many ballet
students'
training.
Variation
classes in
summer
preprofessional
ballet
programs
overflow
with
adolescent
dancers
figuring out
how to
execute the
precise
footwork of
Kitri's
third-act
variation
while
hanging on
to an ornate
Spanish fan.
"When you
learn the
variations
in summer
programs,
you don't
know how
they fit
into the
story," Lynn
says.
"You're just
smiling, but
there's a
lot of
emotion to
develop when
you're doing
the
variation
within the
character."
Creating
Kitri and
Basilio
through
technically
demanding
variations
does not
necessarily
require
adding to
technique.
The format
of classical
pas de deux
— a slow
adagio for
the man and
woman, then
solos by
first the
man, then
the woman
and finally,
a showy coda
— works well
with the
relationship
building
between
Kitri and
Basilio
throughout
the ballet.
Shott
describes
the feisty
lovers as
engaged in a
"constant
one-upmanship"
of each
other. Kitri
and Basilio
use turns
and jumps to
compete and
flirt. But
"Don
Quixote's"
lead dancers
can never
entirely
disappear
into their
characters.
Showing off
for the
audience is
a prime
concern in
classical
ballet.
Mills
compares
variations
in "Don
Quixote" to
songs in
Mozart's
opera,
pointing out
that neither
do much to
advance the
plot.
"Once Kitri
and Basilio
get to the
grand pas de
deux, the
audience
knows
they're in
love," Mills
says.
"There's no
reason for
them to
dance; the
audience
knows
they're
going to get
married.
It's all
about
technical
prowess at
that point."
Even though
no dancer
can forget
about the
long series
of turns
waiting at
the end of
the grand
pas, Lynn
says that
the
progression
of the
character
throughout
the ballet
helps her
get through
the final
blast of
technique.
By the time
the couples
take the
stage for
the pas de
deux, they
have
survived
several
prior
variations,
two and a
half acts of
dancing and
mime and
complex,
often
one-handed
partnering
sequences.
"The third
act is
demanding,
but by the
time you're
there, Kitri
has an inner
calm to
her," Lynn
says. "I
just have to
remember to
keep
breathing."
Final
bows at
Ballet
Austin
When Jim
Stein
performs as
Basilio, the
audience
will include
Stein's
Austin-based
fans and his
family. His
four
brothers,
parents, and
grandmothers
will have
traveled
from
Illinois and
Oregon to
see his last
ballet
performance.
Stein and
three other
longtime
Ballet
Austin
stalwarts —
Gina
Patterson,
Eric Midgley
and Tony
Casati —
will retire
after 'Don
Quixote.'
All four say
that ending
the daily
grind of a
ballet
company will
allow them
more
personal and
artistic
freedom.
Stein and
Casati plan
to focus
more on
family, and
Stein will
become a
full-time
Pilates
teacher.
Patterson
will
continue to
choreograph,
including
making new
work with
her husband,
Midgley.
Midgley
already has
two
additional
careers,
working as a
digital
designer and
as a sleep
and wellness
consultant.
New
opportunities
don't stifle
the dancers'
sense that
they will
miss Ballet
Austin.
'Ballet
Austin
attracts not
just people
that are
good at
their jobs,
but deep
thinkers who
are
considerate,
sensitive,
and play
well with
others,'
Casati says.
Moving on
doesn't mean
leaving
dance. Like
most
dancers, the
four
retirees
began
dancing
young and
say they
will
continue.
'I will
always be
involved
with dance,
my favorite
art,'
Midgley
says. 'I
will still
be
performing,
creating,
teaching,
coaching and
being raw
material for
my wife's
choreographic
genius.'
The four
dancers have
provided
much
material for
artistic
director
Stephen
Mills.
'When I made
my first
ballet, I
made it on
Gina,' Mills
says.
'Making
dance for
dancers is a
really
intimate
act. I'm
going to
miss my
friends.' —
Clare Croft
..............................................................................................................................................
Ballet
Austin:
Save the
last
dance
for me
By
Robert
Faires
Thursday,
May 08,
2008
A
ballet
dancer's
career,
like
an
athlete's,
can
be
cruelly
short.
You
put
10
or
15
years
into
the
profession,
and
just
when
you've
acquired
the
experience
that
will
allow
you
to
achieve
new
levels
of
creative
expression,
your
body
is
no
longer
up
to
all
the
physical
demands
(and
punishment)
of
the
job.
Which
leaves
people
on
the
near
side
of
40
headed
into
retirement.
So
it
is
with
four
of
Ballet
Austin's
dancers
this
year.
With
this
week's
season-closing
production
of Don
Quixote in
Dell
Hall
at
the
Long
Center,
four
of
the
troupe's
most
gifted
artists
–
mainstays
of
the
company
for
many
seasons
–
are
taking
their
leaves.
In
recognition
of
their
many
contributions
to
the
company and the
community,
here
are
a
few
words
about
these
performers,
their
career
highlights,
and
what
lies
ahead
for
each.
Jim
Stein started
with
Ballet
Austin
in 1994,
when the
company
was
learning
four
different
ballets
in two
weeks
for a
tour of
Cyprus.
"It was
a
whirlwind
affair,"
he says,
"but
such an
incredible
experience."
If you
had
asked
him a
month
ago what
role he
was
proudest
of,
Stein
would
have
said
Betto,
the
villain
in Cult
of
Color:
Call to
Color.
But now
that he
is in
the
midst of
rehearsals
for Don
Quixote,
he feels
that
Basilio,
the last
role
that
he'll
dance
for the
company,
is the
one he
is the
most
proud
of. "It,
too, has
been a
challenge
but a
wonderful
experience
at the
same
time."
After
this
week, he
will
serve as
the
fitness
director
at the
Dance
Institute,
teaching
Pilates.
Eric
Midgley joined
Ballet
Austin
in 2001,
dancing
Romeo to
Gina
Patterson's
Juliet
in the
premiere
of
Stephen
Mills'
Shakespearean
ballet.
Of his
work
since,
Midgley
values
the pas
de deux
choreographed
by Mills
and
Patterson
most
highly.
"As a
younger
dancer,
I danced
a lot of
solo
roles
which
require
virtuosic
technique
and
acting
ability,"
he says.
"But the
intimate
duets
created
by these
gifted
choreographers
require
deeper
levels
of
intimacy,
authentic
connection,
seamless
subtle
partnering,
and
generosity
of
spirit,
all in
addition
to the
demands
of solo
work."
Midgley
has two
other
jobs
that
already
keep him
busy –
freelance
digital
design
and
production
and
acting
as a
sleep
and
wellness
consultant
– but he
won't
leave
dance
completely.
He plans
to
teach,
coach,
choreograph,
and
perform,
especially
in work
by his
wife,
Patterson.
Gina
Patterson has
the
deepest
history
with
Ballet
Austin,
starting
with the
role of
Adela
in House
of
Bernarda
Alba in
1988.
Though
she
spent
four
years
with
Ballet
Florida
in the
late
Nineties,
Patterson
returned
in 2000
and
retires
with 16
years as
a BA
dancer.
That
makes it
tough to
choose
one role
she's
proudest
of:
"There
are many
that
have
been so
rich and
rewarding:
Ophelia,
Desdemona,
Giselle,
Odette/Odile."
But she
is drawn
to
Juliet,
a role
she has
danced
four
times
with BA,
twice
with
husband
Midgley.
"To
approach
the role
at so
many
different
ages and
from
different
points
of view
as far
as life
experience,
from the
first
time was
when I
was 20
to the
last
time
when I
was 36
and
married,
was very
interesting,"
she
says.
"For me,
it is
becoming
a
character,
the
intimacy
of pas
de deux
work and
the
creation
process,
being in
the
moment,
and
sharing
the
stage
with
partners
and
other
dancers
that are
connected
physically,
mentally,
and
emotionally
to tell
a story
that
really
makes
dancing
worth
the
daily
effort.
It's
always
been
about
being an
artist,
not just
making
steps."
For the
future,
Patterson
looks
forward
to
"continuing
to build
my
choreographic
career
and
expand
opportunities
to coach
and
teach."
Anthony
Casati counts
himself
"the
longest
consecutive
employee
in the
company,
until
Sunday."
While
some
dancers
started
before
he did
in 1994
– his
first
role was
in
Stephen
Mills'
"Torso"
– he's
the only
one to
have
stayed
14 years
straight.
The
reason?
"I love
this
company,"
he says.
"It has
been
both a
kind and
cruel
teacher,
depending
on the
season
and the
director.
I have
been
given
trust
and
opportunity
and the
chance
to soar
or fall
flat on
my
face."
Though
he's
playing
Espada
in Don
Quixote,
Casati
prefers
to think
of Sesom
in Cult
of
Color:
Call to
Color as
his
farewell
role. It
and the
title
role
inHamlet are
his
proudest
achievements.
"I was
there
when
they
were
made,
and
there's
a lot of
me in
each of
them,"
he says.
"I mean
actual
physical
artifacts
in both
works:
steps
that
have
'Tony'
written
all over
them and
mannerisms
and
gestures
that are
there as
a direct
result
of
choices
I made
during
the
creation
process.
I have
seen
four
other
companies
perform Hamlet and
seven
other
guys
dance
the
part,
and in
each
case I
saw the
source
material
and the
echo of
my
contributions.
That is
a very
gratifying
thing in
a field
where
everything
is so
fleeting
and
temporal."
Casati's
future
is open:
"I plan
to be a
'gentleman
of
leisure'
for two
weeks,
then I
will
open my
heart to
the
universe
and
listen
for the
next big
thing to
reveal
itself
to me. I
am open
to
suggestions."
GET YOUR
TICKETS
'Don
Quixote'
When: 8 p.m.
Friday and
Saturday, 3
p.m. Sunday
Where:
Long Center
for the
Performing
Arts, 701 W.
Riverside
Drive
Cost: $27.50-$80.50
Information:(866)
443-8849,
www.balletaustin.org
