Ballets with a Twist

Ballets with a Twist
General information
Name Ballets with a Twist
Year founded 1996
Founders Marilyn Klaus, Stephen Gaboury
Founding Artistic Director Marilyn Klaus
Principal venue New York City USA
Website www.balletswithatwist.com
Artistic staff
Artistic Director Marilyn Klaus

Ballets with a Twist is a New York City-based company that performs the work of Artistic Director Marilyn Klaus throughout the United States. Klaus founded Ballets with a Twist in 1996, in association with Grammy-nominated composer Stephen Gaboury.[1][2] The company performed the first incarnation of its signature work, Cocktail Hour: The Show, a collection of theatrical dance vignettes celebrating iconic American social culture, in Manhattan in 2009.

History

In the 1980s and early 1990s, Klaus began working with composer Stephen Gaboury, presenting dances set to original music in New York City, around the United States, and in Europe. Premieres during this period included Klaus’s ballroom suite for eight women, Return to Normalcy; the quintet Silver Thaw; and The Johnny Show, a blend of honky-tonk, circus, and comic revue.

In 1996, Klaus formed Ballets with a Twist and began working with costume designer Catherine Zehr. In its inaugural year, the company appeared at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts' Clark Studio Theater, the Church of the Holy Trinity, and other venues.[3] Premieres included Seven-Minute Musical, in which an aging beauty reports from the frontlines of memory, and a short musical film, Temple of Swing, in which a glamorous “she” and her mentor meet in a world of fast cars, packed night clubs, and fortune tellers.

From 1996 to 2008, the company appeared at a variety of venues and events throughout New York City, including the Kumble Center for the Performing Arts, the Taste of Dance Festival, To the Pointe programs, and First Look at the Schermerhorn Performance Space in Brooklyn. Since 2002, the company has performed annually during the Tribeca Film Festival, premiering a new dancing cocktail each year.[4]

Cocktail Hour, Klaus's signature evening-length collection of dance vignettes, debuted at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center in November, 2009, with a total of nine cocktail-themed selections. In 2010, Ballets with a Twist presented the suite at Teatro in Piazza, an invitation-only theater in Los Angeles, California.[5] The next year, the company was invited to Lincoln Center for a sold-out performance of Cocktail Hour at the David Rubenstein Atrium, incorporating animated graphic background projections (now standard for the show) for the first time.

In 2012, XL Nightclub and Cabaret on 42nd Street presented two summer showings of Cocktail Hour in a unique floorshow format. XL hosted the company again in September for a performance featuring music icon Cyndi Lauper and benefiting Lauper's True Colors Fund.[6][7][8][9] The company joined Lauper again several months later at the Beacon Theatre, for an appearance during Home for the Holidays, Lauper's annual True Colors Fund benefit concert.

Also in 2012, Hamilton Stage, an arm of the Union County Performing Arts Center (UCPAC) in Rahway, New Jersey, welcomed Ballets with a Twist as an artistic affiliate during the theater’s inaugural season.[10] During the company's residency, the UCPAC invited Klaus and her company to represent Hamilton Stage and the city before the New Jersey State Council on the Arts in celebration of the federal Our Town grant awarded to Rahway by the National Endowment for the Arts.

The company's 2013 fall season featured return engagements at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Hamilton Stage; debut performances at PlayhouseSquare's Ohio Theatre in Cleveland, Manhattan's Stage 48, and the Morris Museum's Bickford Theatre in Morristown, New Jersey; and appearances on Cleveland television stations WKYC and WEWS-TV.[11][12][13][14]

Significant engagements in 2014 included premieres at Oregon's Craterian Theater and at Staten Island's St. George Theatre, where the company partnered with award-winning New Jersey youth gospel choir The Special Ensemble.[15][16] A return to the Beacon Theatre for a guest appearance during Cyndi Lauper's fourth annual Home for the Holidays benefit concert brought the year to a close. 2015 saw additional company firsts: a Texas debut at El Paso's Plaza Theatre, featuring young dancers from Mexico; a lecture/performance presentation on costume design at The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology; a Vermont premiere at the Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center in Stowe; and a holiday engagement presented by the Chenango Arts Council in Norwich, New York.[17][18][19][20]

Ballets with a Twist completed its first university residency in 2016. Following a week of master classes and choreography workshops for the Department of Theater Arts at Ohio Northern University, several students were invited to join the company on stage during performances at the Freed Center for the Performing Arts.[21] Later the same year, Pennsylvania's Bucks County Playhouse programmed ballet for the first time with a weekend run of Cocktail Hour.[22]

As of 2016, the number of Cocktail Hour vignettes had increased to 23. The cocktail menu to date includes (in order of creation)

  • "Champagne"
  • "Sputnik"
  • "Gimlet"
  • "Roy Rogers"
  • "Mai Tai"
  • "Martini"
  • "Margarita"
  • "Shirley Temple"
  • "Manhattan"
  • "Brandy Alexander"
  • "White Russian"
  • "Absinthe"
  • "Holy Water"
  • "Scotch on the Rachmaninoff"
  • "Mint Julep"
  • "Zombie"
  • "Bloody Mary"
  • "Eau de Vie"
  • "Boilermaker"
  • "Singapore Sling"
  • "Pink Lady"
  • "Cuba Libre"
  • "Grappa"

Dancers

Ballets with a Twist maintains a consistent roster of 12 to 14 dancers. In addition, young apprentices frequently join the professionals on stage. When on tour, the company often hosts workshop auditions for local children, some of whom have the opportunity to rehearse and perform with the ensemble.[11][12][17]

Collaborations

Artistic partnerships with professional and aspiring musicians are a regular feature of Ballets with a Twist's regional and national outreach efforts. The company's in-house band, the B-Twist Orchestra, first joined the dancers in performance during Cyndi Lauper's Home for the Holidays concert at the Beacon Theater in 2012. Subsequent productions of Cocktail Hour have included appearances by the Rahway High School Marching Band, East Cleveland's Mighty Shaw High School Marching Cardinal Band, Newark Symphony Hall's Special Ensemble, and professional solo artists throughout the country.[12]

Artistic Staff

  • Marilyn Klaus, Artistic Director
  • Stephen Gaboury, Composer/Associate Director
  • Catherine Zehr, Costume Designer/Associate Director

References

  1. ↑ Breslin, Tom. "Synths, stars, and true colors, continued: Cyndi Lauper and Vince Clarke discuss analog synths and fruitful mistakes, past and present. (Interview)", Keyboard Magazine, November 1, 2007. Web: December 19, 2012.
  2. ↑ Jones, Kenneth. "Cast Albums for Avenue Q, Assassins, Boy From Oz, Wicked, Wonderful Town All Grammy Nommed", Playbill, December 7, 2004. Web: December 19, 2012.
  3. ↑ Anderson, Jack. "Eye-Catching Imagery And Surreal Stage Pictures Ballets With a Twist Church of the Holy Trinity". The New York Times. March 20, 1996. Web: June 13, 2013.
  4. ↑ Stahl, Jennifer. "Cocktail Hour Gets Choreographed". Pointe. April 27, 2012. Web: June 14, 2013.
  5. ↑ Levine, Debra. "Ballets with a Twist Serves Drinks All Around". The Huffington Post. September 16, 2010. Web: June 14, 2013.
  6. ↑ Woodard, Stephanie. "Not Your Mother's Ballet Company: Choreographer Marilyn Klaus at NYC's XL Nightclub". The Huffington Post. June 26, 2012. Web: June 15, 2013.
  7. ↑ Catton, Pia. "Clubs for Those Who Choose to Schmooze". The Wall Street Journal. June 10, 2012. Web: June 15, 2013.
  8. ↑ Alvarez, JC. "XL's Cocktail Hour on Point". June 13, 2012. Web: June 16, 2013.
  9. ↑ Associated Press. "Cyndi Lauper Joins Ballets With A Twist For Intimate 'True Colors' Performance In NYC". September 19, 2012. Web: June 14, 2013.
  10. ↑ Suburban News. "Ballets with a Twist Coming to Rahway's Hamilton Stage". NJ.com. October 20, 2012. Web: June 15, 2013.
  11. 1 2 "Local ballerinas perform at Lincoln Center". The Redding Pilot. October 18, 2013. Web: November 3, 2013.
  12. 1 2 3 Clawson, Kerry. "New York dance company promises to intoxicate with Cocktail Hour". Akron Beacon Journal. September 18, 2013. Web: November 3, 2013.
  13. ↑ "Announcing the 2013-2014 Main Stage Season at the Morris Museum's Bickford Theatre". NewJerseyStage.com. July 26, 2013. Web: November 3, 2013.
  14. ↑ "Ballet in Cleveland: Ballets with a Twist 9/16", WKYC. September 16, 2014. Web: June 13, 2014.
  15. ↑ Decker, Edith. "'Cocktail Hour' shows at the Craterian Theatre". Grants Pass Daily Courier. September 11, 2014. Web: March 7, 2015.
  16. ↑ Steussy, Lauren. "'Cocktail Hour' buzz hits PBS before Staten Island show at St. George Theatre". Staten Island Advance. October 2, 2014. Web: March 7, 2015.
  17. 1 2 Alvarado, Kyle. "Cocktail Hour: The Show brings nightlife-inspired elegance and former El Pasoan to Plaza Theatre". El Paso Times. January 24, 2015. Web: March 7, 2015.
  18. ↑ Schaefer, Brian. "Ballets with a Twist". New York Times. February 19, 2015. Web: March 7, 2015.
  19. ↑ Contino, Patricia. "Ballets with a Twist to bring dance show Cocktail Hour on stage in NYC". The Upcoming. March 7, 2015. Web: March 9, 2015.
  20. ↑ McCormack, Lisa. “Ballets With a Twist: Shaken, stirred and twirled”. The Stowe Reporter. September 10, 2015. Web: November 28, 2015.
  21. ↑ Eddings, Amy. "Ballets with a Twist's 'Cocktail Hour' Brings Spirited Dance to Ada". The Lima News. January 28, 2016. Web: April 23, 2016.
  22. ↑ Kalan, Susan. "Ballet Served with a Twist at Bucks County Playhouse". WFMZ-TV. March 31, 2016. Web: April 23, 2016.
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