By Whitney Sorensen
BYU Theatre Ballet appeals directly to the children in the audience with its spectacular staging of Camille Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals at the Harris Fine Arts Center in Provo. The dancers bring a menagerie to life onstage, each animal looking like a moving illustration from a children’s picture book.
Before the carnival begins, this concert ballet performance showcases a few classical and modern ballet pieces. First up is Gerald Arpino’s Viva Vivadi. This series of dances helps break the audience into the ballet mood by showcasing the dancers’ pointe skills. The female dancers wear traditional black leotards with white flowing skirts, making them look like quintessential dancing swans. Although this portion of the performance is not part of the animal carnival, it serves as a fitting introduction to the mood of the show overall.
Next comes a modern piece, Salve Regina, with choreography by James Sutton. This dance is done without pointe shoes, but the graceful lines of the performer’s movements still get accentuated by their costumes (Priscilla Hao). The female dancers wear long-skirted peach dresses, and the two male dancers wear white button-up shirt and brown pant ensembles that look Gene Kelly–inspired.
The first half of the concert concludes with ballet master George Balanchine’s Valse Fantaisie. BYU Theatre Ballet performs his original choreography beautifully, and it was a highlight of the show for me, demonstrating everything I enjoy about ballet.
After the 15-minute-intermission, the real fun begins. Choreographers Shayla Bott and Ashley Parov incorporate plenty of theatricality into Carnival of the Animals to appeal to the imaginations (and the attention spans) of the children in the audience. If you have kids who love The Nutcracker at Christmas-time, they’ll enjoy this show. It plays like the second half of that famous ballet, with a very simple plot and plenty of changes in pace and tone to keep kids guessing.
Three children (Sean Cooney, Saidi Cordon, and Ryan Lambert) arrive at a circus and find the mysterious carnival master (Hilary Wolfley) and her juggler (Greg Schachterle). His tricks are a highlight of the show—don’t hold back your applause when he does his big finish! Soon, the juggler transforms into a giant dancing bear (Lauren Halversen or Courtney Barclay, depending on which performance you attend). The children begin pulling out animal puppets and passing them off to the the carnival master, which signals the arrival of a host of creatures.
The backdrop for the Carnival is the front of a circus tent, and various animal-inspired dancers emerge from the tent doors as the show goes on. Credit to Benjamin Sanders for the whimsical production design. Lighting (Michael Handley) also plays a big role in creating mood and making special effects, like the glow-in-the-dark elephant fossil dance, work.
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I sat in the same row as several young children, and they all seemed utterly entranced by the performance. If you attend and find your kids squirming a bit in their seats, engage them by telling them to wait for the arrival of the tortoise hatchlings, who have a grand entrance under a giant turtle shell, or the owl, who has the best costume of the evening in my opinion, again designed by Hao.
Carnival of the Animals is a not-to-be-missed family night at the ballet, appropriate for children of all ages. Take your kids (or yourself) to see this storybook come to life onstage.
BYU Theatre Ballet presents Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saens, George Balanchine’s Valse Fantaisie, and Gerald Arpino’s Viva Vivadi
de Jong Concert Hall, Harris Fine Arts Center, BYU Campus, Provo
February 1-3, 7:30 PM
Tickets: $9-16
Contact: 801-422-2981
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