Smuin Ballet's Dance Series One Program Begins Today

Smuin Ballet kicks off its 22nd Season with the Bay Area tour of a vibrant new program, Dance Series One, performing September 18 - October 4 in Walnut Creek, Mountain View, and San Francisco. This innovative program features two world premiere dances: a highly anticipated new work by Smuin Ballet's Choreographer-in-Residence Amy Seiwert, and another exciting addition by current Smuin dancer Ben Needham-Wood. Also enlivening the program will be the return of Ma Cong's French Twist, a fast and flirtatious work inspired by the American cartoon "Tom and Jerry" that received an acclaimed world premiere with Smuin Ballet in spring of 2010. Rounding out the program is Michael Smuin's lyrical Bouquet, set to a pair of glorious Shostakovich piano concerti. Dance Series One will begin its Bay Area tour with performances in Walnut Creek (September 18-19), continuing in Mountain View (September 24-27), concluding at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco (October 1-4). Tickets ($24-$68) are available by calling the individual venues or visiting www.smuinballet.org.

To launch the season, Choreographer-in-Residence Amy Seiwert will create a World Premiere (title TBD) on the Smuin Ballet dancers. This piece will be set to music by internationally acclaimed cellist and composer Julia Kent, who creates music using looped cello, found sounds, and electronics. Smuin's Artistic Director Celia Fushille noted, "Like Michael Smuin, the choreographic process for Amy begins with the music. When she presented me with her desire to use the music of Julia Kent, I was enchanted for two reasons. Upon hearing some of Kent's selections, I could visualize the lush strings accompanying Amy's movement, which I often describe as sculpture in motion. I was also touched that a female choreographer should choose a female composer, two fields that are underrepresented by women. It's a joy that the fruit of this creative union should reveal itself on our stage." A former Smuin dancer, Seiwert has been choreographing since 1999 and has won numerous awards and critical accolades. The Bay Area Reporter declares her to be "the most talented and prolific young choreographer working from a ballet base around here" and the San Francisco Chronicle has called her "sharply innovative" and "one of the country's most exciting young dance makers." In addition to Smuin Ballet, Seiwert's work is in the repertory of companies across the country, including Ballet Austin, BalletMet, American Repertory Ballet, Washington Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Oakland Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, Colorado Ballet, Louisville Ballet, and Cincinnati Ballet, as well as Robert Moses KIN. Cellist and composer Julia Kent is a Canadian, now based in New York City. She has released three full-length solo albums, her music has been featured in a number of films, and on NPR's Radiolab, and she has composed and performed music for theatre and dance, including the Balletto Civile in Italy. As a solo artist she is in demand at alternative music festivals around the world.

Smuin company member Ben Needham-Wood will also contribute a new piece, entitled Maslow, set to an original score by rising composer and cellist Ben Sollee, whose music has been heard on NPR's "Tiny Desk," HBO's "Weeds," and more. In this short piece, Needham-Wood explores the theories of American psychologist Abraham Maslow, whose work focused on how people fulfill their greatest potential (referred to by Maslow as "self-actualization"). Maslow offers a glimpse inside the mind of a young man searching for what lies beyond his highest expectation. "As a perfectionist working in a subjective art, I continually aspire towards my own, ever-progressing ideal," says Needham-Wood. "In this work, I hope to push myself beyond the choreography that I have done in the past, and for Maslow to inspire its performers, helping each dancer realize a personal strength they didn't expect. Ideally it will inspire something new in the minds of our audience as well." Needham-Wood is entering his third season as a dancer with Smuin Ballet. Before joining the company, Needham-Wood spent five years performing with the Louisville Ballet where he danced principal and featured roles in a variety of classical and contemporary works. Needham-Wood made his debut as a choreographer with Smuin Ballet last season during The Christmas Ballet with a contemporary piece set to Zee Avi's "Frosty the Snowman," and has also created works for the Louisville Ballet and the Dance Theatre of San Francisco. Ben Sollee has performed at Carnegie Hall (as part of a tribute to Paul Simon), South by Southwest Music Festival in 2011, and TEDx San Diego in 2012. The New York Times has said, Sollee's "meticulous, fluent arrangements continually morphed from one thing to another. Appalachian mountain music gave way to the blues, and one song was appended with a fragment from a Bach cello suite, beautifully played." His music can be heard in shows such as ABC's "Parenthood" and HBO's "Weeds," as well as the film "Killing Season" starring John Travolta and Robert De Niro.

The series includes the return of Ma Cong's fast and flirtatious French Twist, which received high praise for its world premiere with Smuin Ballet in spring of 2010. Inspired by the American cartoon "Tom and Jerry," French Twist uses contemporary movement set to five musical selections by the late French composer Hugues Le Bars. A quirky piece accented by angular arms and flexed feet, the music is at times reminiscent of a manic spider spinning its web, simultaneously fragile, sturdy, and exquisite. Cong's choreography utilizes every note of the vivacious tracks to their fullest capacity, as dancers slide across the floor through legs and around chairs to a sultry and mysterious waltz, and manipulate each other like marionettes in an energetic cat-and-mouse caper. The San Francisco Examiner said French Twist "features dancers interacting with agility and precision" and "showcases the rising talent of Cong." Currently resident choreographer at Tulsa Ballet, Cong was named one of the "25 to Watch" by Dance Magazine in 2006 for both dancing and choreography. As a choreographer, Cong has created many works for Tulsa Ballet, as well as works for other companies such as Ballet Met Columbus, Ballet Florida, Ballet Nouveau Colorado, Richmond Ballet, and Houston Ballet.

Michael Smuin's stunning Bouquet also returns. Created in 1981, a quartet and a pas de deux are each accompanied by glorious second movement concerti by Dmitri Shostakovich. In the quartet, a lone woman is faced with choosing a suitor; in the lush and lyrical pas deux, the possibility of a romantic relationship proves to be ephemeral. Both sections capture the sensitivity and passion of every note as Smuin's approach explores the care and sensitivity in a search for the ideal suitor and the joy and intimacy of new love. A romance in both the literal and philosophical sense, Michael Smuin contrasts the 19th century romantic longing with a more contemporary romantic style. The Contra Costa Times said Bouquet is "among Smuin's most poetic pieces of choreography." Critical Dance also noted, "Smuin's choreography couldn't better represent such powerful music, and the dancers carry it out spectacularly."

Debuting in San Francisco in 1994, Smuin Ballet immediately established itself as one of the Bay Area's most eagerly watched performing arts companies, as "one of this country's most entertaining, original ballet troupes" (Dance Magazine), and as a dance company of international acclaim, performing to sold-out houses on European tours. Michael Smuin's singular philosophy to create pieces, which merge the diverse vocabularies of classical ballet and contemporary dance has served as the Company's touchstone since its inception.

The vision of Artistic Director Celia Fushille includes maintaining and increasing the company's reputation for presenting compelling and innovative repertoire, as well as attracting new audiences to the medium. The company has continued to showcase Michael Smuin's work, while enriching its impressive repertoire with contemporary choreographic voices, bringing the Bay Area works by exciting choreographers from around the world, as well as developing world premieres.

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