Review: Colors Fly in BalletMet's New BECOMING VIOLET Video Project

Although its 2016-17 season is not set to begin until September, some dancers from BalletMet are adding color to the summer with a new video project.

"Becoming Violet," a video created in collaboration with Lair, a creative studio based in New York, and director Steven Weinzierl, was posted on BalletMet's website, as well as the company's YouTube page earlier this week.

"Becoming Violet" was also posted on BalletMet's Facebook page on Aug. 8 and has since garnered 68,000 views and more than 960 shares on the social media site.

The video, which features BalletMet dancers Miguel Anaya, Jessica Brown, Grace-Ann Powers, Jarrett Reimers, Josh Seibel and Carly Wheaton, was filmed in April in BalletMet's Performance Space.

BalletMet Artistic Director Edwaard Liang said the video is meant to share a message of creating beauty through the artistic forms of dance, film and color.

"'Becoming Violet' is a beautiful interpretation of what it means to find release in creative
exploration, to come together in the name of art," he said in a press release.

Liang added he and the BalletMet team "couldn't be happier with the outcome" of working with Lair and Weinzierl, a Columbus native.

The video, which is a little over one minute and 30 seconds long, blends the movement of dancers with dramatic clouds of color thrown into the air as the performers leap and spin in an inky black room.

As "Becoming Violet" progresses, colorful pigments mix together on the floor, staining the dancers' feet and flesh-tone costumes. By the video's conclusion, a story of finding beauty in a chaotic world is told through the palette of bright hues that blossom in slow motion on the screen.

In the press release, Weinzierl described the video as "a passion project, an art piece."

"This is a celebration of dance and film in its rawest form," the Columbus College of Art and Design alumnus said. "It's not a typical marketing spot. It was done for the love of the art form."

BalletMet's 2016-17 season is set to begin on September 22 when the company performs "Twisted 2" at the Ohio Theatre. Other performances slated for the upcoming months include "Night and Day: A Collection of Short Ballets" in October; the annual favorite, "The Nutcracker," in December; "Peter Pan" in February; "Art in Motion" at the Capitol Theatre in March; and, finally, "Romeo & Juliet" in April.

More information about BalletMet, its upcoming season and "Finding Violet" can be found on the BalletMet website.

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