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The USC Dance Company will honor the late Gian Carlo Menotti with two ballets in its spring performance April 13-14 at the Koger Center.
The 8 p.m. performance, titled "USC Dance Company in Concert," also will include Spanish Rhapsody, choreographed by Carolina dance program assistant professor Miriam Barbosa.
Les Sylphides and The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore will be a memorial tribute to Menotti, founder of the Spoleto International Arts Festival, and will be performed in collaboration with the University's Concert Choir under the direction of Larry Wyatt.
Les Sylphides, staged by professional dancer Joulia Moisseeva and choreographed by Michel Fokine, depicts a chance meeting between a sylph and the poet in a moonlit park. Fokine, a Russian choreographer, first staged the ballet in 1909.
Evgueni Tourdiev will dance the part of the poet. The soloists are Lindsay Shatzer, Caroline Privette. and Carolyn Bolton. The demi soloists are Bonnie Boiter-Jolley and Amanda Jones. The corps de ballet are Suzanna Burguet, Erin Demeur, Haley Hayes, Jessica Stroupe, Mandi Harring, Kristin Hill, Chelsea Laughter, Omoniyi Osoba, Jessica Peters, and Danielle Wilson.
The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore, choreographed by professional dancer Tourdiev, is about a poet named Menotti whose three stages of his life, youth, middle age, and old age, are represented by his pets. His unicorn represents the poet's youth: foolishness, capriciousness, and beauty. The gorgon represents him as loud, proud, and oblivious of the critics. The manticore represents him as lonely, shy, and reclusive.
Cast members are Norbert Nirewicz dancing the part of the poet; Sarah Coats, dancing the part of the unicorn; Jade McAnally, Lucy Quirk, Katie Ross, and Yun Yu Teng, dancing the parts of young unicorns; Susan Dabney, dancing the part of gorgon; Bonnie Boiter-Jolley, dancing the part of manticore; Serguei Chtyrkov and Joulia Moisseeva, dancing the part of the couple; and Anna Alston, Sarafrances Crow, Kenni Doss, Steven Fergeson, Ben Hankinson, Katie Hilliger, Leah Humphrey, Megan Hutchinson, Katherine Massengill, Eddy Ramirez, Boyd Stout, and Anne Wiggins dancing the parts of villagers.
Spanish Rhapsody opens when a man is awakened in his dream by the knowledge of womanhood. His spirit travels the depths of his unconsciousness, where he is guided by beauty, strength, sisterhood, motherhood, and love through the visions of a woman.
"Both the composer and I were attracted to a certain quality of Spanish music and dance woven throughout the score and the movements, which, in combination with the set, creates a surrealistic plasticity on stage," Barbosa said.
Cast members are Miriam Barbosa, Serguei Chtyrkov, Carolyn Bolton, Mandi Harring, Kristin Hill, Omoriyi Osoba, Jessica Peters, Lindsay Shatzer, Jessica Stroupe, and Danielle Wilson.
Tickets are $14 for the public, $12 for Carolina faculty and staff and senior citizens (ages 55+), and $10 for students.
Tickets are available at the Koger Center box office at 251-2222.
3/07
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