CINCINNATI -- When it began in 2000, no one expected that the Cincinnati Ballet’s Come Together Festival would be so popular.
Funded in part by Procter & Gamble, it was intended to help the company increase choreographic diversity and to give local choreographers a chance to work with the group.
Not only was it a hit, it was a huge hit. In 2006, it morphed into the Kaplan New Works Series, which will kick off the ballet's season Friday.
It's the favorite performance series of many longtime patrons. Originally, performances took place in the studio theater at the ballet’s Central Parkway home. It gave patrons an opportunity for a remarkably up-close encounter with the dancers.
However, the space seats just 250. To allow more people to see the performances but not completely bail on the idea of a small venue, the company moved the series to the Aronoff’s 437-seat Jarson-Kaplan Theater.
For the past several years, “New Works” has been something of a showcase for female choreographers. But since artistic director Victoria Morgan’s “Director’s Choice” performances in April will have an all-female choreographers’ roster, she decided to highlight some of the company’s favorite male choreographers with this year’s Kaplan New Works Series.
The program includes:
- “eye on pointe taken”: A world premiere by Viktor Plotnikov, a former principal dancer with Boston Ballet whose works regularly mix ballet with various high-tech elements. Plotnikov, who last choreographed for the company in 2008, is a favorite among the company’s dancers.
- “Untitled”: A Cincinnati premiere by Gabriel Gaffney Smith, a dancer with BalletMet Columbus. Since Cincinnati Ballet and BalletMet regularly collaborate on performances, Smith is well-known to Cincinnati Ballet’s dancers. For this piece, Smith, a gifted composer, also has composed the music. James Gilmer and Christina LaForgia will perform the ballet, which is an extended duet.
- “Fellow Traveler”: A world premiere by resident choreographer Adam Hougland. The piece, which features music by composer John Adams, is a solo for principal dancer Patric Palkens, who returns to the company after performing in Austria for a year.
- “All My Favorite People”: By resident choreographer Adam Hougland. This is the one piece that has been seen here before. It premiered as part of 2014’s “Cincinnati Ballet & Over the Rhine Live.” The songs, written by Over the Rhine’s Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler, are “I’m On A Roll,” “Oh Yeah By The Way,” “All Over Ohio,” “Hush Now,” “Firefly” and “All My Favorite People.”
- “Mind on the {Re} Wind”: A world premiere by Ma Cong, who graduated from the Beijing Dance Academy and is now the resident choreographer of Tulsa Ballet. In recent years, he has become a much sought-after choreographer for companies around the world. Immediately after creating this work on Cincinnati Ballet, he returned to Beijing to set a new work on the National Ballet of China.
Cincinnati Ballet's “Kaplan New Works Series”
Sept. 11-19
Jarson-Kaplan Theater, Aronoff Center, 650 Walnut St., Downtown
Tickets: $55 and up; 513-621-5282; www.cballet.org
