Decade of Dance

Dance

Decade of Dance

by Neil Ellis Orts

Neglia Ballet Artists celebrate 10 years with gala performance

For a decade, Buffalo audiences have thrilled to the drama and finesse of Neglia Ballet Artists. In celebration, the local company will present their 10th Anniversary Gala Performance on Saturday, May 9, 7:30pm, at the Flickinger Performing Arts Center.

This will not be a typical retrospective celebration, however. This is an anniversary performance focused on the future of the company.

Principal dancers, artistic director Sergio Neglia and Sherri Campagni, will not disappoint the audience that has been with them all these years. They will present the pas de deux from Swan Lake, which they first performed before the company was officially founded, as well as their crowd-pleasing final pas de deux from Spartacus. Between these familiar favorites are six pieces new or revamped for Neglia Ballet Artists, most by contemporary, up-and-coming choreographers.

One in particular came to Neglia almost by accident. A couple who were originally going to travel to Buffalo for the Gala ultimately couldn’t make it. The piece they were to perform was by Viktor Plotnikov. A former principal dancer with Boston Ballet, Plotnikov lately has been choreographing for companies across the US, and he sent Neglia a video of his work. Sergio Neglia and Heidi Halt, Neglia’s wife and the executive director of the company, were quite taken with what they saw. Negotiations ended with Plotnikov bringing his pas de deux set to Bach’s Harpsichord Concerto in A, danced by Lithuanian-born dancers Vilia Putrius and Mindaugas Bauzys. Halt hopes this will be but the first of collaborations with Plotnikov. “I think he’s going to be an important choreographer for ballet companies,” she says.

The other pieces are equally impressive. Colorado Ballet veteran Andrew Skeels brings his meditation on family relationships, set to Brahms’ Sonata for Cello and Piano in E Minor. Metropolitan Opera’s James Garber will show his Chimera, an earlier version of which premiered at New York City’s Joyce Theatre to much acclaim. Mario Galizzi of Argentina’s Teatro Colon Ballet Institute is the choreographer of a contemporary pas de deux to the Mahler Adagietto, and will be performed by the aforementioned Skeels with Dana Benton, also of the Colorado Ballet. Halt’s choreographic skill will be on display for Vivaldi 9. Putrius and Bauzys return for a pas de deux from Sleeping Beauty.

From old favorites to new choreographers, the performance shows a new concentration on taking the company to the next level of professional status. Indicative of this is their upcoming Nutcracker, which will be performed with the Buffalo Philharmonic at Shea’s Performing Art Center.

For tickets, visit www.negliaballet.org or call 447-0401.

Reader Comments

Neil Ellis Orts
25 May 2009, 13:56

Sustaining any artistic endeavor for 10 years is worth celebrating, it seems to me.

I did not talk to Sergio for this article.

Had there been more room for this article, I would have gone into some of the things I learned about the school and its students. But this was a piece about the gala, not about the school (which is has been around for 15 years---another feat for an arts organization).

My background in dance is mostly in dance history, I guess you'd say. I stepped in to do this article when a writer colleague could not do it and she asked if I could. I would also say I have more of a background in writing than in dance, although I have studied dance, including graduate school level courses.

Sorry you don't like the article or, apparently, Neglia. We can't please everyone. Nor, it seems, can we all put names onto our criticisms. Your questions read like accusations and perhaps the result of some sour grapes, but they lack weight mostly because you prefer to hide behind anonymity. If you're a student from the school (which is how your note reads) then I encourage you to keep studying, audition, audition, audition, and show the world what you've got. But any performing arts career is difficult. Studying with someone who is doing it never guarantees you'll join the company. Spend more time on the places that'll hire you to dance rather than the places who won't. It's a small, small world and grousing about where you don't get hired will only make you look angry and hard to work with---leading to less work.

Sorry if I've misread your questions. Perhaps the better question for you is: What is your background in dance, and why does this little 500 word article raise such seemingly angry questions?

Dance

Decade of Dance

by Neil Ellis Orts

Reader Comments

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