Apr 29, 2016
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May 8, 2016

Ballez | “Sleeping Beauty & the Beast”

WORLD PREMIERE
Choreographed by: Katy Pyle, with Jules Skloot and the Company
Conceived and Directed by Katy Pyle


a black arrow pointing downward

The Ballez returns to radically, queerly re-imagine another tale from the ballet canon. Celebrating the lives of lesbian, queer, and transgender people in the L.E.S., Sleeping Beauty & the Beast is a two-act Ballez spanning two theaters at La Mama, and two eras of L.E.S. activist herstory separated by 100 years. Featuring selections of Tchaikovsky’s classic score played live by the Queer Urban Orchestra, original House Music compilations by JD Samson, and a diverse cast of over 20 queer performers, the Ballez infiltrates the ballet canon with expressions of queer desires, queer and gender-queer embodiment, framing all these expressions as a new kind of virtuosity. Humorous, sensual, and heartbreaking, Sleeping Beauty & the Beast is a powerful testament to struggle, survival, and legacy.

Funding for this work has been provided by the Jerome Foundation and developed through a two-year Artist in Residence at Brooklyn Arts Exchange, through a residency at Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Process Space program, and with the support of Mertz Gilmore Foundation, and Brooklyn Arts Council.

Music

The Queer Urban Orchestra playing excerpts of Tchaikovsky’s “Sleeping Beauty,” conductor Julie Desbordes

Harpist Stephanie Babirak and Cellist Bjorn Berkhout playing Camille Saint-Saens “Le Cygne,”

and House Music DJ set by JD Samson

Creative Team

Costumes: Karen Boyer

Lighting Design: Chloe Brown

Production Consultants: Aaron Rosenblum and Caleb Hammons

Dramaturg: Clarinda Mac Low and Sam Greenleaf Miller

WORLD PREMIERE CAST

Beast: Jules Skloot

Aurora: Madison Krekel

Carabosse: Deborah Lohse

Violet Faerie: Chris De Vita

Scarlet Faerie: Charles Gowin

Azure Faerie: Chris Braz

Bluebird: Ashley Yergens

Bluebird: Lindsay Reuter

The Grey Wolf: iele Paloumpis

Little Red Riding Hood: Janet Werther

Cinderella: Khadija Griffith

Prince Charming: Erica Ricketts

Puss in Boots: Mei Yamanaka

White Cat: Kirstin Dahmer

Firebird: Erica Ricketts

Lesbian Princess: Eliana Dell’Anna

Dying Swans Include: Ahmaud Culver, Hans Rasch, Michael DiPietro, Helen Fourness, and Max Steele

MUSICIANS OF THE QUEER URBAN ORCHESTRA

Conductor: Julie Desbordes
1st violin: Nick Johnson and Nicolas Mirabile
2nd violin: Alva Bostick and Stephanie Stattel
Viola: Marvin Li
Cello: Bjorn Berkhout
Bass: Adrienne Lloyd
Flute/Piccolo: Craig Devereaux
Oboe/English Horn: Amy Yamashiro
Clarinet: Travis Fraser

Bassoon: Barbara Ann Schmutzler
French Horn: Peter DelGrosso and Kim Spagnola
Trumpet: George Gehring
Trombone: Jason Svatek
Percussion: Sean Foradori
Harp: Stephanie Babirak
Piano: Christian Smythe
Music arranged by: Bjorn Berkhout and Nick Johnson
Orchestra General Manager: Andrew Berman
Orchestra Personnel Manager: Liann Wadewitz

La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival

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La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival continues to support La MaMa’s commitment to presenting diverse performance styles that challenge audience’s perception of dance by featuring performance/installations, experimental film screenings & public symposiums which address dance artists’ engagement with the current political climate, as well as honoring diasporic histories and legacy, ancestral inspirations and inter-generational dialogue.

“Katy Pyle and Her ‘Misfits of Ballet’”

In the world of tutus and tiaras, Ms. Pyle’s troupe, Ballez, seeks to discover and display “what lives inside of us.”

By GIA KOURLAS

Special Event