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About Boulder Ballet's Comédia
Multi-disciplinary choreographer Peter Davison, described by Dance Magazine as a "consummate movement artist" and by the San Francisco Examiner as a performer of "artistic, seemingly effortless perfection" has created a one-of-a-kind dance/theater production that was produced by Boulder Ballet in February of 2008.
Notes from the Choreographer:
The two ballets that comprise "Comédia" - "Bella Luna" and "Cirque D'Amour" - emerge from the tragicomic nature of human interaction. Both ballets employ a diversity of movement, objects, music, costumes and lighting to create unusually surreal, theatrical work. I have drawn on my background of object manipulation with Airjazz, and working with cast members of the original Cirque du Soleil.
"Bella Luna" is a one-act ballet that premiered in 2004, inspired by the commedia dell'arte, a form of street theater that flourished in Italy from the 16th through 18th centuries. This form of theater involved archetypal characters who portrayed romantic scenarios infused with local politics and highly physical action. The typical story of the father trying to wed his daughter to a rich suitor, while she has fallen in love with a poor boy from the "wrong side of the tracks" propels the first part of the ballet. As in the original commedia style, myriad props heighten the action. For example, a unique pas de deux is performed on and around a bicycle.
The basis for most comedy is actually tragedy - when something funny happens it is often at someone's expense. I have chosen to heighten the tragedy element of the traditional story so that the ballet progresses from lighthearted fun to something deeper that has multiple departure points for the audience to dwell on as the piece ends. I have tried to balance telling a clear story while allowing the audience to imagine various possible outcomes for the characters where the ballet leaves off.
"Cirque D'Amour" is a 2008 premiere. I have taken a more exploratory approach with this ballet, allowing my imagination free reign to come up with images without an initial "story" structure. As the diverse ideas developed, a connection between each emerged: a thematic through-line of love and attraction between people and some of the ways that those forces manifest themselves. The extensive use of props and apparatus invokes the circus, while the movement is contemporary ballet. Rather than directly stating a theme or story, "Cirque D'Amour" is meant to lead our imagination to places that are familiar or enlightening but difficult to verbalize - a physical eloquence typical of the art of dance.
Peter Davison
Copyright © 2008 Boulder Ballet
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