There’s something in the way they move. The dancers are elastic and fluid. In the basement of the Eugene Ballet Academy, the Eugene Ballet Company@@http://www.eugeneballet.org/eugene-oregon-ballet-performances.html@@ puts the final touches in place for their upcoming show, “All You Need is Love.”
The dancers will be accompanied by The Nowhere Band@@http://www.myspace.com/thenowhereband@@, a 16-piece Portland-based band that will be playing the music on stage at the Hult Center while the dancers perform. In addition to the Beatles’ theme, the ballet company is also performing “Concerto Grosso,” a piece choreographed to the music of renowned Swiss-American composer Ernest Bloch.@@http://www.ensemblexxi.org/bloch.htm@@
Artistic director and company founder Toni Pimble’s favorite piece is “Eleanor Rigby.”@@http://eugeneballet.org/eugene-oregon-ballet-company-staff.html@@
“’Eleanor Rigby’ is a very beautiful song, a very poignant song,” Pimble said.
Part of selecting pieces to choreograph is researching the song’s history.
“(It) seems to be a piece about post-war Britain. It was right after the second World War that the Beatles were growing up,” she said.
“The rationing went on for five years after the second World War. I don’t think that most people realize that. It went on for a long time as the world was recovering from this war. And there were a lot of ‘lonely people’ out there who had lost loved ones.”
The group began rehearsing the performance a little over a month ago. One challenge they faced was figuring out how to make the relatively short songs by the Beatles transition into one long set.
“It needs to have an overall running feel to it. That was really important to me,” Pimble said.
After she decided on the music with John Averill, who is the director of the Beatles tribute band The Nowhere Band@@http://oregonmusicnews.com/tag/john-averill/@@, she began working with the dancers to come up with the choreography.
“You get in the studio with the dancers. And once you know where you’re headed with each piece, you know what you want to do — is this going to be a duet? Is this going to be three guys and a girl? What’s the feel of this? Is it going to be a solo, is it going to be sexy? Is it going to be funny? Once you’ve figured out those parameters then you get in the studio with the dancers and that in itself is a big collaboration,” she said.
Twenty-six-year-old Betty Kondo@@http://www.eugeneballet.org/artist-bios/kondo.html@@, who is in her first season with the ballet, explained how she met Pimble.
“A few years back I was dancing with Kansas City Ballet,@@same link@@ and she came and set ‘Concerto Grosso’ on Kansas City Ballet,” Kondo said. “So I had the opportunity to work with her there and really enjoyed working with Toni. So that’s what spiked my interest in the Eugene Ballet.”
While Kondo said she really likes the Beatles ballet, her favorite part of the performance is the first piece, “Concerto Grosso.”
“I really enjoy ‘Concerto Grosso.’ The music of Ernest Bloch is absolutely gorgeous,” she said.
It is principal dancer Aoi Anraku’s first season with the Eugene Ballet as well@@http://www.eugeneballet.org/artist-bios/anraku-bio.html@@. Anraku, 24, moved to Oregon from South Carolina, from where he had sent Toni an audition tape. Unlike most professional dancers, who often begin dancing at young ages, Anraku started ballet only nine years ago, at the age of 15.
“My dad is a karate teacher. My mom is a ballet teacher. I was doing karate, and I had a black belt. I had done many competitions and got first prize in Japan. But I needed to be more flexible,” Anraku said. “So my dad told me to go to my mom’s class. I took a couple classes, but she asked me to go in a competition. So I was training with my mom when I got a scholarship from another school.”
Anraku said that for now, there is no turning back to karate and that he hopes to continue working with Pimble and the Eugene Ballet@@they refer to themselves as ‘the eugene ballet’ sometimes@@.
“I like how she choreographs,” he said. “She knows what looks good for each dancer, so she makes really good choreography for each dancer.”
@@BREAK OUT BOX@@
@@Eugene Ballet Company: “All You Need is Love”@@
@@Hult Center@@
@@Tickets: $10 with student ID@@
@@Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 7:30PM@@
@@Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 2:00PM@@