Alabama Dance Theatre is proud to offer a program that has something for everyone, with 12 cutting-edge new works from award-winning choreographers. Witness an evening of classical ballet, jazz, comedy – and a little bit of rock n’ roll. The Spring Gala will feature new works from ADT’s resident choreographers Janie Alford, Sara Elyse Sanford, and Jenny Letner and ADT faculty member Jaclyn Speights. Guest choreographers Armando Luna and Ashley McQueen lend two new works to the production, originally created last July during ADT’s two-week summer intensive. Jupiter by Mr. Luna is a neo-classical piece set to Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 in C Major, K. 551 that showcases the senior Company’s pointe and partnering technique to full advantage. Ms. McQueen’s piece, Disassembling, is a mesmerizing contemporary work created for the Company’s juniors. Sara Elyse Sanford has created a new pointe piece for the junior company, Moonbeams. A Caucus Race, by Ms. Speights, combines apprentice company members with younger children who auditioned, with a dodo, Alice, and a mouse pitting a flock of canaries against a flock of magpies in an exercise in earnest silliness.
Guest artist and audience favorite Raul Peinado returns to appear in three pieces. Staging the famous Black Swan pas de deux from Swan Lake, Peinado will perform the role of Siegfried, partnering with Shannon McGaughey. Mr. Peinado and ADT senior company members will also be featured in Sara Sanford’s jazzy pointe piece C’est La Vie. He will play a grumpy father trying to convince three girls to go to sleep in the comical Full Moon, featuring apprentice company members.
The company will perform a new work by Janie Alford, Wilson’s Way. It’s said that no one throws a better party onstage than Janie! Jenny Letner has set a solo on senior company member Cameron Caldwell., and Ms. Sanford’s charming Red Balloon returns for the apprentices. Finally, Ms. Sanford’s triumphant A Lady We All Know closes the show with a flourish that lets the company explore their talents in a contemporary and electrifying piece.
This performance will be the final regular season appearance of the following Company dancers: Jane Abbie Alford, Morgan Calhoun, Kalei Jones, Ja’Niya Kennedy, Shannon McGaughey, Camilla Ohme, Lilla Kate Parkman, and Arrion Charlie Rollins. ADT’s faculty congratulates them on their upcoming high school graduations and wishes them the very best in their future endeavors.