School of Classical Ballet presents “Moved to Dance” at the ABT | Take advantage of invoices

Directors Betty Loos and Julia Marble will share their students’ achievements in a program with dance styles ranging from ballet to hip-hop.

The program includes choreography from the school’s faculty: Nicolle Ament, Ricki Feeley, Leeza Freeman, Carly Mann, Kristie Martin, Kassydi Maybee, Annie Moribito, Maribel Schaff and Christina Taylor, as well as pieces from guest choreographers and directors of SCB.

Six senior graduates are featured in two senior trios. A modern piece, “Don’t Forget Me”, will be performed by Emily Kelley, Frankie Parrott and Brittany Riley. A classical ballet variation, the Pas de Trois from La Corsaire, will be performed by Katie Alme, Gabi Anderson and April Kimmel.

Returning guest choreographers Kirsten Cooper, Erica Gionfreddo and Niiki White shared comments on their choreography. Cooper is the manager of a pre-professional jazz company in Seattle. Speaking to dancers about her jazz piece, ‘Might’, she said, “we have to acknowledge what we’re feeling, live in that moment and then either be okay with it or make a change. There’s has something to learn in every emotional situation.”

Gionfreddo, director of the Austin, Texas-based Arcos Dance Company, choreographed “These Are the Days, My Friend.” She said the work took place over two days “a tribute to the training, dedication and maturity of the dancers. The brisk pace of the work perhaps challenges the rhythm of our daily lives and invites us to revel in the stamina to keep up that pace.”

White, a former SCB student and dancer with Smuin and Sacramento Ballet, has this comment about her piece: “‘Les Sillies’ reminded me and the dancers not to take ourselves too seriously. Personally, I thinks it’s harder to make an audience laugh than it is to make them cry.”

New this year for the dancers was a flamenco piece choreographed by Spanish Maria Jose Ramon Ros, from Great Falls.