Ballet West announced its 2020-2021 season Thursday, which is set to include Michael Smuin’s “Romeo and Juliet” and Ben Stevenson’s “Dracula.”
The lineup will also feature returning favorites “The Nutcracker” and “Choreographic Fest,” “Nine Sinatra Songs” and “Rodeo” triple bills, and a Family Classics Series production of “The Little Mermaid.”
The season, set to run Oct. 23-May 8 at the Capitol Theatre and Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in Salt Lake City, adds a seventh program to the schedule for the first time in decades, according to a Ballet West press release.
“We have so much great repertoire. We have so many of our core audience that really, really want to see unique pieces and then so many of our audiences that really, really want to see the big story ballets,” said Adam Sklute, Ballet West’s artistic director. “Both of those are so important to me, both of those types of works, and so we really thought, ‘What a better way to really expand our audiences’ horizons and hopefully bring in new audiences than to give them an opportunity to see more dance?’”
Adding a seventh program will require “more intense work at certain places” for the company, Sklute said, but Ballet West is well prepared for it.
“With all the touring that we do around the world, they’re used to intense schedules, so they’re very, very well adept,” Sklute said.
“Dracula” will kick off the season Oct. 23-31, showing off “all of the drama and dynamics and excitement that Ballet West can produce on the stage,” according to Sklute.
“‘Dracula’ is a great spectacle,” Sklute said. “It is a lot of fun. I almost call it like a ride in the Haunted Mansion of Disneyland. It’s that kind of fun. It is good for families, but also is great for adults and just is a really wonderful, exciting opener that I think shows off the breadth, scope and dynamism of Ballet West.”
Skulte said one of the things he is most excited about in the new season is the “long-awaited revival” of Smuin’s “Romeo and Juliet,” set for Feb. 12-20, 2021, which Ballet West hasn’t performed since the early 1990s.
“It’s going to be a beautiful, brilliant production, and I think a lot of people in the Salt Lake area who went to the ballet back then will remember it fondly, and hopefully they’ll be very excited to see it come back,” Sklute said.
Ballet West’s longest-running and oldest full version of “The Nutcracker” in America will continue Dec. 11-26.
“That is something we’re very proud of, and it is world renowned,” Sklute said. “It’s toured to Washington’s Kennedy Center many times, as well as performed here with love and care every year, and so that is a family favorite that we love to produce.”
The “Choreographic Fest” will also return May 6-8, 2021, showcasing “different unique works and guest companies from around the world.”
“This coming season, we will be producing a brand new work by a Scottish choreographer, her name is Sophie Laplane, and we will be doing the first-ever collaboration between Ballet West and the Sundance Institute for music, which is a part of the umbrella of the Sundance festival,” Sklute said. “Very excited for both of those projects that will close out the season.”
“Nine Sinatra Songs” will headline a triple bill Nov. 6-14 with Ballet West resident choreographer Nicolo Fonte’s “Almost Tango” and Jiri Kylian’s “Return to a Strange Land.”
“‘Nine Sinatra Songs’ will close the program, and it is, at this point, really considered a classic,” Sklute said. “It was in the early 1980s by the great modern dance choreographer Twyla Tharp, who has also worked in ballet a lot, and she uses Sinatra songs and the idiom of ballroom, but puts it on ballet dancers and creates different vignettes that are funny, fun and ultimately very moving. This is a really interesting, unique program.”
“Rodeo” will headline another triple bill in April 2021 of Ballet West premieres with Justin Peck’s “Belles-Lettres” and “Glass Pieces,” featuring choreography by Jerome Robbins set to music by Philip Glass.
“‘Rodeo’ is a classic of American dance, and I’m really excited for Ballet West to be producing it for the first time,” Sklute said.
The company will also celebrate 10 years of the Family Classic Series with “The Little Mermaid.” The series’ hour to hour-and-15-minute programs were created to “bring in children and their families to the ballet to be able to enjoy it together.”
“We have a narrator that tells the story of the ballet and explains what’s going on while the dancers are dancing, and it gives an opportunity for children to really learn about ballet, to become excited about the art form, and for whole families to enjoy things together as a family,” Sklute said.
The artistic director said Ballet West’s lineup is always about a balance of what he thinks “will excite our audiences, will keep us relevant in the world of dance, and will build strength and artistry in our artists.”
“All of those things go into planning the program and then how we can afford to put that all together also, of course, so it’s always a very complicated process,” Sklute said.
Ballet West’s mission is “to provide our Utah audiences with the greatest ballet that they can get,” according to Sklute.
“We produce ballet at the same level of companies around the world, and it is why we have such an intense touring schedule and why we’ve become renowned in the way that we have,” Sklute said. “I’m very proud of the company, the dancers, and this repertoire really shows off the breadth and scope of what Ballet West can accomplish.”
Sklute said performing arts around the world have their challenges in every community, but one of the things he loves about the Utah community is that audiences are “very, very committed to the performing arts, be it music, be it singing, be it theater, be it dance.”
“That’s something that we should all be very proud of and hold very special, and one of the things that sets us apart from so many communities in the country and in the world,” Sklute said.
Single tickets are set to go on sale in September, and a four-show Essential Package begins at $84. More information from Ballet West is available at 801-869-6920 and balletwest.org.