[DANCE]
CORPS STRENGTH
PERHAPS THE PARANOIA IS WARRANTED
In a great story ballet, the principal roles provide the emotional adrenaline and the corps de ballet the pulse. The corps creates the world for the main characters to play off of, and is integral to advancing the narrative and creating much of the beauty audiences associate with such ballets. What would Swan Lake be without its swans, or Giselle without its ghostly wilis? For its part, the classic The Sleeping Beauty has a multitude of roles that audiences shouldn’t sleep on. Letting one’s eyes wash over the many corps roles adds depth to the experience and nuance to the familiar tale of the cursed princess Aurora and her prince. On Oct. 24-26, at the Benedum Center, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre opens its 45th season with its lush production of Sleeping Beauty. PBT’s corps de ballet has five new members; one of them, Marisa Grywalski, is getting her first real taste of life in the corps and the rigors of dancing in more than a half dozen roles, including the Fairy of Beauty (in the Oct. 25 matinee). That character’s solo is “quick and you need to show picture-like moments in it,” says Grywalski, 23. (The others new corps members are Michaela King, Masahiro Haneji, Jake Unger and Lucius Kirst.) Entering her eighth season in the corps, by contrast, Danielle Downey is accustomed to dancing multiple roles. Her experience has earned her ever more visible roles, including the White Cat in a playful third-act pas de deux she will dance alongside partner Cooper Verona, as Puss ’N Boots (in the Oct. 24 performance and Sunday’s matinee). “We have a feisty relationship,” says Downey, 27, an Erie native. Set to music by Tchaikovsky, performed live by the PBT orchestra, and with choreography after Marius Petipa, The Sleeping Beauty is staged and directed by PBT artistic director Terrence S. Orr. The two-hour production features regal costumes and sets originally created for the Royal Ballet of London. These include a jeweled snake-and-spider costume worn by the evil fairy Carabosse (a.k.a. Maleficent in the Disney tellings) and her ghoulish carriage that will careen onstage in a swirl of fog and thunder. INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM
PITTSBURGH BALLET THEATRE performs THE SLEEPING BEAUTY 8 p.m. Fri., Oct. 24; 2 and 8 p.m. Sat., Oct. 25, and 2 p.m. Sun., Oct. 26. Benedum Center, 719 Liberty Ave., Downtown. $27-112. 412-456-6666 or www.pbt.org
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Gabrielle Thurlow and Nurlan Abougaliev in The Sleeping Beauty, at Pittsburgh Ballet {PHOTO COURTESY OF DUANE RIEDER}
{BY STEVE SUCATO}
[ART REVIEW]
RECORD TIME {BY DAVID BERGER}
T
HE PITTSBURGH Biennial at SPACE
is a multimedia presentation by artists whose intelligent concepts add to each other’s power and resonance. Today’s art delves deep into socio-political relations, both those that bind us and those that separate us. In Public Record, nine local artists offer works that go “on record” to explore issues of identity and yet expose a world flooded by information — one that fails to protect privacy, support the poor and disenfranchised, or save innocents caught in intractable conflicts. As one approaches the gallery from the street, speakers outside broadcast President Eisenhower’s iconic farewell speech of 1961. One is struck by the idealism of the speech, which talks of trust and love and world cooperation, but also warns of the burgeoning military-industrial complex, the demise of creative thinking in universities and the waste of material resources. Inside, in an installation by Aljosa Abrahamsberg, Matthew Biederman, Marko Peljhan and Brian
PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 10.22/10.29.2014
Facing up: video projection by Rafael Abreu-Canedo in Public Record
Springer, one side of a wall is hung with facsimiles of the speech’s 26 pages, with Eisenhower’s actual televised speech projected on the other side. Caroline Record’s “She” depicts a woman in business attire singing and typing on video. But she’s typing the 614 sentences of Anna Karenina that begin with the word “she.” The sentences are projected on a large screen while a printer
PUBLIC RECORD continues through Nov. 9. SPACE, 812 Liberty Ave., and 707 Penn Gallery, 707 Penn Ave., Downtown. 412-325-7723 www.spacepittsburgh.org
spits slips of paper bearing the words onto the floor. There is something here about digital and analog languages, but it also comments on the absurdity of our lives, the rat race and the redundancy of our work, all separated from real meaning. In “Taking Stock,” Two Girls Working presents short video portraits of 10
males who are asked: “What do you do that makes you feel valuable?” We learn how important family and community are, that helping others in need is valuable, and about the subtle racism that persists in America. The artists want to explore the meaning of value from a male perspective. These interviewees share the same hopes and dreams and want to do the right thing. In “Aspirations,” by Martha Rial, photos and a video offer “snapshots” of six people with Asperger’s syndrome. These people may have trouble showing empathy or intuiting emotions, but they still enjoy socializing. We see how they struggle to be accepted into the social fabric. Being different is a positive thing. As interviewee Elana says: “If everyone was the same, the world would be boring.” A work by Rafael Abreu-Canedo masterfully uses technology to allow us to instantaneously identify with the emotions of others. On a pair of 8-by-8foot screens are projected faces in slow motion as the subjects are tickled on the