Finely Woven

As Nashville Ballet embarks on its 20th anniversary season, the company has much to celebrate. Staying afloat financially is a feather in any arts organization’s cap, but with a marvelous rehearsal and administrative facility in Sylvan Park, a satellite teaching space in Brentwood, four major performances per year at TPAC, and a forthcoming U.S. State Department-sponsored South American junket in the offing, the ballet appears to have quietly gone about securing itself a special niche on the American dance scene. The group’s 2005-6 season opener, “Tennessee Tapestry,” is, according to artistic director Paul Vasterling, “a typical good example of the kind of work we do. It’s eclectic, and there’s a thematic flow to the evening.” The program is an ambitious, three-stage amalgam of dance styles and music that draw, in part, on the company’s Southern milieu. The evening begins with “Square Dance,” a ballet featuring the spontaneous, frenetic choreography of George Balanchine, who found a way to express his paradoxical American passions—New York City and the Wild West—through the lively music of baroque classicists Antonio Vivaldi and Arcangelo Corelli. Nashville Public Library arts programmer Brian Hull will be on hand to “call” the square dance. Next on the bill is Vasterling’s own interpretation of Tennessee Williams’ short story “The Night of the Iguana,” a dark, brooding piece featuring the music of Vanderbilt composer Michael Alec Rose. One of the ballet’s veteran leading ladies, Jennifer McNamara, will dance the pivotal role of Hannah Jelkes. The evening’s showcase piece is a brand-new work, Postcards From the Boys, featuring the choreography of guest artist Sarah Slipper. Hailing from Portland, Ore., Slipper has been charged with creating original dances based on six songs written by Nashville singer-songwriters Guy Clark and Darrell Scott, both of whom will be performing live. “Linking our work to the songwriting community is something we do all the time,” Vasterling says. “Sarah’s vision is amazingly broad, but also unexpected. Not only does she get at the essence of each writer’s persona, but she’s able to find facets in our young dancers that maybe I don’t know about. That’s why it’s important to have guest artists work with the company.” Among the songs are Clark’s ”Homeless” and “She Ain’t Going Nowhere” and Scott’s “I Wanna Be Free” and “Shattered Cross.” Postcards is visually enhanced by video projections, and arranger Conni Ellisor has composed segues to unite the individual tunes. The Nashville Symphony accompanies the dancers throughout the evening. The remainder of the upcoming season includes the traditional holiday performance of Nutcracker; a highly anticipated mounting of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Firebird featuring the savage choreography of the late Salvatore Aiello; and Vasterling’s own original interpretations of The Velveteen Rabbit (with music by Don Hart) and Handel’s Messiah, the latter produced in conjunction with the Nashville Opera Chorus. Shortly after “Tennessee Tapestry” rings down, the ballet’s main company departs for a three-week tour of Argentina and Uruguay, where it will perform a newly packaged repertoire of “greatest hits,” including the piece Sweet Country, with a score featuring Nashville composers. Future touring dates will take Vasterling and his troupe to the Philippines and Belgium. “We’d like to be touring internationally every year,” says Vasterling, whose own 2004 Fulbright teaching fellowship in South America played a key role in expanding his company’s travel opportunities. “We’re developing a unique identity in the touring world because of our link to country music. It’s the idea that we are a Nashville dance troupe that brings distinctly ‘American’ music to our performances. Plus, we’ve always done our fair share of original work, so that makes us a little bit different as well.”