[NEohioPAL] PRESS RELEASE: Verb Ballets @ FusionFest April 25 - 26, 2008

[Dan Kilbane]

For Immediate Release

Contacts:
At Verb Ballets: 			For Media:  
Margaret Carlson 				Dan Kilbane
216.397.3757, ext. 3			216.513.3654
mcarlson at verbballets.org			kilbanedan at yahoo.com
www.verbballets.org
       
To Feel (v)
Verb Ballets Returns to FusionFest at Cleveland Play
House
April 25 – 26, 2008

March 14, 2008 -- Cleveland, OH -- Verb Ballets,
Cleveland’s National Repertory Dance Company, returns
to the Cleveland Play House’s FusionFest for a two
night stand with an eclectic evening of works on
Friday, April 25, 2008, and Saturday, April 26, 2008,
at 7:30 p.m.  The Board of Trustees, Artistic Director
Hernando Cortez and Executive Director Dr. Margaret
Carlson are pleased to announce one world premiere,
the return of a modern dance classic, and the return
of a poignant soul stirrer, for this run, the third
time in as many years that Verb has been part of
FusionFest.  Dance Magazine, in 2004, named Verb one
of “25 to Watch,” and in February bestowed more kudos
on the company by naming Verb one of 5 “Great Tiny
Troupes” in America.  Reserved seats are $20 and $25
and are available by calling 216.795.7000 or through
www.clevelandplayhouse.com.   

The repertory for these performances includes the
following:

The Yellow River.  World Premiere.  Choreographed by
Hernando Cortez.  Cortez's newest ballet salutes
Amer-Asian heritage.  China's Yellow River has long
been an inspiration for poets, musicians and other
artists; a poem about leading troops across it during
the Sino-Japanese War inspired the composer Xian
Xinghai to write his "Yellow River Cantata" in 1939. 
Some 30 years later, Yin Chengzong adapted it as a
piano concerto. Cortez creates TheYellow River after
the original choreography by Chen Zemei, which has
become a Chinese standard.

Appalachian Spring (1944)  Major Revival. 
Choreographed by modern dance master Martha Graham
(1894-1991), Appalachian Spring will be performed for
the first time by Verb since 2005. Graham regisseur
Diane Gray restages the ballet.  Set to an original
composition by Aaron Copland, Appalachian Spring was
first performed October 30, 1944, by the Martha Graham
Dance Company at the Library of Congress in
Washington, DC. (After the success of Billy The Kid
and Rodeo, Copland was asked by Graham to compose a
ballet for her.  Copland called the work simply Ballet
for Martha, while Graham suggested the title,
Appalachian Spring, from a phrase she had found in a
poem by Cleveland native Hart Crane.) 

The ballet is set in the Pennsylvanian hills early in
the nineteenth century. The scenario is the marriage
and survival of a young couple.  As the first light of
day rises over the Appalachian Mountains, a young
bride-to-be and her groom appear, both joyful and
apprehensive of their new life.  An older neighbor is
the voice of experience, while a revivalist and his
followers remind the new householders of the strange
and terrible aspects of human life.  At the end, the
couple resides quietly and reassured in their new
house.  (Copland's three major ballet scores often
employ folk melodies, but the only one used in this
composition is the Shaker hymn Simple Gifts, which
serves as the basis of a series of variations near the
end of the ballet.)  The strikingly beautiful set is
by award-winning Appalachian designer Suzy Campbell.

Although Graham and Copland originally did not expect
it to become hugely popular, Appalachian Spring has
become an American classic. It won the Pulitzer Prize
for Music in 1945. 

Verb’s original creation of this work was made
possible by The Cleveland Foundation.  

Two Hours That Shook the World.  (2002)  Repertory
Highlight.  Choreographed by Hernando Cortez, this
contemporary piece is a haunting reflection on 9/11. A
jagged installation of light, shadows, and metal, by
visual artist Edward Hillel, surrounds the dancers. 
Two Hours spotlights fleeing victims and stoic
survivors in Hillel’s sculptural landscape. The dance
does not aim at simulation and identification, but at
distance and
reflection. (Created October, 2001, and funded by the
Northeastern Educational Intermediate Unit 19,
and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.) 

States Executive Director Dr. Margaret Carlson,
“Besides being a program filled with great repertory,
there is an underlying theme to the evening that
speaks to the greatness and capacity of the human
spirit.  More specifically, it is also a statement
about the individuals who have made America what it is
today.  From the pioneers who paved the way through
the uncharted lands, to our loss of life and innocence
in the 9/11 tragedy, to the immigrants, (in this case
the Chinese immigrants), who built our infrastructure
with their bare hands and large hearts, we feel the
strength and courage that has shaped our lives.” 

The company includes Danielle Brickman, Ashley Cohen,
Erin Conway, Katie Gnagy, Sydney Ignacio, Catherine
Meredith, Brian Murphy, Anna Roberts, and Robert
Wesner.  Lighting designer Trad A Burns once again
joins Verb.

The Cleveland Play House is located at 8500 Euclid
Ave., Cleveland, Ohio, 44106.  Reserved seats are $20
and $25 and are available by calling 216.795.7000 or
through www.clevelandplayhouse.com.
For the third consecutive year, The Cleveland Play
House presents FusionFest, the only multidisciplinary
performing arts festival at a regional theatre in the
country, from April 23-May 11, 2008.  The festival
will offer a sampling of new and innovative works that
have never before been seen in Cleveland, including
performances by Judy Gold, Kim Wayans, former NFL star
Bo Eason, and a historic collaboration with the Humana
Festival of New American Plays.
“This year’s FusionFest includes a glittery mix of
local artistry and the most high profile national
talents we’ve had yet,” says Michael Bloom, FusionFest
creator and Cleveland Play House Artistic Director.
“We are also so thrilled to have Roe Green again as
the Honorary Producer. There is no one in the
community who has been as farsighted about new works
as she has been.”

Anchored by All Hail Hurricane Gordo, the
collaboration between The Play House and Humana
Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of
Louisville, the lineup that Bloom and CPH Associate
Artistic Director, Seth Gordon, have created for this
year’s FusionFest features several nationally-known
talents. The hilarious Emmy Award-winner and author
Judy Gold will perform her witty monologue 25
Questions for a Jewish Mother; Bo Eason, former NFL
defensive safety for the Houston Oilers will perform
Runt of the Litter, his successful Off-Broadway solo
show; and comedian, actor, writer and director Kim
Wayans will perform her one-woman play A Handsome
Woman Retreats.

Other events include CPH’s first partnership with
Cleveland Public Theatre for the production of In the
Continuum; Akron’s New World Performance Laboratory
will perform an alternative Frankenstein (A
De-Monstration); Cuyahoga Community College will
present the Best of the Hip-Hop Choirs; arts educator
and broadcaster Bill Rudman will hold court in Stages
Restaurant for an evening of musical theatre; and
along with Verb Ballets, works of Dobama Theatre,
Cleveland School of the Arts, the Jewish Community
Center, Karamu and many more will also be featured in
FusionFest 2008.

Major sponsors of Verb Ballets include AHS Foundation;
Akron Community Foundation; The Bascom Little Fund;
Millie L. Carlson; Cuyahoga Arts and Culture; RSIS: a
NASA Glenn Contractor; The Cleveland Foundation; The
George Gund Foundation; Kulas Foundation; The Laub
Foundation; Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation; The
McGregor Foundation; John P. Murphy Foundation; The
National Endowment for the Arts; The Ohio Arts
Council; and Playhouse Square.  Additional individual
sponsors include Charles and Sandy Abookire, Chuck and
Ann Ennis, and Norma and Jeffrey Glazer. 

DANSKIN is the official 2007-2008 sponsor of Verb
Ballets.  Additional Verb sponsors include Baumgarten
& Company, LLP; Cedar Hill Communications; Mann
Jewelers; PrimeZone Media; Shima Limo; WCLV; and WCPN.

Verb Ballets is now in its sixth season under the
leadership of Artistic Director Hernando Cortez,
Executive Director Dr. Margaret Carlson, an energetic
staff and its dedicated Board of Trustees, who have
established Verb as Cleveland’s premiere dance
repertory company. Verb Ballets was named one of “25
to Watch in 2004” by Dance Magazine, the country’s
leading news magazine covering dance, and recently the
magazine bestowed more kudos on the company by naming
Verb one of 5 “Great Tiny Troupes” in America.. Verb
Ballets discovers, collects, interprets and stages
choreography that matters to the region and to the
world of dance.  As a curator of expressive movement
that is globally connected and nationally respected,
Verb Ballets has a mandate to support and foster
emerging talent, present excellence in contemporary
choreographers and revive and honor modern dance
classics. 

Founded in 1915, The Cleveland Play House is America's
first permanently established professional theatre
company.  Designed by Philip Johnson, The Cleveland
Play House complex consists of three interconnected
buildings totaling 300,000 square feet of space on a
12.5-acre campus. It is the largest regional theatre
complex under one roof in the country.  The mission of
Cleveland Play House is to produce plays of the
highest professional standards that inspire,
stimulate, and entertain diverse audiences, and to
conduct training and educational programs that enhance
the quality of life for those CPH serves and help to
insure the future of theatre.






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