Dancers Sierra Kerschner, left, and Bess Chambliss pose in front of several flags that will be on stage during the International Association’s ballet production, “”With Dances Around The World”” on Friday.
Since the advent of ballet in 15th-century Italian Renaissance courts, the performance dance form that became part of the norm of French and Russian cultures has since become extremely precise and highly technical and has even generated its own vocabulary.
This Friday, College of Coastal Georgia students and residents will get a chance to be immersed in ballet’s language when the International Association of the college hosts the free ballet production, “With Dances Around The World” at 5 p.m. Friday in the college’s Southeast Georgia Conference Center.
From the Princess Aurora (French) to the Flower Festival in Genzano (Danish), the Southeast Georgia Conference Center at College of Coastal Georgia will transform into a literal world stage where classical, romantic music and ballet dances will conjoin with modern era music and concepts.
As a nod to Coastal’s Fourth Annual International Cultural and Food Festival, it’s event entitled “One World, Many Faces” couldn’t have been a more perfect theme for the “With Dances Around The World” ballet production, said Albina Williamson, director, producer, organizer and videographer of the production.
Along with producer and choreographer Val Salnikov, who was a dancer in the Kirov Ballet in Russia and is now in his third season as a dance instructor at Jill Stanford Dance Center, Williamson says the program will be something that adds to the educational nourishment of students and residents that attend the ballet recital.
“(Val and I) strongly believe that this free ballet production will be an educational benefit to the students and to the audience. Not many people can afford to go to a ballet production because they are quite expensive, and this is great for younger generations of kids who are familiar with modern styles of dance to see them combined with historical styles of ballet and dances,” Williamson said, who is also a member and treasurer of the International Association.
And the dance styles aren’t limited to ballet.
“We adapted this program to an international concept that includes romantic, traditional dances but also unique dances that are not of traditional ballet style. There will be violins played, and we will have special guests who will perform ballroom dance style, including the tango, samba, rumba and cha-cha. So it won’t just be ballet,” Williamson said.
With this being the International Association’s first ballet production, Williamson saw this as an opportunity to make this international affair one that not only complemented each country represented, but also brought a “peacemaking concept” to show unity.
“I wanted the concept behind this to be about peacemaking. There will be several flags involved in the show to represent each country (highlighted) and we want to make a statement of peace,” she said.
In addition to the ballets Princess Aurora and the Flower Festival in Genzano, there will be performances from Walpurgis Night (German), Fire Bird (Russian), Flower Wendors (Spanish), Venetian (Italian), 7th Waltz (Polish) and more.
With 20 dancers performing to different international backdrops (or video clippings), the event, Williamson said, will be an opportunity to see different cultures set to art.
“This is designed not only for entertainment purposes but as a way to benefit the performing arts in public education,” Williamson said.
The Fourth Annual International Festival “One World, Many Faces,” a collaboration between t
The Brunswick News
BRITTANY TATE