Colorado Ballet Hosts ATTITUDE ON SANTE FE Tonight

Colorado Ballet will host the second Attitude on Santa Fe at 6 p.m. tonight, February 6, 2016, in the Black Box Theater at the Armstrong Center for Dance, 1075 Santa Fe Drive, Denver, CO. The performance will include three ballets choreographed by two Colorado Ballet dancers and one Colorado Ballet Academy teacher, performed by Colorado Ballet Company and Studio Company dancers. The event will also include a three course meal and wine prior to the performance.

Principal dancer Domenico Luciano's new work, Attraversiamo will feature two pieces of music, "Adagio for Strings" by Samuel Barber and "Pavane for Dead Princess" by Maurice Ravel. According to Luciano, while creating the new ballet, he selected specific dancers because he wanted their artistic input. He had a basic idea in the beginning of his choreographic process and wanted the dancers to naturally contribute to the message he was trying to express in the work. He said that he paired every couple together for a specific reason because he knows the dancers so well and he knew how they would interact with each other, which was a big part of each piece. The theme of his ballet is a brief look on the dynamics between people; not all of it is smooth, much like relationships during a person's life.

Principal dancer Yosvani Ramos choreographed Divertimento Pour Six for English National Ballet's Choreographic Workshop in 2002 and for the first time, Colorado Ballet's dancers will perform the ballet during Attitude on Santa Fe. The music includes excerpts from "Faust" by Charles Gounod and the costumes are by Suzi Skelton. Divertimento Pour Six is one of seven ballets that Ramos choreographed during the nine years he spent as a dancer at English National Ballet. Ramos said that he is excited to be redoing the ballet for Colorado Ballet's dancers. The ballet has no theme, but according to Ramos, it is fun, classical work that showcases the dancers performing in it.

Academy instructor and Colombian artist Carolina Pahde-Mallarino has spent the past 15 years of her professional life exploring the idea of "the influence of cultural identity in the creation of art." Her new balletwith(in)me is set to "Ode to Joy" from the fourth movement of Beethoven's "9th Symphony." Inspired by the text of F. Schiller's poem from which the words of the symphony are taken, Pahde-Mallarino expanded her idea of cultural identity to that of identity as a whole. By working with the dancers on questions such as: "Who are you? What makes you who you are? and how are you different from everyone else?" she takes the dancers on a journey to discover their own humanity. She starts the ballet by showing the most outer layer of the performers being, then, little by little, through the use of various dance techniques including classical ballet, contemporary and modern, she introduces new movement ideas. Through these techniques, she reveals other layers beneath the surface until, finally, at the end of the ballet, all that is left is what she calls "original movement," or movement extracted from the things that make each of these individuals uniquely human.

Doors open at 6 p.m., dinner begins at 6:30 p.m. and the performance starts at 7:30 p.m. The cost including the dinner, wine and performance is $75 and seating is limited. Performance-only tickets are also available for $25. To register, visit www.coloradoballet.org/events.

Colorado Ballet hosted another Attitude on Santa Fe event with different works by Colorado Ballet's dancers in September 2015. The event was sold out.

About Colorado Ballet

Established in 1961 by Lillian Covillo and Freidann Parker, Colorado Ballet is a non-profit organization celebrating 55 years of presenting world-class classical ballet and superior dance in Denver. Under the direction of Artistic Director Gil Boggs, Colorado Ballet enhances the cultural life of Colorado through performances of the professional company, training at the Academy, and Education & Community Engagement programs. Visit www.coloradoballet.org.