FEAST: A Ballet Premieres Online November 27

FEAST: a ballet merges visual art, dance, and film to explore the disturbing history of human consumption in an ornate, layered performance. It will premiere online on November 27, 2020, at 7:00 p.m. and will be available for streaming for 48 hours.

A true mixed-media collaboration, this new 32-minute ballet seamlessly integrates art and dance to present a story of colonial exploitation and human desire. On a lavish set composed of over 500 sculptural and store-bought objects created by visual artist Corrie Slawson, choreographers Christina Lindhout and Kelly Korfhage immerse dancers into the artwork to convey the complex narratives of six commodities: Sugar, Bananas, Coffee, Timber, Oil & Minerals, and Beef. In five distinct movements, FEAST deconstructs the world of hidden supply chains and the pleasure and pain it produces.

FEAST was produced by the Creative Destruction Collective which includes Northeast Ohio artists, dancers, writers, and academics who worked across disciplines to develop the narrative and concept for the project. The Collective consists of: visual artist Corrie Slawson, dancers and choreographers Christina Lindhout and Kelly Korfhage, law professor Dr. Dalindyebo Shabalala, and sustainability journalist Marc Lefkowitz.

Slawson is a contemporary artist whose work merges layers of printmaking, drawing and painting. Her work has been exhibited in the U.S. and internationally, including at MOCA Cleveland, The Toledo Museum of Art, Akron Art Museum, Centro Cultural Tijuana, SPACES, the Massillon Museum, and Zygote Press. The theme of FEAST derives from Slawson's "Let Them Eat Steak" an installation of over 365 hand-cast plaster steaks, some gilded, some marbled and a dozen trompe l'oeil painted in oil that appeared in the exhibit "Artifice and Persuasion" at American Greetings Gallery in 2018. Slawson also designed and printed all of the costumes and set pieces used in the ballet.

Both professional dancers, Lindhout and Korfhage choreographed, produced, and directed the ballet which was recorded at Verb Ballets' studios in September 2020. Lindhout performed with Verb Ballets from 2014 to 2020 including several international tours. In addition to performing and choreographing, Lindhout directs the school at Verb Ballets Center for Dance, and is an Adjunct Dance Faculty member at Baldwin Wallace University. Kelly Korfhage has danced with Verb Ballets since 2016 and also teaches regionally. She is also a Russian Pointe Brand Ambassador. Lindhout and Korfhage were the recipients of an Akron Soul Train Fellowship award in support of the choreography for FEAST.

The project was also funded in part by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts through SPACES Satellite Fund. While originally set as live performance art, FEAST has been reinvented due to COVID-19 as a dance/art film. The film of FEAST: a ballet is produced by Wasted Talent Media. FEAST features locally recorded music -- selections from Dmitri Shostakovich's Cello Sonata, Piano Trio and String Quartets -- performed by Cleveland Institute of Music students and recent graduates.

The narrative for FEAST is a group effort with special expertise provided by Dr. Dalindyebo Shabalala, University of Dayton Associate Professor of Law and UN Presenter on Climate Change and Human Rights, as well as Marc Lefkowitz, who served as Director of the GreenCityBlueLake Institute at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

Tickets go on sale October 30, 2020 at www.feastballet.com.

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