IN MOTION Will Open Ballet Rhode Island's 49th Season

Ballet Rhode Island (Ballet RI) will open its 49th season with 'In Motion,' a mixed repertory evening featuring the return of Ballet RI Artistic Curator and Resident Choreographer Yury Yanowsky's 'Bathers,' the company premiere of 'City of Women' by American Ballet Theatre principal dancer James Whiteside, and 'Nachtigal,' a world premiere based on the true Holocaust survivor story of Anka Nachtigal, mother of Rhode Island resident Lilliane Birch.

Performances of 'In Motion' run October 23-25 at Woodman Family Community & Performance Center, and November 6 at United Theatre in Westerly, RI where Ballet RI is the first resident dance company. 

"In Motion represents so much of what I want Ballet Rhode Island to be: artistically ambitious, deeply connected to our community, and unafraid to tell stories that matter,' Artistic Executive Director Kathleen Breen Combes said. 'We are opening the season with three works that are very different in their movement and inspiration, but each explores how art carries something forward, an image, knowledge passed from one generation to another, or a history that must not be forgotten. It feels like a powerful way to begin Season 49 and to continue defining what ballet can be today."

An audience favorite created for last season's 'Off the Wall' program, the luminous world of American Impressionism is brought to life in Yanowsky's 'Bathers,' where fleeting moments are suspended in movement like brushstrokes on canvas. The ballet was inspired by the painting 'Perkins Cove' by American impressionist painter Charles H. Woodbury, and originally created in collaboration with the Westerly Museum of American Impressionism.

"'Bathers' began with the idea of translating the atmosphere of a painting into movement, capturing its light, texture, and sense of a moment suspended in time,' Yanowsky said. 'Bringing the work back gives us the opportunity to return to that world and allow it to continue evolving with the dancers.'

The evening will then continue with the company premiere of 'City of Women' by Whiteside, a bold and neoclassical exploration of femininity, identity, and power. The ballet premiered during ABT's summer season and was later performed at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park in Tivoli, NY, in 2021. Whiteside describes it as being about the passing of knowledge down through generations, from ballerina to ballerina.

"'City of Women' was originally created to celebrate three generations of ballerinas; Gillian Murphy, Isabella Boylston, and Catherine Hurlin, of American Ballet Theatre,' Whiteside said. 'It represents the information and power that dancers pass on to one another over time, heart to heart."

Rounding out the program is 'Nachtigal,' German for 'nightingale' and the last name of Anka Nachtigal, Birch's mother. Created in collaboration with the Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center, this moving new work asks what it means to remember, and how the body can carry history forward across generations.

"Being in the studio with the dancers, I'm exploring ideas of memory, resilience, and the ways experiences can echo across generations,' Yanowsky said. 'The work is revealing itself through the dancers and through movement, sometimes in ways I didn't anticipate. There is a weight to the material, but also a profound sense of humanity and hope. Each rehearsal brings us closer to finding the emotional language of the piece and allowing the movement to carry what words cannot."