Ballet Idaho is kicking off its 54th season with Westward, a program that stitches together Vivaldi and Corelli, Johnny Cash, and Aaron Copland into a single evening of contemporary dance. The company describes the show as featuring three works by four choreographers, spanning centuries of music and vastly different movement styles. From Boise, the production is headed to Sun Valley for weekend performances.
According to Ballet Idaho, Westward opens the company's 54th season, pairing classical repertoire with newer works built around American music and themes. One of the centerpiece pieces is James Kudelka's The Man in Black, which the company says channels, in its own words, “the unmistakable grit, poetry, and soul of Johnny Cash” and is set to Johnny Cash recordings. Ballet Idaho has issued a specific advisory for that piece, noting it contains movement that depicts self-harm and physical violence.
A Hemingway House Connection Shapes Undertow
The program also includes Undertow, a work by choreographer Dana Genshaft that has roots in Idaho soil well beyond the stage. Genshaft began creating the piece during an artist residency at Ernest Hemingway's former home in Ketchum, and Ballet Idaho says Undertow was created in partnership with The Community Library's Hemingway House residency there. It's a detail that ties the season opener directly to the region the tour is about to visit.
Rounding out the evening is Appalachian Spring, choreographed by Garrett Anderson and Anne Mueller and set to Aaron Copland's score. Per Ballet Idaho, the piece celebrates new beginnings, a theme that fits neatly with a season-opening production built on pairing old and new work. The lineup is completed by George Balanchine's Square Dance, set to music by Vivaldi and Corelli, bringing a classical counterpoint to the program's folk and Americana threads.
Westward Travels to Ketchum This Weekend
After its Boise run, Westward moves to Tierney Theater at the Argyros, located at 120 S. Main St. in Ketchum, for performances at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15, according to the show's listing from KBOI. The Sun Valley program includes a slightly different lineup from the Boise performances, per that same report, though the specifics of how the two programs differ were not detailed.
Ballet Idaho has credited audiences, sponsors and donors for supporting its work and helping welcome new audiences to dance, a nod to the kind of community backing that keeps a regional ballet company able to mount an ambitious, genre-spanning season opener like Westward. For Sun Valley audiences, the Ketchum shows offer a chance to catch a production that already has deep local ties, given Undertow's origins just down the road at the Hemingway House.
