It can take many months to stage a ballet performance that only lasts a few glorious hours.
The effort takes guts and a lot of collaboration, along with daring and a passionate sense of duty.
There are countless considerations involved … ready?
To name a few: costs, costumes, casting, choreographic choices, music selection and rights, lighting and venue possibilities and then, that scary toss of the dice.
Will the audience love it?
As part of its Destination Innovation season, City Ballet of San Diego will present “Rhapsody in Blue” at two venues this month, one of its most ambitious concerts yet.
There are three dance professionals involved in staging the triple bill show.
Two répétiteurs traveled to San Diego to teach licensed works by Tony Award-winning choreographer Christopher Wheeldon and internationally renowned dancemaker Annabelle Lopez Ochoa.
And City Ballet’s resident choreographer Geoff Gonzalez is reworking “Rhapsody in Blue,” a contemporary ballet first introduced as a dance film during the pandemic and then, performed in 2022 on stage.
It’s accompanied by the iconic George Gershwin orchestral jazz score of the same name.
City Ballet rightfully guessed that the familiar music that Gershwin described in his biography as a “musical kaleidoscope of America” would be advantageous in introducing a contemporary ballet, which can be a hard sell when it comes to devoted balletomanes.
The audience response was enthusiastically positive, and for Gonzalez, creating a movement language to Gershwin’s masterpiece was fun to film, due to the visual control that editing provides.
But creating a “kaleidoscope” of steps for stage in 2022 was not.
“I thought, ‘This is scrambled eggs,’” Gonzalez recalled.
“There were so many sounds and themes. I tried to put a move or a dynamic to every note. But now, I’m taking a step back.”
A recent trip to New York inspired the revised version of “Rhapsody in Blue.”
Gonzalez got a snow globe view from the 32nd floor of his midtown Manhattan hotel and winter’s blue-tinted skyline refreshed his perspective on pacing.
It was beautiful, cool, clear and sharp.
“Over the past month, I’ve been preparing my mind and my emotions to take what I really need from what I was creating before and really spruce it up,” he said.
“There’s no sadness in the piece, it’s all romanticism.”
Costumes will be different too, this time, inspired by the pinstripes on the New York Yankees baseball uniforms.
“I have this concept,” Gonzalez said.
“I want a deep midnight blue leotard with diamond-like pinstripes. I’d love to see what we can do with that. I want to make it so that when you hear the music and see the dance, it takes you to that New York atmosphere.”
A scene from City Ballet of San Diego’s presentation of choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s “Ecliptic,” which will return for the company’s March dance concerts. (Anna Scipione)
Another returning work is “Ecliptic,” a jaw-dropping ballet by Ochoa.
The dancers perform with large gold hoops that reflect themes of harmony and continuity, and when the company premiered it in 2024, the fluid and physically demanding ballet brought the audience to its feet.
Julia Erickson, a dance professor and a former principal dancer for the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre is a répétiteur for Ochoa’s works.
It took three weeks of daily rehearsals to teach “Ecliptic” to the company dancers.
In order to conceptualize and space a dance that can be likened to an agility course, the stage is perceived as being divided into eight sections.
Lighting with a range of color schemes is another voice that helps to create different worlds in a progression throughout the dance.
Erickson said she typically familiarizes herself with the work by first dancing with a hoop in her hotel room, noting that Ochoa’s choreography is dense, detailed and “she doesn’t shy away from fast movement.”
“Every stager has a shorthand,” she explained.
“There’s an accuracy that you need to uphold and to honor the choreographer’s intentions. The hoops are like another person. You do one step at a time — there are patterns and sometimes it’s just learning the foot work and then learning the port de bras (carriage of the arms) with the hoops.”
City Ballet of San Diego dancers Brian Heil and Ariana Gonzalez rehearse Christopher Wheeldon’s “The American,” making its San Diego premiere in the “Rhapsody in Blue” concerts March 7, 8 and 11. (Chelsea Penyak)
The “Rhapsody in Blue” production also includes the premiere of Christopher Wheeldon’s “The American,” one of Wheeldon’s first ballets staged by répétiteur Michele Gifford.
“I bring notes and I try to assimilate it in my body, as well,” said Gifford, a former New York City Ballet dancer and a répétiteur for both Wheeldon and the George Balanchine Trust.
“One of the things I love about this ballet is that it’s like the champagne that cleanses your palate. It’s easy on the eyes, easy to digest. It’s sparkly. It’s buttercream icing. I use a lot of whimsical words like that to get across to the dancers what needs to come forward. They are in light yellow costumes and it’s bright and cheery.”
Wheeldon’s romantic, neoclassical ballet lasts about 30 minutes and includes six couples accompanied by an Antonín Dvořák’s score.
Casting “The American” requires an assessment of partnering skills and collaborating with Natalie Test, City Ballet’s rehearsal director. If a principal dancer has extended time in one section of the program, he or she may be too overworked for another part of the show.
“I’ll have several couples in the room and if it’s a struggle, it’s not worth it,” said Gifford, who also staged Wheeldon’s “Morphoses” in 2024 for the company.
“I’ve actually switched people around. The beauty about coming back to City Ballet of San Diego is that I’ve worked with them before. I know their capabilities, so that’s a huge relief.”
City Ballet of San Diego presents ‘Rhapsody in Blue’
When: 8 p.m. Saturday, March 7; 2 p.m. next Sunday, March 8
Where: Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., San Diego.
When: 8 p.m. March 11
Where: California Center for the Arts, Escondido, 340 North Escondido Blvd., Escondido.
Tickets: $39-$118.80
Online: cityballet.org
A free lecture by City Ballet’s artistic director Steven Wistrich starts 45 minutes prior to each performance.