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Poignant Finale for Richmond Ballet’s Homegrown Ballerina
4/9/2008
RICHMOND BALLET
MEDIA RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 9, 2008
Media Contact:
Aaron Sutten
Director of Marketing and
Communications
Richmond Ballet
(804) 344-0906
x244
asutten@richmondballet.com
Poignant Finale for Richmond Ballet’s Homegrown Ballerina
RICHMOND
— When the curtain rises on Anne Sidney Davenport as the principal dancer in
George Balanchine’s Mozartiana for Richmond Ballet’s upcoming Studio 3, she
will share the stage with four young students from the School of Richmond Ballet
in her farewell performance. Davenport, born and raised in Richmond, said she considers it a fitting
end.
“I think
it will be poignant moment because the piece opens with four small girls around
me, and, being a product of the School
of Richmond Ballet, having children in
the production reflects the journey that I’ve had here,” Davenport said
After eight seasons of dancing with
the professional company as well as three years in the school as a trainee and
apprentice, Davenport
will assume the role Balanchine created on his muse, Suzanne Farrell, shortly
before his death in 1983. Often considered Balanchine’s final masterpiece, Mozartiana
opens with a prayer and ends with a celebration.
Jerri
Kumery, ballet master for Richmond Ballet, danced as one of four Menuet ladies
when this version of the choreographer’s ballet, set to Peter
Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s homage to Mozart, premiered at the 1981 Tchaikovsky
Festival in New York City. Davenport
said she was honored to work with Kumery, who staged the piece for the company
as a repetiteur with The George Balanchine Trust.
“It’s
been a real privilege to learn it from Jerri because she was one of the
original cast members and it was created on her by Balanchine,” Davenport said. “She was
there when the principals were learning their parts; she was in the cast with
Suzanne Farrell.”
Davenport will also
appear in Voyages, a world premiere by Mauricio Wainrot and the new work
commissioned by Richmond Ballet for its final Studio performance this
season. She said Wainrot’s piece offers
a completely different mood and quality of movement when paired with the
Balanchine ballet.
“I
love working with Mauricio,” she said.
“Actually, my first experience dancing in a new work with Richmond
Ballet was in his Now and Then when I was an apprentice, so, again, I
feel like I’ve come full circle with my last new work also choreographed by
him. He is really charming and has a way of motivating dancers to push their
natural limits.”
Not
only did Davenport grow up in the School of Richmond Ballet, she was a member of its
inaugural class of trainees her junior year of high school. She chose to attend Butler University
after graduation, but a dancing career was never far from her thoughts – she earned
her degree in dance pedagogy in three years, ready to find work as a
professional dancer.
Richmond
Ballet Artistic Director Stoner Winslett offered her a position as an
apprentice in 1998, and the next year she joined the company. Winslett recognized Davenport’s potential immediately.
“Anne
Sidney is the quintessential Richmond Ballet dancer,” Winslett said. “She is beauty and grace coupled with both guts
and whimsy.”
After
a brief hiatus, during which she danced with Dayton Ballet, Davenport returned to portray many of
Richmond Ballet’s most memorable leading roles.
“I’ve
always loved the full-length ballets,” Davenport
said. “I love telling a story through movement and I’ve always found it easier
to perform when you have a character to portray.”
She
said the costumes, sets and live music made the big productions exciting, and
she enjoyed learning about stagecraft and musicality from Richmond Ballet
Artistic Associate and Ballet Master Malcolm Burn. As for favorites, she said her first principal
role in Burn’s Cinderella was special, but the character closest to her
heart was the title role in Giselle, another of Burn’s re-stagings.
She
also appreciated other roles that shaped her dancing career. She performed both of the female leads in Carmina Burana, one of which is dressed and characterized as much darker than the
other.
“I’m
usually seen as the lighter, more lyrical dancer, so I would say that
particular role of the burning swan was challenging but exciting, and stretched
me in a new dimension,” she explained.
Last
spring, Richmond Ballet participated in a tribute to choreographer John Butler
at The Joyce Theater in New York City, and, when another dancer slated to
perform was injured a few weeks before the show, Davenport was cast as Eve in After
Eden alongside Tony Award nominee Desmond Richardson, acclaimed modern
dancer and co-founder of Complexions Contemporary Ballet. She met him in New York
for rehearsals twice and he came to Richmond
once, but the limited rehearsal time wasn’t the only thing that made this a
daunting role for Davenport.
“The
piece was very challenging choreographically – executing all the lifts and
portraying the right character,” she said.
“Also, dealing with the pressures of performing in New York with someone with whom I wasn’t as
familiar, and who has this stardom attached to him, was challenging as well.
But he couldn’t have been nicer… I would
say that challenge turned into a highlight.”
The
New York Times review praised her performance and said she “brought a sleek,
clear body line and a calmly assertive push to the role of the errant
Eve.” Davenport
performed in New York City
for a third time this March when Richmond Ballet danced a full evening of
Jessica Lang’s choreography.
Working
toward certification as a child life specialist while dancing, Davenport
has volunteered with the child life staff at Virginia Commonwealth
University Medical
Center for a year,
helping to relieve the stress and trauma children may experience during
hospitalization. While finishing her
coursework, she will also join the School
of Richmond Ballet
faculty on a full-time basis (she’s taught as part-time staff in the recent
past).
Excited
about plans for her next career, retiring will leave a void where performance
and daily movement as a professional dancer once occupied her time.
“There
are probably things I don’t even know I’m going to miss because they’ve always
been a part of my life – I won’t even realize it until they’re gone,” Davenport said. “I’ll miss the camaraderie among everyone in
the entire organization, not just the dancers, and I’ll miss just the sheer
passion that everyone has for the work.”
Audiences
will have an opportunity to see Davenport’s
final performances during Studio 3 from May 6 through 11 at the Richmond Ballet
Studio Theatre. Davenport will dance the principal role in Mozartiana on Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday and Saturday at 6:30 p.m., as well as on Friday at 8:30 p.m. and
Sunday at 4 p.m. She will also appear in
Voyages during all Studio 3 performances.
The
Studio Series offers an intimate view of dance in the Ballet’s home theater,
and Richmond Ballet invites dance enthusiasts to enhance that experience during
Choreographer’s Club. Only on Tuesday
evening during Studio, Choreographer’s Club features a post-show question and
answer session with choreographers and artists, followed by a cocktail
reception; tickets ($75) are available through the Richmond Ballet box office.
Fast Facts:
Who?
Richmond
Ballet, Stoner Winslett, Artistic
Director.
What?
Studio
3
Mozartiana
Choreography by George
Balanchine
Music by Peter
Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Voyages (A world premiere)
Choreography by Mauricio
Wainrot
Music by Chava Alberstein, Kronos Quartet and Throat
Singers of Tuva, Sukhwinder Singh, and Jaime Torres as well as traditional
music of Bulgaria, Byelorussia, and Kurdistan
When?
May
6-8 at 6:30 p.m.
May 9 and 10 at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.
May 11 at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.
Where?
The
Richmond Ballet Studio Theatre at 407
East Canal Street, Richmond, VA.
How much?
Tickets are $28; seniors $24, students $18, children $15.
Call Ticketmaster at (804)
262-8003 or visit www.ticketmaster.com.
###
Richmond Ballet, The State Ballet of
Virginia, is dedicated to the education, promotion, preservation and continuing
evolution of the art form of ballet. Richmond Ballet strives
to keep meaningful works of dance alive and to produce and foster new works that
remain true to these values. Now in its
24th professional season,
Richmond Ballet's mission is to "awaken and uplift the human spirit, both for
audiences and dancers."
***
For further press information contact:
Aaron Sutten, Director of Marketing and
Communications
EMAIL: asutten@richmondballet.com; CALL:
(804) 344-0906 x244