One of the world’s oldest ballets, La Sylphide, to be performed in OKC
The Oklahoma City Ballet with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic will bring to the OKC Civic Center La Sylphide, one of the world’s oldest surviving ballets and the first major ballet of the Romantic era.
La Sylphide is the story of James, a young Scotsman. On the eve of his wedding day, he falls in love with a sylph, a beautiful fairy of the forest.
With a glorious score from Herman Severin Løvenskiold and August Bournonville’s original choreography, the story unravels in a mist of uncertainty as an evil witch vows to keep James from true love of any kind.
La Sylphide Guest Conductor is Andrews Sill who has traversed a vast repertoire from established masterworks to premières in his symphonic, operatic, and ballet appearances, and has been lauded for his “strong artistic abilities, musical versatility, and winning personality.” Sill is Associate Music Director of New York City Ballet and Music Director of Milwaukee Ballet.
The performance will be staged by Jacob Sparso, a native of Copenhagen, Denmark, who received his training in Copenhagen and made his debut with the Royal Danish Ballet at the age of 10. He has been a principal dancer many different companies and has also appeared as a guest artist with Les Ballet Trockadero de Monte Carlo for five years during its Japanese tours.
Sparso has danced in England, Germany, Turkey, Greece, Russia, Holland, China, Japan, and throughout the United States. In 1992 he met and danced for the Queen and Prince of Denmark at a gala performance to celebrate their twentieth anniversary.
He has created ballets for Dallas Black Dance Theater, Dallas Ballet, Ballet Nouveau Colorado, Turtle Creek Choral Society and Oklahoma City Ballet. Among his most notable works for OKC Ballet are The Wizard of Oz and The Phantom of the Opera which was called “a lavishly beautiful new production” by the Oklahoman in 2010.
Sparso began his affiliation as a dancer with the company in 1996 and retired from the stage in February of 2009 dancing Robert Mills’ Paris Rouge.
Performances are Friday and Saturday, February 22 and 23 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, February 24 at 2 p.m. and will be held at the Oklahoma City Civic Center, located at 201 N Walker Ave. in Oklahoma City.
Single tickets are on sale January 11. For tickets, visit www.OKCBallet.org or call (405) 848-8637.
Copyright The Gayly - 1/28/2019 @12:03 p.m. CST.