Ballet Quad Cities' “Love Stories,” February 9 and 10

Friday, February 9, and Saturday, February 10, 7:30 p.m.

Augustana College's Brunner Theatre Center, 3750 Seventh Avenue, Rock Island IL

For the professional company's latest rendition of Love Stories, its annual collection of choreographed vignettes that makes for a sensational Valentine's Day gift, Ballet Quad Cities' February 9 and 10 presentations at Augustana College's Brunner Theatre Center will be filled with sounds and sights to make audiences swoon. Compositions by George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein. Beautiful figures moving to live instrumental accompaniment. Executions by gunfire. You know – all the romantic standards.

Before the bloodshed, however, Ballet Quad Cities Artistic Director says this year's Love Stories will start with “a true feel-good piece” in That Certain Feeling, a solo showcase choreographed by Artistic Associate Emily Kate Long that employs Gershwin's titular piano tune for its score. “It's a brand-new piece,” says Lyon, “and it's set on (company dancer) Kira Roberts, who is a darling performer. She's very charismatic. And it's all about the happy aspects of love.”

The Act I lineup of four short pieces includes another debuting ballet, this one titled Oblivion and choreographed by Domingo Rubio, the longtime Ballet Quad Cities favorite best-known for his many appearances as Dracula and occasional turns as Tchaikovsky's Herr Drosselmeyer.

“Domingo set it on the dancers in December when he was here for The Nutcracker,” says Lyon of the artist who routinely travels from his home base in Mexico to work with the Quad Cities talents. “And you know how pas de deux usually involve two dancers? This is like a pas de trois, It's almost all partnering between three dancers, and it's very earthy, and very grounded, and very sensual.”

With Oblivion danced by Sahsha Amaut, Stephanie Eggers, and Marcus Pei, Lyon adds, “It's cool because it starts off with an accordion player walking onto stage. He's not dancing in the piece; he's setting the mood for romance. He plays and then leaves the accordion on stage and walks off, and then this pas de trois happens … . It's kind of a cool aspect, because our company dancer Christian (Knopp) is the accordion player. I like how [Oblivion] shows that our dancers are obviously multi-faceted and multi-talented.”

Rounding out Love Stories' first act are a pair of previously performed, Lyon-choreographed Ballet Quad Cities pieces that will allow for brand-new perspectives. Its accompanying music by Leonard Bernstein, Glassworks was inspired by five of famed artist/designer Louis Comfort Tiffany’s iconic stained-glass lamps, and created for the premiere of the Figge Art Museum's 2019 exhibit Louis Comfort Tiffany: Treasures from the Driehaus Collection. With this year's rendition boasting company dancers Eleanor Ambler, Sierra DeYoung, Stephanie Eggers, Jayne Friscia, Madeleine Rhode, and Mahalia Zellmer in its ensemble, Glassworks was additionally danced at Davenport's Outing Club in 2020, and as Lyon says, "It's never actually been in a traditional, theatrical space – only outside or at the Figge. So this is our first time actually putting it on stage."

Meanwhile, Lyon's Dance “Four” Piano was created on Ballet Quad Cities for Orchestra Iowa’s 2018 Golden Key Gala featuring Grammy-winning classical pianist Emanual Ax, and features music by composer Antonín Dvorák. Christian Knopp, Madeline Kreszenz, Marcus Pei, and Jillian Van Cura dance this vignette, and Lyon says she's enjoying the challenge of staging her works for the Brunner Theatre Center, "which is a three-sided thrust stage. I like to do really sculptural pieces that can be appreciated from all sides. Because sometimes there's a ballet that's best viewed from the front, and that's it. But there are other ballets that are really nice from different perspectives. So we're making sure that all of the pieces have that aspect to them – that they can be enjoyed from all sides.”

As for those aforementioned executions, they arrive after Love Stories' intermission in the form of the 35-minute Billy the Kid, the legendary Aaron Copland ballet that finds Lyons setting original choreography on the original Eugene Loring scenario from 1938. Filled with Copland's soaring compositions, the piece casts Marcus Pei as Billy, Christian Knopp as Sheriff Pat Garrett, Madeline Rhode as Billy's sweetheart, Jillian Van Cura as Alias, and assorted cowboys and cowgirls, Native Americans, outlaws, and others danced by Sahsha Amaut, Eleanor Ambler, Sierra DeYoung, Stephanie Eggers, Jayne Friscia, Madeline Kreszenz, Stephen Scott, Madeleine Rhode, Kira Roberts, and Mahalia Zellmer. But don't let the Wild West setup fool you: Billy the Kid is also as romantic as could be.

“When this ballet was originally made,” says Lyon, “it was commissioned for a young, unknown choreographer and a relatively young musician to create a piece that kind of romanticized the West. Because it was a trend then – there were a lot of Westerns, and Western novels were selling. And someone told me recently that Copland never even went west of the Mississippi while he was alive. Yet he wrote all of these iconic pieces of Western music that are really moving. I mean, his music? I've never been to Montana, and listening to Copland's music me feel like I've been to Montana and I've been under that big sky. So it's a romance about our country, in a way, and the music is extremely romantic.”

Billy the Kid was previously presented by Ballet Quad Cities in 2017 (“the first and last time we did it – until now”), and Lyon says it's a pleasure to set the piece on her company's dancers in 2024, even if that pleasure comes with built-in melancholy.

“It's such a heartbreaking ballet,” says Lyon. “In the beginning, you find out that Billy is only 12 years old when his mother is killed right in front of him, and Billy retaliates by killing the person who killed his mom. So this was that 12-year-old's very first introduction to heartbreak, and not being able to trust people, and being on his own, he ran off and grew up in the desert.

“Copland's music is so expressive,” she continues. “The way he arranged it, it's like a movie score – just very emotional. It's where all the feelings from the ballet come from. And a lot of the music is built off traditional campfire songs or cowboy songs, so there's a lot of American history and folklore woven into the score.”

Yet Copland's love letter to the West also showcases love in other forms: love for one's parents; love for one's community; and, yes, even romantic love between star-crossed youths.

“Bill does have a sweetheart,” Lyon says, “and in the ballet, she falls asleep in his hideout, and he dreams about her – and Copland's music is so romantic when you see that tender, human side of Billy. And of course, in the very next scene, he gets killed. He lets his guard down for the first time, and the audience kind of lets their guard down … . And then Billy famously lights a match that illuminates his face, and the sheriff is able to see him in the darkness and get a good, clear view of him to shoot him.”

A strong argument against smoking, I suggest. “Exactly,” says Lyon. “Smoking kills.”

Ballet Quad Cities' Love Stories will be presented in Augustana College's Brunner Theatre Center on February 9 and 10, admission to the 7:30 p.m. performances is $15-30, and more information and tickets are available by calling (309)786-3779 and visiting BalletQuadCities.com.