Ballet Quad Cities' “The Rite of Spring, Bolero, & More,” April 22

Saturday, April 22, 2:30 & 7:30 p.m.

Adler Theatre, 136 East Third Street, Davenport IA

For the professional talents at Ballet Quad Cities, this spring is all rite. Despite my proclivity for typos, that actually isn't one, as the Rock Island-based company – for the first time since 2014 – will stage Igor Stravinsky's 35-minute balletic masterwork The Rite of Spring, which will enjoy two performances at Davenport's Adler Theatre on April 22.

But that opening sentence is also inaccurate, because Ballet Quad Cities' 2022-23 season-ender isn't entirely all Rite. A quartet of additional, shorter pieces in Act I will precede the Act II presentation of Stravinsky's work, with the entirely of the performance fittingly titled The Rite of Spring, Bolero, & More. As the dance company's Artistic Director Courtney Lyon says of the presentation as a whole, “We're bringing out some pieces that either haven't been seen since before COVID or that played to smaller audiences during COVID, and now we're able to bring them back on a full stage.”

Lyon continues, “It's really nice to be able to do a production at the Adler again – a full production with lights and big sound and everything. You know, we've been performing a lot of our ballets at the Outing Club in Davenport, to kind of get through COVID and beyond. And while that's been great, you don't get the kind of technical elements that you do at the Adler. And this production, especially Rite of Spring, really relies on the lighting. It's an outstanding visual experience, so it's perfect for the Adler Theatre.”

Regarding the decision to re-stage composer Stravinsky's classic (whose 1913 debut was choreographed by dance legend Vaslav Nijinsky) for the first time in nine years, Lyon says, “It had been a while since we'd done it, and it's a great time for it. This is our last production of the season, and Rite of Spring is all about earth and tradition and shedding off the winter and moving forward … . It's got all that symbolism about this time of year, so it just felt right. And it's a good, meaty production with phenomenal music that's challenging for the dancers. It feels really good to sink our teeth into something this hearty.”

Lyon also choreographed Stravinsky's ballet for its 2014 debut at the Adler, her work inspiring Reader reviewer Thom White to rave, “There was a clear sense of awakening, as though the return of spring stirred new life into the long, cold limbs of these people.” (White summarized the performance by calling it “the most stunning Ballet Quad Cities production I've yet seen.”) So it's certainly understandable that, when asked if her choreography had undergone significant revisions after nine years, Lyon says, “I have not changed it. I have not changed it at all.

“I went into this keeping an open mind,” she continues, “thinking that since we did it almost 10 years ago, I'd be able to look at it with fresh eyes. When you're in the thick of creating something, it's a little harder to see the big picture until it's done. So I thought, okay, with fresh eyes, 10 years later, I can really look at this and see what parts need to be tweaked and tightened up and changed. But I have not changed a thing, to be honest.” (Told that this is perhaps testament to how well she staged it last time, Lyon laughs and says, “I mean … I guess!”)

“But you know, I stayed really tight with the music when I first choreographed it, because that Stravinsky score is absolutely phenomenal. For anyone who's a fan of 20th-century music, and percussion, this just stirs your soul at a very deep level. This is it. And this wasn't something where I could, you know, put a bunch of dance steps on some pretty music. It's not like that at all – you really have to stay close to the Stravinsky.”

Although the current company of Ballet Quad Cities dancers doesn't feature anyone who previously performed The Rite of Spring in 2014, Lyon is happy to report, “I still have Emily Kate Long, from the original cast, here on staff (as a fellow choreographer and BQC's Artistic Associate). And that's been cool – to have her perspective as someone who was dancing it originally. She's been a great help for the dancers, as well. Because it's very physical dancing. And very mentally challenging, too.”

With The Rite of Spring as the season-ender's second act, its first is devoted to four shorter works of choreography, among them Ravel's Bolero, which was performed at Davenport's Outing Club in 2021 and – as part of the extravagant Paris en Pointe program – at St. Ambrose University's Galvin Fine Arts Center in 2018.

“But I first created it in 2015,” says Lyon, “so it's been about every other year that it makes an appearance. Audiences love it. The music is sensual and hypnotic and mesmerizing – it's just wonderful. That piece is set on five dancers, and it's created on four folding chairs, and the four folding chairs are back-to-back, so it happens in a very small space. And those five dancers stay on those four folding chairs for the entire 16 minutes. It's a really, really unique piece – and I put it right up on the edge of the stage. It's designed to be seen from all sides, like in the round, or at least from three sides, so I bring it really close to the edge.

“This is another one where I've had several different casts dance it over the years, and I haven't changed a single step for this one. Bolero is kind of its own brand.” She laughs. “Emily Kate was also in the original cast of that one, so again, it's nice to have someone who's done it before say things like, 'You have to move your finger right here so he can step right there.' It's really detailed.”

Three additional pieces complete the repertoire for The Rite of Spring, Bolero, & More, two of which Ballet Quad Cities performed, in more intimate settings, earlier in the year.

“One of them is Afternoon of a Faun,” says Lyon, “which is a Debussy piece, and that music will perhaps be fairly familiar to people when they hear it. I choreographed that one, and that's our romantic pas de deux. We're also doing Concerto for Two Couples, and that's set to Bach music, and it's a double duet or a quartet – two couples dancing. Also very romantic. That one is by our guest choreographer Domingo Rubio, who set that when he was out here for Nutcracker this past winter. He spent a few days to set this on two men and two women, and then we did a few rehearsals via Zoom, which … . I don't know.” Laughing, she adds, “They sometimes work and they sometimes don't depending on the Internet.”

Completing the program is a work choreographed by Long titled Foursquare. Lyon says, “That was also performed during COVID, but now we get to do it on a full stage. It's set on four dancers to a kind of minimalist, modernist music by Steve Reich, and it's so driving and hopeful and uplifting … . It has a spring-like quality that I can't quite explain. It's like fresh air. Fresh air and hope.”

With The Rite of Spring, Bolero, & More the company's final production before Ballet Quad Cities' dancers take some deserved time off, Lyon says of the organization's 2023-24 schedule, “That's already in the works. We already have almost all of our theatres booked, and we've pretty much sorted out what we'll be doing. So we really just need to make our official announcement – which I hope is sooner rather than later. I don't know about other performance organizations, but it feels like we're still getting our feet back under us, getting back into bigger theatres and in front of bigger audiences. It feels like we're finally getting our momentum back.

“Because, you know ... it's hard work!” she says with a laugh. “It's hard work to put these productions together. And we want these pieces to be seen.”

Ballet Quad Cities' The Rite of Spring, Bolero, & More will be presented at Davenport's Adler Theatre on April 22, with performances at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. and admission $15-25. For more information and tickets, call (309)786-3779 and visit BalletQuadCities.com.