Ballet Quad Cities' "Love Stories," February 22 and 23

Saturday, February 22, 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, February 23, 2 p.m.

St. Ambrose University's Galvin Fine Arts Center, 2101 North Gaines Street, Davenport IA

Returning to Davenport's Galvin Fine Arts Center with their first full St. Ambrose University presentation in more than six years, the gifted professional dancers of Ballet Quad Cities stage their latest, Valentine's-themed iteration of Love Stories on February 22 and 23.

As always, this program of vignettes will boast varying meditations on its theme: romantic love, platonic love, unrequited love. The repertoire will also deliver, in its second half, a one-act version of Bizet's legendary Carmen, which Ballet Quad Cities' Artistic Director and choreographer Courtney Lyon, with a laugh, calls “a great love story … with a horrible ending.” (Presumably, she means “horrible” in regard to its tragedy, not its quality.)

Opening Love Stories 2025 is Like I Love You, a solo for company member Kira Roberts that Lyon has set to “Somethin' Stupid,” the timeless romantic tune popularized by Frank and Nancy Sinatra. “It's just a couple minutes of light, theatrical dancing about young love,” Lyon says. “Perfect for Valentine's Day. Kira is dressed like a little valentine, and 'Somethin' Stupid' is such a cute little ditty. It's a crowd-warmer.” (Suggesting that it's like the dance menu's amuse-bouche, Lyon agrees. “Yes! It's just a little bite.”)

Another Lyon piece follows in Frederic Chopin's Nocturne in E-Flat Major, an original, three-person dance for BQC's Eleanor Ambler, Madeleine Rhode, and Jillian Van Cura.

“When I think about 'What do I want to add with my take on love?', I'm very passionate about ballet being my first love,” says Lyon. “Specifically pointe work. That's what I miss the most about performing. Because pointe work is so specific to ballet – no other art form has people wearing pointe shoes for eight hours a day. So I wanted to do a piece where I showcased pointe. It's just the three women, and it's set to Chopin, which is the most soothing music. And I use the music as my focus. There's no story – it's just the music and pointe work, and it has turned out lovely.”

Popular guest choreographer Domingo Rubio, beloved for his frequent performances in Ballet Quad Cities' The Nutcracker and Halloween-themed presentations (particularly the Draculas) returns to the area from Mexico to stage Love Stories' Act I vignette Confrontation. With the two-person work set on company members Christian Knopp and Marcus Pei, Rubio's choreographer notes state: "The origins of tango dancing were performed in brothels between men showing rivalry, dominance, and competition, along with camaraderie and bonding among friends, through the passion of music."

"It's a tango duet between the two men," says Lyon, the dancers having previously shared a memorable pas de debux in last fall's production of The Twisted Tales of Poe. "It's not about romantic love, necessarily – it's about rivalry and friendship and companionship."

A second guest choreographer joins Love Stories' creative team for the Act I modern-dance closer Lust, Loss, Love, which finds the full company moving to songs including "I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl," "I Love Your Lovin' Ways," "Lilac Wine," "Seems I'm Never Tired Lovin' You," and "The Glory of Love." Visiting choreographer Donald J. Laney is the Assistant Professor of Dance & Head of Dance at Western Illinois University. Having graduated from the University of California, Irvine with an MFA in dance, Laney spent 15 years as the Producing Artistic Director of the West Virginia Dance Company, performing the works of Doug Varone, Daniel Nagrin, Gerri Houlihan danah bella and Toneta Akers-Toler, as well as creating his own choreography.

"Lust, Loss, Love explores the various stages of human relationships,” says Laney in his choreographer notes. “Through the lens of traditional jazz standards, the dance journeys through these emotions, inviting the audience to connect and experience them.” He adds, “I have truly cherished my time working with the BQC. The talent, creativity, and intelligence of each dancer have been integral to bringing this piece to life. Each performer has had the opportunity to infuse their own personality into the work, making it uniquely their own on stage.”

Following the Love Stories intermission, the entire BQC company will regroup for Lyon's one-act staging of Carmen, its music by Rodion Shchedrin (modeled after the Bizet compositions) and Lyon's choreography indebted to Prosper Mérimeé’s 1845 novella of the same title.

Mérimeé was inspired to write his work by a story he was told on a trip to Spain in 1830 – the tale of a ruffian who murders his mistress. Appearing in the ballet are: the feisty and rebellious Carmen (danced by Madeline Kreszenz); hot-tempered young soldier Don Jose (Christian Knopp); the narrator Prosper Mérimeé (Madeleine Rhode); Mérimeé’s dancers (Eleanor Ambler and Mahalia Zellmer); the bull fighter Escamillo (Marcus Pei); and a group of cigarette-factory workers (Sierra DeYoung, Caitlin Sendlenski, Kira Roberts, Jillian Van Cura, Julia Ellis, and Ave Kruse).

"Although I've never danced [the role of] Carmen before," Lyon says, "I've been in multiple productions of it, and I made a one-act Carmen for Love Stories a couple years ago when we were still at the Outing Club. We were recovering, artistically, from the pandemic, so that Carmen was created to be like a dinner-theatre-type experience on two panels of marley ... which is about 12 feet."

Laughing, Lyon says, "It was very minimal, but it served its purpose. But I was thrilled to get it back out and flesh it out further and put it on a proscenium stage. It's just such a great story about love and loss and betrayal and jealousy, and it has such great music – it deserves to be done more fully.

“Most of my dancers are still in the same parts from before,” she adds, “because we haven't had a lot of dancer turnover for a while – our amazing dancers are just really happy! So it's cool to be able to build on what we did at the Outing Club, considering that the dancers are several years more mature than what they were.

“They also love that Carmen is very story-oriented,” says Lyon, “which I think they like because they get to behave in ways that, traditionally, practical ballets don't allow dancers to. In Carmen, they are women who work in a cigarette factory in Spain, and they get into fights – with knives! – and they cheat and steal … . They're very forward with their bodies and their intentions. It's nice to get a break from playing flowers or snowflakes or princesses.”

Ballet Quad Cities' 2025 Love Stories will be staged in the Galvin Fine Arts Center of St. Ambrose University on February 22 and 23, with the Saturday performance at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday's performance at 2 p.m. Admission is $15-30, and more information and tickets are available by visiting BalletQuadCities.com.