In some ways, next weekend’s collaboration between pianist Joyce Yang and Aspen Santa Fe Ballet turns one of the country’s foremost classical music soloists into a second fiddle.
But, hey, it was her choice.
Yang, who has starred center stage as a guest artist with orchestras across the world, came up with the idea of playing backup for the dancers herself, after seeing the company perform in New York two years ago.
She asked its artistic team to create a movement that could be featured during one of her signature concert pieces, Robert Schumann’s “Carnaval.”
The request said a lot about Yang’s artistry — that she was willing to sacrifice the spotlight to explore new angles on a well-known masterwork — but also about the dance company’s reputation. Aspen Santa Fe Ballet has earned its position as a featured player; Yang is fortunate to have it on her team.
“It’s not really everyday where you see an artist of her caliber willing to play for a company like ours,” said Aspen Santa Fe Ballet’s executive director Jean-Philippe Malaty, who notes that the company often uses recorded music at its events.
But Aspen Santa Fe is not an everyday troupe. The company’s creative output has brought it plenty of attention beyond the borders of the small Western burgs it calls home. ASFB, as it is known, tours constantly, including regular appearances at the American dance world’s two most important venues, The Joyce Theater in New York and the annual Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in rural Massachusetts. The company’s creative output — vibrant, often surprising works, dreamed up by young choreographers — has moved the art form forward internationally and put Colorado on the creative map.
ASFB is known for “showcasing a European sensibility glossed with American ebullience,” as the Joyce Theater put it in 2017, introducing the company’s new works.
Beyond its stage creations, ASFB has been a model for how dance can thrive outside of major urban centers, thanks to its unusual adoption of two home towns. Malaty and artistic director Tom Mossbrucker formed the company in Aspen in 2006 and added Sante Fe to its name four years later.
Malaty acknowledges that was a crucial branding move since both cities enjoy outsized renown as tourist destinations and for their “glamour and excitement and world-class arts and culture.”
But it was also a smart bottom-line strategy. The company has earned allegiance from two distinct audiences for its concerts and has developed two separate communities that support its $4.2 million annual budget — though each in their own way.
“In Aspen, the philanthropy is very strong,” said Malaty. “And in New Mexico, we have more volume and we sell more tickets and we have more earned income.”
Wisely, the company has resisted growth over its two-plus decades, keeping a lean and affordable crew of about 10 dancers. It takes seriously its “Western” identity, considering itself, fundamentally, pioneers of the art form.
“Tom and I, still, to this day, have that pioneer mentality, a start-up mentality,” said Malaty. It allows them to take chances as a matter of course.
“We still run the company as if this might be our last season.”
Or, it might be said, as if it was the first season. ASFB’s mission is to build excitement for its wares by creating new works, rather than relying on the tried and true “museum” repertoire that keeps many other regional ballet companies in business. Unknown choreographers it has taken a chance on have gone on become crucial figures in the field. Among them: Alejandro Cerrudo, Jorma Elo, Nicolo Fonte, Fernando Melo and Cayetano Soto.
The company turned to Elo for “Half/Cut/Split,” its partnership with Yang that is on the program next weekend.
Schumann’s “Carnaval,” composed in 1835, is a quirky bit of music consisting of 21 short pieces, all with their own personality.
The work is “almost unchoreographable,” as Malaty puts it.
But Elo is known for his versatility (The New York Times labeled one his early works,”Slice to Sharp,” as “an exhilarating exercise in flat-out virtuosity”) and ASFB suspected he might be up for “Carnaval.”
“But there’s only one guy, and if he says no, this is off,” Malaty recounted, as the company hashed out Yang’s creative challenge.
The choreographer and the pianist met in New York and got along famously. Yang presented her vision and Elo translated it onto his own style of dance.
The finished piece keeps six dancers in motion for 35 minutes. It is sparsely costumed and minimally lit in golds and browns. The work is especially contemporary in its unconventional postures, and alternately dramatic and humorous. The dancers do their work in front of the piano, but Yang’s confident playing turns the instrument into something of a seventh dancer. There’s definitely a creative co-dependence on stage.
Rounding out the program are two works from ASFB’s catalogue: Choreographer Jiří Kylián’s “Return to a Strange Land,” set to the music of Leoš Janáček; and Nicolo Fonte’s “Where We Left Off,” set to Philip Glass. Yang performs on all three pieces.
As with a lot of the off-beat creative moves ASFB has made over the years, “Half/Cut/Split” is taking on a life of its own and bringing the company new audiences. The ballet troupe and Yang each have their own followings and so the program is drawing interest from both classical and dance fans. The team performed it twice last week in Dallas and repeats are already being set up in various cities for 2019.
The piece started as a dare, but is turning out to be ASFB at its core, a credible mix of fine art and smart business strategy that propels the region’s dance reputation forward in new ways.
“We have a very diversified portfolio,” said Malaty. “We don’t have all of our eggs in one basket.”
Aspen Santa Fe Ballet and Joyce Yang perform Saturday, Nov. 10, and Sunday, Nov. 11, at the Newman Center, 2344 E. Iliff Ave. on the University of Denver campus. Info at 303-871-7720 or ewmancenterpresents.com.
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