A collage of film, music, and dance, audiences will be delighted as dancers ride the rails of railroad
history with a vision of the past, present and future in this highly expressive ballet.
|
|
To me, Ties as a title, is about people, incredible connections to others and to the land that holds them. Many have uprooted or been uprooted,
leaving a country, a region or a family... pushed by their selves or pushed by circumstances to reach and go beyond their comfort zone.
As a result of WWII, my family emigrated from Hungary to Venezuela where I was born. I loved both my countries; however, when wing-spreading
time came for this young man, I went to New York City, and then Richmond, Virginia and finally here to Roanoke where my dreams have led me.
So when I started searching for a new project for the Southwest Virginia Ballet, I was intrigued by the rail history of this region and its influence on
emigration to Roanoke. As the idea developed, I decided to leave the chronological telling to the museums. Instead I am focusing on the relationships
of people. The dreamers, laborers, and witnesses who chose to stay in or come to the Big Lick, the Magic City, the Star City, and the Roanoke Valley.
Our costume changes will flit through history like the children, parents and grandparents of O. Winston Link's photographs. Relationships will develop
and dissolve throughout the choreography like spirits that rise, suffuse and integrate into the earth that is this Valley. Their spirits grew out of great dreams,
cold steely labor, disappointments and victories. Watch the images of the train with its trails of steam and imagine it to be the spirit of the tough gritted people
who brought the clanging steel cars to our days and nights.
|
|
As with these people, it takes collaboration and we are happy to have fostered that in this production. Thank you to
O. Winston Link for the captured images of a past era and the museum that houses them here in Roanoke. We also thank the
Virginia Museum of Transportation for sharing ideas and history.
David Austin's original score made for
O. Winston Link Museum expresses the spirit of a past and contemporary era.
For the promotional image used on posters and such, we thank
Nancy Stark of Signature 9 Gallery.
She consistently captures the images of today's railcars that harkens a history on their own
rusty skins. Please visit and support these museums and artists as they have supported Southwest Virginia Ballet.
Pedro Szalay, artistic director
TIES will be presented in The Jefferson Center, 541 Luck Ave., Roanoke, VA.
Sat. April 5, 2008 at 7:00 p.m. Tickets: $30 adults. $17 ages 18 & under
Sun. April 6, 2008 at 3:00 p.m. Call (540)345-2550 or
www.jeffcenter.org .
|
