At a donor reception last weekend Artistic Director Diogo de Lima and I presented a few videos. We premiered the Ballet’s first promotional videos for the 2025/2026 Season (our 12th), along with a work performed by one of the guest choreographers who will be joining us.
We also showed a half-hour video I put together for the occasion: a retrospective of the Marigny Opera Ballet’s work from the beginning, in 2014. While the assembled group snacked on sandwiches and sipped some fairly good wine, they watched selected dances from some of our best-known works from the past. There was a pas de deux from Silk and Smoke (2018) and the finales of some full-length ballets: Orfeo (2017), Giselle Deslondes (2018), Book of Saints (2019) and A Streetcar Named Desire (2023). There was the vaudevillian Rain Dance from Follies of 1915 (2018), and the witty ending of Paul Taylor’s Aureole, which we performed in 2020.
And more.
I was giving a sparse running commentary on all these dances from all these productions at the Opera House, identifying dancers from the past as well as the varied choreographers, composers and musicians through the years. Soon into this viewing it became clear to me that the assembled donors watching were largely unfamiliar with these earlier works. And from their many questions after the viewing, it became evident that they were also unaware of all the complexities of mounting even a single premiere.
I determined to start this blog.
If I live up to my resolve, I will write each week about the Marigny Opera Ballet. I’m hoping to shed a light on our past, present and future, and point out the credits due to the marvelous dancers, choreographers, musicians and designers who’ve created so much beauty in the Marigny over the past 11 years.
I’ll start doing that right now. Artistic Director Diogo de Lima has been working over the past months to envision and organize our upcoming 12th season, which will open this December. Contracts are being signed right now for the best choreographers and composers we could find, and the result will be another miraculous season of dance (with details to come!). Thank you, Diogo.
Questions? Comments? You can always reach me at dave@marignyoperahouse.org
Cheers,