Waterbaby Bagatelles

Principals
Jennifer Gelfand, Patrick Armand

Soloists
Claudia Alfieri, Pollyanna Ribeiro

Laszlo Berdo, Carlos Santos, Paul Thrussell

Ensemble
Donatella Accardi, Natasha Ahkmarova, Julie Bacon, Crystal Cosway, Melinda DeChiazza, Emily Gresh, Erika Lambe, Natasha Fielding, Catherine Steward, Nadia Thompson, Susanna Vennerbeck, Heather Waldon, Missy Ward, Heidi Wolfe

Roger Cunningham, Shawn Mahoney, Howard Merlin, Viktor Plotnikov, David Porter, Joseph Sterrett

I. Armand with Accardi, Akhmarova, DeChiazza, Gresh, Lambe, Steward, Ward, Wolfe

II. Gelfand, Ribeiro, Berdo, Santos and Cunningham, Mahoney, Merlin, Plotnikov, Porter, Sterrett

III. Alfieri, Thrussell

IV. Armand with Accardi, Akhmarova, DeChiazza, Gresh, Lambe, Steward, Ward, Wolfe

V. Santos, Ribeiro, Gelfand, Berdo, Alfieri, Thrussell and Bacon, Cosway, Fielding, Thompson, Vennerbeck, Waldon, Cunningham, Mahoney, Merlin, Plotnikov, Porter, Sterrett

VI. Armand, Berdo, Santos, Cunningham, Thrussell, Sterrett, Mahoney, Merlin, Plotnikov, Porter, Dechiazza, Gresh, Steward, Wolfe

VII. Gelfand, Armand and Company

Waterbaby Bagatelles is a suite of dances set to seven short twentieth century compositions. A moving grid of fluorescent lights raises and lowers through the course of the piece, altering the onstage environment. In the opening section, the lights hover close the floor. The grid slowly ascends, revealing dancers standing amongst the fluorescent tubes. Halfway to the ceiling, the lights stop moving, bisecting the vertical space.

The choreography transitions fluidly between each piece of music. A couple slips away after their adage as a male soloist enters, weaving between members of the female ensemble. Though the sections overlap, the groupings remain distinct from one to the next, until the final movement, which recombines the dancers from each section. The principal couple joins a soloist quartet, seven men perform simultaneous solos as the female ensemble swoops in.