For the first time, Cincinnati Ballet’s annual repertory showcase New Works focuses on homegrown talent to provide fresh choreography and music. Four of the five works on the bill come from local choreographers and are set to local music. An opening night fundraiser performance brings bonuses: musical acts Jake Speed & The Freddies, Over the Rhine and Peter Adams will perform live to accompany the dancers.
For starters, Morgan paired up former Cincinnati Ballet dancer Joy Jovet — whom she calls “the most Balanchine-esque” choreographer she knows — with the music of Folk group, Jake Speed & The Freddies. Having seen “amazing musicality and patterns” in Jovet’s choreography for the Ballet’s Otto M. Budig Academy, Morgan brought her on board.
In addition to this year’s New Works newcomers, the program includes world premiers from the Ballet’s Associate Artistic Director Devon Carney, presenting a lush, brooding pas de deux to the music of Peter Frampton, plus the return of celebrated Italian contemporary choreographer Luca Veggetti, offering clean complexity melded with technical prowess.
Read Julie Mullins' review of the show here.
