Quad Cities Ballet dancers set to return to the stage at Davenport’s Adler Theater

More than 17 months after dancing “The Nutcracker” at the Adler Theater in Davenport, Quad Cities Ballet finally returns to his traditional home, in a varied 40-minute program on Saturday, May 29.

The professional ballet company is part of a triple project, starting at 8 p.m., to launch a series of five performances by the Adler Theater Foundation. BQC – which had to be postponed from an originally scheduled date of May 8 – will feature audience favorites such as the fun, baseball-themed “Players”, the jazzy and sophisticated “Sugar Rum Fairy,” the Sunny and relaxing “Dream a Little Dream” and “Where Ever the Wind Takes Us” by Meghan Phillips, clips from “On the Town” by Bernstein and more.

“It’s so exciting because that’s what the dancers got into – performing on a stage with lights and facing the audience and just having a lot of space,” the artistic director of BQC said on Monday, Courtney Lyon.

“They are just thrilled to be back in a more traditional setting,” she said, noting because of Covid, the

The company has performed inside and outside of the Davenport Outing Club throughout the 2020-2021 season. “They’re very versatile – so they can play almost anywhere, but look forward on a stage and not have any outside distractions, they just like a very focused environment and it’s just a really nice traditional setup. And it feels good.

“It feels good to come back to this stage,” added Lyon. “I think it feels good to know that there are people who want to come and see us, who buy tickets to come to the Adler. It feels good, it’s encouraging to keep doing what we’re doing.

“It’s just exciting to be back in a more traditional scene,” admitted dancer Nick Bartolotti. “As fun as the smaller, more intimate scenes were, it’s pretty exciting to be back on a stage where we have more space to.

ourselves. “

He is especially thrilled to dance in the fun piece his company partner Meghan Phillips created, to the song “MAY in the Backyard” (which appeared in the 2017 film “Call Me by Your Name”), with three dancers and a huge balloon.

They first did it last summer outdoors in “Ballet on the Lawn,” when they literally had winds to deal with, which was unpredictable, Bartolotti said. “While inside, it might be a little easier to manage.”

“Although there are three dancers in it, it really feels like there are four of them, because the ball is totally his own body, his own dancer,” Phillips said on Monday, noting that it was the third piece that she choreographed in her young career. “So, yeah, even though it’s a trio, it looks a bit like a quartet, right?”

“Music just brought me back to some festivals this summer, and it’s very upbeat and happy and a little childish and playful too,” she said.

“I’m so excited to be back,” Phillips said of the Adler. “It’s like our home space, our home stadium and it’s been too long, so I’m very excited to be back. We look forward to the next time we can put the full ballet back on, but it’s good to revisit some of the things you’ve been doing this year as well.

“I think the most exciting thing I look forward to being at Adler – playing on a big stage is always fun, but I love being backstage and I love being able to support and encourage others. dancers because they’re dancing, ”said company member Madeline Rhode.

“At the Outing Club, we couldn’t do that. There really weren’t any side wings for us to support them, ”she said, looking down the stage.

“It’s just like a whole different take on being able to look at them as from the side, and when you make eye contact with them, you know, just like that moral support of each other,” Rhode said. “I think that’s what I can’t wait to find in this Adler space.”

“It’s definitely something you can only experience as an artist or a stage crew, isn’t it?” So this is something that I have always enjoyed and cherished, even when I was a little student, to be able to see professional dancers before you and your dance, to be able to see them, ”she said. .

“I think everyone is a little different, because I know I’ve heard people like specifically saying, like please don’t look at me. Like, I can see you when you make me so nervous standing there, ”Rhode said. “I know about myself, I like being able to see the other dancers, if they’re on the side while I’m dancing or whatever. As I like

feel their support and encouragement and like to see them as encouraging me as I do anything.

Being on the Adler stage is indescribable, she added.

“It’ll be a feeling you won’t forget, as we’ve been on a smaller stage with a more intimate setting for pretty much the entire season,” Rhode said. On the Saturday night show, one of his solos is the jazzy “Sugar Rum Fairy”, a play based on Tchaikovsky’s classic “Sugar Plum Fairy” from Tchaikovsky.

“To be able to be back, I think it’s going to be something that, I think we’re all extremely

excited to be back on this big stage making and dancing. This is how we grew up learning, to project ourselves towards everyone on the balcony and in the back.

“So I think it’s also going to be like a learning curve again like oh that’s right – that’s how I have to make sure I look higher and look further because it’s a audience much deeper than us. used to.”

Haley Zellmer, a two-year intern at BQC, is only 21 and studied with the Ballet Quad Cities School of Dance for 15 years.

“At the Adler, I like being able to see all the seats. For me, it really makes me happy to see everyone, and we can also stand up, to see your friends dancing, ”she said on Monday.

“All around it’s pretty awesome to be at the Adler,” Zellmer said. At the Outing Club ballroom, it was a bit of a strain in comparison, she said.

“But it’s cool at the Outing Club because you can see the faces and the reactions of the people and when you have like little kids, who like to laugh when you do something funny, which makes my heart so happy.” “, she says.

To Adler, they “can certainly be freer in our movements,” Zellmer said. “We don’t feel like we’re hitting a wall. I am very excited about this.

Other acts of Adler and future ballet projects

The Saturday show will include the first part Aaron Fullan, an actor and songwriter based in Clinton, Iowa. He has over 250,000 followers on Facebook, where his self-produced videos have garnered millions of views around the world.

The theme of his piano concert on May 29 will be film music. He will play a few selections of what he considers the greatest film scores, including his own favorite, the prolific John Williams (as in “Schindler’s List”).

Fullan signed on to provide the original music for a popular Christian series called “The chosen one,” based on the life of Christ. It’s on a platform called VidAngel, who just launched their own studio, Angel Studios, and hired Fullan to write brand new music that will appear with the studio logo at the start of all of their movies and TV series.

Saturday, three Quad City Symphony Orchestra musicians – associate principal violin Emily Nash, violist Bruno Silva and associate principal bass Kit Polen – will play Appalachian music.

They will perform some of the pieces they performed on February 27 at a Signature Series of American Music concert.

in the great hall of the Figge Art Museum.

Polen performs regularly with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, including joining them on tours across Europe, Asia, and the U.S. Since 2015, he has been QCSO’s Principal Associate Bass, in addition to performing with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Silva has worked with the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Civic Orchestra, Chicago Sinfonietta, Northwest Indiana Symphony, and Elgin Symphony Orchestra. Married to Emily Nash of QCSO, he is also a freelance writer in the Chicago area, giving concerts with several orchestras, teaching private lessons, writing

Arrangements, and performing with the Cloud Gate String Quartet for special events.

Nash was with the QCSO and the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra for six years, where she served as Principal Associate and Principal Assistant, respectively. She is also a member of the Milwaukee Symphony, Hawaii Symphony, Chicago Philharmonic, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Illinois Philharmonic, Lake Forest Symphony, and the Midwest Mozart Festival.

Ballet Quad Cities plans to return to outdoor performances at the Outing Club (2109 Brady Street) in August and September, then partner with QCSO for a concert on October 9 at the Galvin Fine Arts Center at St. Ambrose, in Davenport.

The symphony plans to perform “A Soldier’s Tale” by Igor Stravinsky in 1918 – a parable of a soldier who trades his violin to the devil in exchange for unlimited economic gain. Music is recorded for a septet of violin, bass, clarinet, bassoon, horn (often played on trumpet), trombone, and percussion, and the story is told by three actors: the soldier, the devil and a narrator, who also takes on the roles of minor characters.

A dancer plays the non-speaking role of the princess, and there may be additional ensemble dancers as well.

For tickets for the May 29 Adler program, visit ticketmaster.com.