This Saturday, Footlight Dance Centre's Senior and Junior Companies present a community performance of their 2006 school tour "New Kid on the Block—Firebird" at the Community Campus Theater in Hailey.
Also known as the lecture demonstrations, Footlight has been presenting the tour for over 20 years at all seven schools in the valley. The lecture aspect incorporates the history, mechanics and mythology associated with dance, displayed by the senior and junior company dancers.
The culmination of the week of in-school performances is "Firebird." A contemporary story about a young girl new to a neighborhood, "Firebird" focuses on her struggles to find her place and make friends with reticent established groups and cliques. Think "Mean Girls" on pointe.
Footlight's production is based upon a classical ballet called "L'Oiseau de feu," which was a compilation of Russian folk tales about the triumph of love against a background of evil. The original ballet was accompanied by music by Igor Stravinsky. The choreography was by Michel Fokine. Serge Diaghilev's Ballet Russes first presented it in 1910 in Paris.
The story revolved around a Prince who captures the Firebird in a forest. The bird wins her freedom back by giving him a magic feather with which to call upon her in case of danger. He uses that favor to save a Princess whom he loves, when young maidens under an evil spell put her in danger.
In Footlight's version, a new kid in town, played by McKenna Peterson, comes upon several groups of girls who shun her by bullying and taunting her.
Each of the dance forms that will be performed represent a different identity: the jazz dancers are bullies; hip-hop dancers portray the tough girls; ballet embodies the uppity girls; modern dancers are the artsy chicks, and the tap dancers scare her with a lot of clever but very loud noise. She ends up curling into a ball in tears. And then a magical red firebird, played by Senior company member Addy Mason, comes to her aid, helping all to realize that each of us is human and deserves compassion.
Neely said her inspiration in creating a new dance based on this famous work was the visit last September by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
"The whole thing is about compassion," she said.
For many of the Footlight dancers, that compassion is underlaid with a certain bitter sweetness. Footlight has been the central extracurricular activity of their school years, and this marks the 10 seniors second to last performance with the company. Many of them began in kindergarten and have added to their disciplines over the years. From ballet to jazz to hip-hop, many of the dancers can be seen in more than one setting in "Firebird."
"It's our last year of this, it's sad," said dancer and WRHS senior Alysha Djsaran. "Footlight has even helped me make a decision on where to go to college. I want to keep dancing."
In addition to Footlight's performance, there will be two pieces of original dance from the I-Move company based at Idaho State University in Pocatello. Founded in 2004, the directors are ISU faculty members Melanie Kloetzel, Lauralee Zimmerly and Nicole Dean. They use modern choreography that includes live music, text and avant-garde music.
Dance with fire
"New Kid on the Block—Firebird" presented by Footlight Dance Company at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 4 at the Community Campus Theater in Hailey. Tickets are $10 adult, $5 students, and are Available at Chapter One Bookstore, Ketchum and Iconoclast, Hailey
Addy Mason sizzles in "Firebird." Photo by Aubrey Stephens
