The Lake Tahoe Dance Collective has as its mission to promote classical, modern, and contemporary dance of the finest quality in the Lake Tahoe area through performance, education, and outreach, enriching the community as a whole and as a cultural destination. What started as Tahoe Youth Ballet in 2009 with a single performance has become a company and school that presents a range of performances for Lake Tahoe audiences throughout the year, including its own productions as well as visiting dance companies.
The Lake Tahoe Dance Festival’s 10th Anniversary Celebration takes place July 27–29, and the program includes a pas de deux from Arpino’s Light Rain, performed by Ethan Price and Kate Loxtercamp of Ballet Arizona. Staging the work are Daniel Baudendistel and Valerie Madonia, who danced the work themselves, under Arpino’s direction, in the mid ’90s—you can see an excerpt of a performance featuring them (above) and in rehearsal with Arpino (below). Excerpt of Arpino in rehearsal working with Valerie Madonia and Daniel Baudendistel. Click here.
Valerie Madonia danced professionally for 20 years, including with the National Ballet of Canada, American Ballet Theatre, and The Joffrey Ballet. She toured Southwestern Colorado with her own project-based company, Alpine Dance, Inc. and co-produced and directed a five-year residency between the Joffrey and the Telluride Society for Performing Arts. Madonia has been teaching, directing, and choreographing for 25 years, most notably for the New School University, Joffrey Ballet School, and Colorado Ballet. She is currently guest teaching for American Ballet Theatre and the Joffrey School Trainee program in New York.
Valerie Madonia’s thoughts and recollections:
What is your personal history performing Arpino works?
I first saw Arpino’s Kettentanz performed by The National Ballet of Canada in the late 1970s as a student in the school there. It was through this work that I fell in love with contemporary ballet. After dancing seven years in some of the most classical ballet companies (The National Ballet of Canada and American Ballet Theatre), I wanted a freedom and joy that I wasn’t finding in the classical roles I was offered and so auditioned for The Joffrey Ballet. I went to see the company at City Center and was truly dazzled by Arpino’s Light Rain and felt immediately that this was the right company for me.
A couple months later, my first day in the studio with the company was with Arpino and a revival of The Clowns ballet. Each of his works was so differently stylized but each carried an honest commitment to his vision. Though I wasn’t challenged physically by The Clowns, I quickly caught on to the contagious effervescence that surrounded Mr. Arpino and found myself strutting en pointe like a chicken as one of his post-apocalyptic clowns. That same year, I was one of three dancers called to the studio as he created the Snow and Flowers scenes for Joffrey’s Victorian Nutcracker.
In my 10 years with the Joffrey, I performed the central pas de deux in Arpino’s Sea Shadow, Round of Angels, Light Rain, Viva Vivaldi, Italian Suite, Trinity, Nutcracker “Snow,” and, as a soloist, in Reflections, Suite Saint-Saëns, and “Waltz of the Flowers.” In 1990, Daniel Baudendistel and I spent many hours in the studio with Mr. Arpino as he started creating a new pas de deux that was tentatively called, The Kiss.
What does it mean to you to stage this work on Ballet Arizona dancers as we celebrate Mr. Arpino’s centennial?
Daniel and I spent many, many hours in the studio, often alone together on weekends, analyzing the nuances of the stylized choreography of Light Rain pas de deux and working tirelessly on making the partnering seamless. Arpino was one of my mentors, artistic supporters, and a director who shaped me as a dance artist. Passing on his work to younger generations is an honor and keeps his legacy alive in the beautiful tradition of mentor to acolyte.
How would you describe the Arpino style? What are some distinctive elements of his choreography?
Each of Arpino’s ballets have a flavor that dictates movement and theatricality. He loved to augment his choreography by adding magic in the form of flower petals, glitter, mirrors, smoke.
Arpino liked elongated lines, exaggerated arms, movement initiated from the torso, fast footwork, exciting entrances and exits, pulling off balance, stylized running, and always fluttering bourrées!
How does dancing Arpino ballets prepare a dancer for other types of repertory?
His ballets require great stamina since there is never a moment on stage where one stands still and waits for the next step. His work teaches the dancer to cover as much space as possible, never “mincing” a step but giving value to everything.
Daniel Baudendistel danced with American Ballet Theatre, The Joffrey Ballet, and the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company. He won First Place at the Saint Sauveur International Choreographic Competition and appeared on Russian television dancing at the Kremlin Palace, with Gala Des Etoiles in Montreal, with the BBC of London, and in the documentary “Ballet Russes.” Baudendistel has directed and choreographed for the Hiroshima Opera Company and was Professor of Dance at the New School University Eugene Lang College in New York City. This is his 10th year teaching at The School of Ballet Arizona, and he has performed with the company in Don Quixote, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Sleeping Beauty, and Romeo & Juliet.
Daniel Baudendistel’s thoughts and recollections:
I joined The Joffrey Ballet in 1981 and almost immediately I was called to a rehearsal of Gerald Arpino’s Light Rain. I was an understudy for the opening pas de trois. Little did I know at the time how important this ballet would become for me. What I came to understand after being in the company for a while was that Arpino’s “style” was really about collaboration. When he was working on a ballet the dancers were encouraged to come up with movements and when he saw something he liked he would put that into the ballet. It was fun, but also rewarding to have your ideas embraced, and I remember liking the style of this particular ballet very much. I ended up leaving the Joffrey before I ever got the chance to dance Light Rain, but, strangely enough, about 10 years later I rejoined the company and began a long and fruitful partnership with Valerie Madonia. Valerie had been in American Ballet Theatre, the company I joined after leaving the Joffrey. We had the privilege of dancing many Arpino ballets together. His partnering work required quite a bit of strength because much of it involved manipulating the woman on and off her balance or lifting her barely off the floor and covering space. James Canfield and Pat Miller had a very special feeling when they danced together, and they were largely responsible for what came to symbolize Arpino’s work. His greatest gift, I believe, was being able to bring out the best in young dancers and take from their strengths.
I am honored to be staging Light Rain with two beautiful dancers from Ballet Arizona. It has been a wonderful time to revisit a work that was such a rewarding part of my life as a dancer and to pass those rewards on to a new generation of dancers.