Ballet companies embark upon a creative expedition every season, in search of a new and different approach to dance.
For City Ballet’s resident choreographers Geoff Gonzalez and Elizabeth Wistrich, the journey to develop new ideas for “An American in Paris” involved leaving the country.
The resulting production that opens Saturday at the Balboa Theatre includes three works: Gonzalez’s title piece, “An American in Paris”; “Boléro — The Awakening,” choreographed by Wistrich; and “Morphoses,” the company’s first ballet by internationally renowned contemporary choreographer Christopher Wheeldon.
Gonzalez faced a challenge.
He wanted to create a different choreographic story to George Gershwin’s “An American in Paris,” a symphonic poem the composer described as a “rhapsodic ballet.”
At its 1928 Carnegie Hall premiere, Gershwin’s iconic masterpiece was a spirited composition, meant to reflect the kaleidoscope of sights and sounds on the streets of Paris with instruments that include real Parisian taxi horns, a trumpet, saxophone and snare drum.
It’s a piece of music that has been danced to before, most famously in the Academy Award-winning 1951 film “An American in Paris,” a love story that starred Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron.
Gonzalez desired a different narrative to accompany the score, one with a lot of visual impact.
“I listened to the music over and over, and I was baffled for months,” Gonzalez said.
“I wanted something that was truly French, and it had to be something simpler. I came up with a fashion idea — a fun story everyone could relate to, like wearing something original that makes everyone take a second look.”
By his own ission, Gonzalez is not fashion savvy, so he traveled to the Palais Galliera in Paris, one of the largest fashion museums in the world, to peruse a collection of designs that span more than 150 years.
“We were concentrating on the 1950s and 1960s, considering the high-end couture looks and the everyday looks,” Gonzalez said. “We did a lot of research. It’s going to be a different way of seeing things that will be very exciting.”
“An American in Paris” has a cast of 26 dancers, anchored by two characters with opposing personalities.
Shannon Romeo will dance the role of an American designer who visits Paris for inspiration, a part based on the late Claire McCardell, known as the “gal who defied Dior.”
McCardell was famous for rejecting high heels and high-maintenance ensembles and, instead, dressed the modern American woman in ballet slippers and comfortable sportswear.
Megan Jacobs will portray a French couture designer armed with a team of dancer/seamstresses devoted to all of the accessories and details of high fashion glamour.
While “An American in Paris” pays tribute to French fashion, Wistrich said her journey to Spain prompted her to imagine new ways to explore the music for her “Boléro — The Awakening.”
My trip to Barcelona was very inspirational,” she said. “I had the opportunity to watch a great flamenco performance and ended up changing my approach to ‘Bolero.’”
When she returned to San Diego, Wistrich enlisted Gonzalez to help with adding the sound of a heartbeat to Maurice Ravel’s sensual composition.
“Heartbeats now enhance the energetic pulse of the music,” she added. “There are 17 dancers and the costumes are white, black and red flamenco skirts for the women and red and black costumes for the men.”
Rehearsals for Wheeldon’s physically demanding “Morphoses” began last year when former New York City Ballet dancer and répétiteur Michele Gifford traveled to San Diego to set the complex, athletic work on four principal dancers.
“Morphoses” premiered in 2002 and to say it requires great technical skill is an understatement.
The choreography is accompanied by avant-garde composer György Ligeti’s Quartet No. 1, and after the rehearsal, Gifford explained that Wheeldon wanted to create an atmosphere that was musically challenging.
“The story is that he went to Tower Records and just picked out music and composers he never heard of — the hardest thing he could find in order to challenge his brain and his choreographic instincts away from the melodic sounds he had been drawn to,” Gifford said. “It set him apart and changed how he looked at movement.”
At the rehearsal, four principal dancers moved in a shape-shifting unit, before they split off into duets and then, came together, contracting and expanding with the music.
“There is a sense of disorder, but a clear vision throughout the whole thing, which is quite extraordinary,” Gifford pointed out.
“The biggest challenge is there are only two couples and they have to literally be mimicking each other with exactly the same arms, same focus and energy — without looking in the mirror. There is an electricity, like a magnet. They have to be aware of their partners and the other couple.”
Gonzalez said this season’s “An American in Paris” program is the cutting edge of contemporary dance presentations.
“We always try to present the highest quality of classical ballet,” he stressed.
“With this show, we get to show off another side of the art form.”
City Ballet of San Diego: ‘An American in Paris’
When: 8 p.m. Saturday, March 16; 2 p.m. March 17
Where: Balboa Theatre 868 Fourth Ave., downtown.
Tickets: $39-$99
When: 7:30 p.m. March 27
Where: California Center for the Arts, Escondido, 340 N. Escondido Blvd., Escondido
Tickets: $35-$99
Online: cityballet.org
Luttrell is a freelance writer.
