Dance Alive National Ballet is inviting Gainesville to fall in love with dance this Valentine’s Day.
“Destination Loveland,” presented by Dance Alive National Ballet, will premiere for the first time ever at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
Judy Skinner, resident choreographer at Dance Alive National Ballet, boasts that the Valentine’s Day premiere has something for everyone — it presents a different look at love and dance in each piece of the show.
“This is one of those shows that people that have never been to a live performance of ballet will thoroughly enjoy and be comfortable with,” Skinner said. “And it’s also the kind of show that dance fanatics and [those] who know good dancing will thoroughly enjoy.”
The show will open with a classical piece inspired by “Sonnets from the Portuguese,” a set of poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Skinner said. Featuring songs such as “My Funny Valentine” and “Love Me Tender,” the subsequent pieces of the show will go on to adopt a contemporary feel.
One of the pieces titled “Moonlight Sway” portrays how love, just like the moon, has different faces, said Kim Tuttle, Dance Alive National Ballet’s executive artistic director. This piece features two couples, one representing light and warmth and the other representing darkness and emotion to demonstrate the changing nature of love.
Tuttle said one part of the show will include an invitation for audience members to join performers on the stage and dance to a handful of songs.
“I want them [the audience] to feel uplifted,” Tuttle said. “I want them to have this wonderful, positive, deep, loving experience.”
Themes of romance run deep within the show, as some of the pieces feature performance partners who are couples in real life, Skinner said. Dancers Jessie Domingues and Aaron Gomez were just married last summer and are set to perform a very passionate piece together, bringing home the show’s overall look at love and emotion.
“It really is a look at love in all different kinds of ways,” Skinner said. “It’s the funny, it’s the happy, it’s the intent, it’s the passion, it’s the fun.”
Contact Chloe Greenberg at cgreenberg@alligator.org. Follow them on Twitter at @_chloegreenberg.
The performance, choreographed by Judy Skinner, explores the many faces of love.
