The Latin Ballet of Virginia was a completely unexpected joy earlier this afternoon. Postponed from September 29 because of weather conditions, the dance company finally had a chance to perform this afternoon at the First Flight High School auditorium in Kill Devil Hills.
The only way to describe what was on stage is to throw every preconceived notion of what ballet is out the window and just sit back and enjoy the ride.
And what a ride it was. High energy, colorful and expressive in ways classic ballet never is, the performance took the audience on a one hour plus journey into the music and culture of Latin America.
Yet for all its differences from classic ballet, this was still clearly ballet with flowing motion and leaps into the air in time with the music.
In some ways, though, it was more than that. What was on stage was truly a story of life in the many countries that make up Latin America. There were street scenes and history, love and love lost.
One of the best stories that was told focused on a man and two women—the women jealous of each other and the man, confused standing between the two of them. What made the story so much mo4re effective was the ability of the performers to imbue a real sense of human emotion into their characters.
The Latin Ballet is a cooperative effort by the Bryan Cultural Series, the Outer Banks Community Foundation, Dare Arts and Dare County Schools. An important part of what the ballet did when the visited was to go to the elementary schools. They were able to get to all of them except Kitty Hawk before the weather got nasty. The company is scheduled to be in Kitty Hawk on Monday.
The Bryan Cultural Series invited any school child and their parents to the performance. Because of that, magic truly happened at the end of the show when troupe members went into the audience and brought children on stage to dance with them.
A magical way to end a wonderful performance.
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