Ventana Ballet and Austin Camerata announce the first presentation of a new annual collaborative show, KALEIDOSCOPE, coming to Austin May 11th-13th, 2023. These two dynamic local performing arts companies invite guests to join them at KMFA’s beautifully designed Draylen Mason Music Studio for an intimate experience, colored with the sounds and patterns of live music and dance. The show features a vibrant mélange of contemporary ballet, contemporary dance, and modern dance intricately paired with musical selections for a string quartet that performs live on stage alongside the dancers.

Austin Camerata will feature Invoke, Austin’s bowed and fretted string quartet, described as “not classical, but not, not classical…” Ventana Ballet will perform to some of Invoke’s own original music as well as to works by groundbreaking living composers Shelley Washintgon, Julia Wolfe, Osvaldo Golijov, and Paul Wiancko. Composer Paul Wiancko describes his featured work “LIFT” as “the journey of a soul—laid out in fervent, celebratory detail,” which perfectly captures the spiritual thread weaving through the entire show. The musical program is a blending of genres fusing classical elements with jazz, rock, American folk, and minimalism. “It is important for us to highlight the less heard voices of living composers,” said Daniel Kopp, Austin Camerata’s Artistic Director.

Inspired by the genre-bending forms and complex patterns of these composers’ works, Ventana Ballet’s choreographers AJ Garcia-Rameau and Ty Graynor highlight the inherent beauty of the music using choreographic devices that incorporate the origins and symbolism of the word kaleidoscope. From the Ancient Greek words kalos, “beauty”, eidos, “form, shape,” and skopeō, “to examine,” kaleidoscope informs the choreography; the dancers’ movement vocabulary, hence, aims to embody an”observation of beautiful forms.”

For Ventana Ballet, this project is a little different in its approach to setting movement to the music. AJ and Ty are working with the dancers over a 5-week residency to develop an organic composition of movement and to deepen the artists’ relationship with these complicated and exciting musical works. “I’m so inspired and electrified by these dancers—Ty & I will set a choreographic sketch, and they color it in, breathing life into the movements and taking risks in the transitions. The end result is going to be stunning,” exclaimed AJ Garcia-Rameau, Ventana Ballet’s Director.

As is part of the missions of Ventana Ballet & Austin Camerata, these performances of KALEIDOSCOPE are intimate, small, and up-close to encourage audience accessibility and inclusivity. Seating is provided as 3 rows in a horseshoe shape around the performance area. Guests are invited to arrive when the doors open 30 minutes before each showtime. The pre-show reception invites guests to indulge in complimentary refreshments and meet co-producers AJ Garcia-Ramaeu and Daniel Kopp. There will be one show on Thursday, and two shows per night on Friday and Saturday. The show run time is approximately 1 hour.

Performance Schedule:
May 11th at 7:30pm⁠
May 12th at 6:30pm & 8:30pm⁠
May 13th at 6:30pm & 8:30pm⁠
Doors open 30 minutes before show time.

Tickets:
First Row Seats – $53 + taxes / processing fee
Second Row Seats – $43 + taxes / processing fee
Third Row Barstools – $33 + taxes / processing fee

Pre-show themed refreshments and ample onsite parking is included.
Tickets are available through Eventbrite:

Location:
KMFA Draylen Mason Studio
41 Navasota Street, Austin, TX 78702

About Ventana Ballet

Ventana Ballet is a professional dance company based in Austin, TX, specializing in contemporary ballet dance performance. The word ventana, meaning window, embodies the company’s organizational mission and vision, seeking to provide artistically relevant, technically proficient, and publicly accessible dance performance and education opportunities to the community. Ventana Ballet’s mission is to inspire, entertain and educate audiences through disciplined and innovative approaches to presenting next-generation choreographic works. More information about Ventana Ballet can be found on the company website at VentanaBallet.com.

This article was provided courtesy of Ventana Ballet.