Kansas City Ballet Features BIG Music in February

Naturally Kansas City Ballet Music Director Ramona Pansegrau is drawn to music.

When asked why she feels live music is superior to recorded music for dance performances, she had some interesting insights.

“When it’s live everyone is living in the moment,” she says. “It just feels different for me and for the dancers. It’s half of the art form. I can follow the dancer as far as they want to go. It’s scarier and it takes nerves of steel, but, for me, music is the soul of dance.”

Kansas City Ballet is poised to heat up February with four ballets that pack a big musical punch.

“It’s just fabulous music,” says Music Director Ramona Pansegrau. “All the pieces are so different from each other. You can’t pick a favorite because they are all wonderful in their own way. I am looking forward to conducting them.”

The show begins with George Balanchine’s iconic Apollo. This masterful piece is performed to Stravinsky’s Apollon musagète by Stravinsky in 1928. Apollo and three goddesses will bedazzle audiences with beauty and grace.

Then Twyla Tharp’s As Time Goes By is performed to Haydn’s “Farewell” Symphony. Ramona shared the story that Haydn and his orchestra were staying with a wealthy patron for a summer away from their families. It was nearing the end of the summer and Haydn and the musicians were ready to return home, but they had not been dismissed. This piece has movements that trickle off and in the original performance, the musicians even left the stage with their candles and stands. The day after the piece premiered, the patron released Haydn and the musicians to return home.

Ben Stevenson’s End of Time is set to the music of Rachmaninov’s Cello Sonata. This 130-year-old piece will feature Kansas City Symphony principal cellist Mark Gibbs with Ramona Pansegrau at the keyboard.

“I can’t wait for audiences to see it [the pas de deux]. It’s what you dream of…it’s just beautiful ballet,” says Pansegrau.

The final ballet of the night, Firebird is based on a Russian folk tale. Choreographed in 2004, Yuri Possokhov’s Firebird used Stravinsky’s 1945 Firebird Suite. Possokhov reimagined the story as a love triangle between the Firebird, a hero and a Princess. A young man, Ivan, encounters the Firebird in the forest and captures her, but ultimately decides to set her free. She falls in love with him and rewards his kindness with the gift of a magic feather that can be used to summon her in times of need. Ivan then discovers a beautiful princess and her attendants, all enchanted by the evil magician, Kaschei. Ivan calls for the Firebird’s help and she assists him in defeating the sorcerer. Ivan and the freed princess fall in love, and he and the Firebird are separated forever.

Both Stravinsky works on the program were written for ballet. Stravinsky’s music for the Firebird began with his first version in 1911. He constantly reworked it to be exactly right for dance. KCB will use his version from 1945 (or the third version) which is the least heard of his rewrites. “It’s a more compact, condensed orchestration and the piano has a big role,” says Pansegrau.

“I met Yuri two years ago at Jacob’s Pillow,” Pansegrau said. “Then Bill called him to ask to do his version of Firebird which is very approachable and a story ballet in one act that the audience is sure to enjoy.”

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