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Community Corner

Menlowe Ballet Presents Lineage

In its fifth season, Menlowe
Ballet
presents Lineage–Artistic Director Michael

Lowe’s homage to the rich historical legacy he received during his
30-plus years as a principal dancer and choreographer with Oakland Ballet Company

under the leadership of Founding Artistic Director, Ronn Guidi. The program features Lowe’s
Tribute
and Serie,
and Guidi’s Trois
Gymnopédies
and

Romeo and Juliet Pas de Deux.



Performances are Friday and Saturday, November 15 & 16 at 8:00
p.m., and Sunday, November
17 at 2:00 p.m
., at Menlo-Atherton
Performing Arts Center, 555 Middlefield Road, Atherton, CA 94027.

Tickets may be purchased at
www.menloweballet.org or by calling (800) 595-4TIX (4849).

Tribute,
a world premiere honors Lowe’s participation in two seminal productions of
Ravel’s Bolero.
First in 1974, as an original cast member in Marc Wilde’s Bolero, and again
in 1995 when Oakland staged Bronislava Nijinska’s 1928 version. In Tribute, Lowe references
both works, weaving in his own choreographic voice, and exploring Ravel’s
original musical intentions. Lowe collaborated with musicians Paul Stinson and Randy Ahmann to
create a new arrangement of Ravel’s score. Six musicians perform live on stage
for each performance.

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Guidi, who founded Oakland Ballet in 1965, choreographed
over 50 ballets of his own. Since his retirement in 1998, his works have rarely
been seen. For Menlowe Ballet, Guidi gives the company two ballets which
represent both ends of his choreographic spectrum. An early work from 1961, Trois Gymnopédies and
the romantic balcony scene pas de deux from Guidi’s acclaimed 1993 full-length Romeo and Juliet.


“Menlowe Ballet seems like the logical home for my ballets,” says Guidi. “It’s

been a joy for me to watch Michael grow from dancer, to gifted choreographer,

and now to Artistic Director. Michael knows my work well, so adding my ballets

to the Menlowe Ballet repertoire is exciting. It’s as if it’s all still part of

the family.”







 

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