Observation Of Columbia City Ballet

On Saturday, March 24, 2018, I attended Columbia City Ballet’s performance featuring Cleopatra at the Koger Center for the Arts. Columbia City Ballet’s artistic director is William Starrett with 24 company members; including four principle dancers. Cleopatra was an evening length ballet that consisted of two similar acts. The first act of this ballet included five scenes and the second act involved six scenes. This ballet was about a legendary queen, Cleopatra, allure both Julius Caesar and Marc Anthony with her powerful personality and extraordinary charms. During the first act of this ballet began in Cleopatra’s bed chamber. This scene started with a soloist, Charmain Handmaid to Cleopatra, that entered from right front diagonal. As she

Their movement that they performed seemed almost like they were having a competition between the three. One male, performed a chassé into a triple pas de Basque with a quadruple pirouette. The second male, started with a chassé into a switch leap on the right side. The third male, however, did not begin with a chassé. He began with a entre cinq into six À la seconde turns on the left. I thought this was surprising because I have never seen someone perform left turns. After these three soloists, three other males enter left stage hold a large red rug. The walked to center stage and sat the rug down and each of the males bent down and touched the rug once before walking away. Alcebiades, traitor to Cleopatra, looked at the rug and rolled it out. Cleopatra came out from the rug in a two-piece red costume. She stood up and walked to the front of the stage and bourreéd to the left and chasséd into a grand jeté. She ran to Alcebiades and jumped into his arms as he lifted her up above his head. Following the lift, Alcebiades and Cleopatra exited the stage and the lights

This scene had minimal dancing because it was more interacting and talking to one another conspiring to murder Julius Caesar. The movement that was performed consisted of a straight legged turn with a flexed foot into a tour jeté and an arabesque. Calpurnia is horrified to find her blood-stained husband dead on the thorn platform and blamed Cleopatra for her loss. After seeing the death, Cleopatra fears that she is in danger as she ran around the stage. She ran into Alcebiades where he forced her to flee Rome.
The third scene, Cleopatra’s barge, the attendants entered the stage in all white costume with a white sash around the body. This entire scene, the females danced in a diagonal in a cannon as Cleopatra sat at the right upstage corner. As she is sitting in the chair, two males were standing there fanning her with two palm branches. Moving into a circle, the females performed a fan kick, soutenu, rond de jambe en l’air, glissade, and bourreé. As March Anthony confronts Cleopatra, they both walked downstage in a diagonal together and exited the