No Nutcracker Here: Forging New Path's with Ilena Norton | Ballet Ariel
Ballet Ariel presents original ballets that combine classical tradition and images of contemporary culture, while providing dance education and fostering appreciation of the art of ballet.
You founded Ballet Ariel in 1998, tell me about your journey- what led you here?
I have always loved ballet. I studied as a child, but my main artistic training was actually the piano. I studied piano quite seriously and competed as a pianist, but then in college, I studied to become a physician and ballet was more of a hobby for me during that period, but I continued to enjoy studying ballet because I always wanted to be an artist. I studied with a great master teacher Larry Boyette, who had danced American Ballet Theatre in the 30s and 40s, and he was very inspiring. He talked a lot about working with Anthony Tudor, who was a great choreographer, so he inspired me to get interested in choreography. I started choreographing mostly as a hobby in the beginning but then around the time I turned 40, I had a terrible personal tragedy that caused me to change my focus dramatically. I looked to art for healing and I really focused a lot more on my work in the arts. Gradually I transitioned from practicing medicine to working in the arts full time.
Ballet Ariel’s Director Ilena Norton with dance Isabella Ginter
How has Ballet Ariel evolved over the years, and what sets you apart from other local ballet companies?
When I started the ballet company I wasn't that serious of a choreographer yet, so I was more interested in bringing people together. The early shows that we did were kind of a compilation of different people and artists who were contributing works and I didn't really envision myself as a full-time choreographer. But gradually over the years as I became more interested in choreography, I began to be more focused on creating original ballets, in particular larger ballets, and full-length work. That really is my strength, to be able to create full-length ballets with a narrative or story focus.
What was the impetus for founding a new organization rather than working for another organization and doing choreography there?
I think that the message I got was that I needed to have my own company to be able to choreograph, and I still find that to be the case. You need to have dancers who work with you on a regular basis to be able to create works, and so that's what led me to start the company.
You have taken a big leap (no pun intended) and decided to stray from the traditional Nutcracker during the holiday season. It’s my understanding that Nutcracker is a big money maker for most ballets, and in fact, much of the sustaining season revenue is generated through those performances for many companies. What prompted that decision and how do you think it strengthens Ballet Ariel?
I didn't grow up doing The Nutcracker so I don't have that incredible attachment or fondness for it that a lot of ballet dancers have, and since our mission is creating original works, in my mind it doesn’t really fit to be doing a ballet that is done by hundreds of companies. I think last year there were something like 20-plus organizations in the Denver metro area that did The Nutcracker, and I just decided we need to do something else that would differentiate us from everyone else. We also don't have a school and The Nutcracker is really designed for that setting. In the original Nutcracker, performed in Russia, the lead characters were played by students. As a production, it has always had a real emphasis on being attached to school.
Yoshiko Brunson as the White Witch and Brandy Carwile as Edmund in Ballet Ariel's The Lion, the Witch and the Wadrobe.
Last year in lieu of a Nutcracker you performed The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, is that going to be something that you will do again?
At this point, I'm planning to do The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe again for our holiday ballet. It's always been my dream to have more than one rotation of holiday ballets that we could do, so I hope to get to that point eventually.
Talk to me a little bit more about the artistic process, what does it look like to create a new ballet?
Sometimes I develop a ballet from scratch with just a story to start from, and sometimes I'll remake ballets that have already been created. Often I’ll take an established ballet or score and remake it in a new creative way. This season we are doing The Three-Cornered Hat, a famous ballet choreographed by Léonide Massine, based on a book written by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón. The book is a very comical story, and the initial ballet that was created is very different from the book; it doesn't follow the story that closely. My specialty is narrative ballet. I often go back and study the original narratives and I will create something closer to the original story, which I will do in this case.
Sometimes, like with The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, where there's no score, and no ballet, we actually create the whole thing from scratch. People who have come to see it say that they're amazed that we were able to tell the whole story through the ballet. It is kind of a challenging story to tell because the whole story is a journey where they're traveling through the land of Narnia. It’s hard to do a traveling story in a ballet because it's all on one stage, but we were able to do it!
Maya Vought as Lucy, Marcelina Gaudini-Lancaster as Susan, a ... s in Ballet Ariel's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
For people who are not familiar with this process, how does that start for you when you have to develop all of the choreography from scratch?
I start by studying the scenario for the ballet, and once I start studying the scenario certain images start to come into my head. I begin visualizing different scenes and how this storyline will flow. Once I get sort of that worked out in more detail, then I start writing down the dances and deciding exactly what dances are going to be part of the ballet. I study the music and decide what's going to motivate the dances, and then from there, it's experimenting with different movements to create the movement of the different characters in the story.
Is there any sort of formula? Are there certain moves that mean something specific or that would prompt a certain idea or feeling from people? If you wanted to show a certain emotion would you choose a specific move to portray that emotion?
I try to be creative, but there are certain movements in ballet that often project different meanings, and there's a lot of mime in classical ballet, so if you go back to the great classics, they've developed a lot of mime to express storylines. Sometimes I'll go back and use some of the old forms, but a lot of times I'm creating new ones too.
Do you still do ballet?
I wish I could. I don't really have time, and it’s very hard as you get older; if you don't keep it up, if you don't stay in shape, ballet, unlike other forms of dance, is not something you can just walk into a class and do. When I was a little bit younger, I used to dance over the summer but now that's gotten difficult to do because it's not something that you can start and stop especially as you age, you kind of have to do it on a regular basis, and I just don’t have time.
What do you think is the biggest challenge today facing the classical arts, ballet specifically?
I think the biggest issue that we're dealing with is the loss of the classics, especially classical music, from our culture. It is increasingly not being taught in schools, and it's also disappearing from public spaces. You no longer hear classical music when you go to restaurants, cafes, or coffee shops. You rarely hear classical music at all anymore and since it's not being taught in the schools, children are not getting exposed to classical music, so I think I think that’s the biggest issue. People are not getting exposed to it anymore, so they don't necessarily develop an interest in it. I feel the audience for the classics is shrinking.
What do you want your legacy to be? What’s the mark you hope to leave on this world with the work you do?
Well, I always wanted to get people excited about ballet and that's why I started doing what I was doing because I love it and I want people to be excited about it. I want people to go to the ballet and to see stories that interest them. I get comments that people are not that interested in ballet but they really like coming to my ballets because my ballets are interesting, and a lot of that has to do with focusing on topics and stories that are relevant to people today.
What’s on the horizon for Ballet Ariel?
I talked about the Three Corner Hat, and then I also worked with another choreographer quite a bit, Gregory Gonzales, and we're going to be doing his Carmen Suite he choreographed a few years ago for our spring show. Then for our fall show, we're doing Cinderella, which is the traditional Cinderella, but we have a little bit of a more modern take on it. We updated some of the characters, like the step-sisters, we’ve made them a little bit more contemporary in style, and other things like that. It's a beautiful score and a popular story, and of course, we're also doing The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe again, so we're excited to be presenting it for the second time and if people missed it the first time they have another chance to see it!
Oleg Dedogryuk as Aslan with Abigayle Reiber and Marcelina Gaudini-Lancaster in Ballet Ariel's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.