Arts Guides Fall 2019 Preview: North Jersey | Page 67

All American Evening features the
American Masterwork Rodeo by
Agnes de Mille with score by Aar-
on Copeland, Margo Sappington’s
haunting pas de deux Waterfront,
and Matthew Rushing’s tribute to
Count Basie, Hand in Hand and
James Kinney’s Civil War hom-
age American Salute. De Mille
first staged Rodeo in 1942 for the
Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. The
piece is said to have changed the
face of ballet in America by taking
the American style of dance and
infusing into a ballet structure.
“De Mille wanted to use her ex-
perience and her American ideas
and stories in a ballet structure,”
explained Paul H. McRae, the As-
sistant Director of New Jersey Bal-
let. “So it was to take a story about
a young cowgirl who is kind of
a tom boy and wants to ride the
range with the cowboys. At the
same time, she has a crush on one
of the cowboys. Then she realizes
the cowboy that’s her friend is re-
2019 FALL PREVIEW
ally the one that has a crush on her.
“The Copeland music is beauti-
ful,” continued McRae. “The open-
ing section is cinematic and there’s
a section where the girls come in
and they’re collecting their guys
from the range and getting ready
to go off for a Saturday night.”
Based on its success of Rodeo, de
Mille was hired to choreograph the
musical Oklahoma! the following
year and would go on to choreo-
graph many musicals include Car-
ousel, Brigadoon, Gentlemen Pre-
fer Blondes, and Paint Your Wagon.
The classic Hansel & Gretel is a
lively re-telling of the well-known
fairy tale about a brother and
sister who wander into a forest
where they are captured by a
witch in a fantastic gingerbread
house. The spunky youngsters de-
feat the witch, free other children
she had baked into gingerbread
and are reunited with their loving
parents in the happily-ever-after
finale.
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