‘The Dream’ Ballet Debuts At The Met

The world premiere of a new ballet by Sally Broadbent, “The Dream,” will be staged this weekend at The Met by Theatre Ballet of Spokane.

Six guest dancers will join the company of 16 to perform a 45-minute neo-classical dance based on Shakespeare’s comedy “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The spring performance by Theatre Ballet, a local troupe of young non-professional dancers, will open with a 15-minute jazz dance choreographed by Jeff Amsden. Eight dancers will perform in the piece titled “Strike Up the Band.”

Many choreographers have created ballets from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream;” some are full-length ballets, others, like Broadbent’s, are dances which tell only a small portion of the story. “The Dream” will encompass the night spent in the woods in Shakespeare’s play. The dancers will perform the roles of fairies, sprites (including the famous Puck), and a changeling child.

“This ballet is the dream part of the whole play,” says Broadbent, the co-artistic director of Theatre Ballet.

Among the guest dancers who will perform in “The Dream” are Phillip Broadbent and Bernard Delgado.

Sets for the ballet were rented from a Las Vegas dance company, the costume head for the donkey Bottom was rented from Eugene Ballet. The ballet is set to the music of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdi.

“The dance is neo-classical but it’s dramatic, as well,” says Broadbent. “The story will be told by Don Caron prior to the beginning of the dancing rather than reading through the ballet.”

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with story: Theatre Ballet of Spokane Location and time: The Met, Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets: $10, $8 for students/seniors