Ballet Quad Cities' “Ballet on the Lawn” and “Giraffes Can't Dance,” August 27

Giraffes Can't Dance: Sunday, August 27, noon

Ballet on the Lawn: Sunday, August 27, 3 & 6 p.m.

The Outing Club, 2109 North Brady Street, Davenport IA

For the first presentations in the company's 2023-24 season, the professional talents of Ballet Quad Cities will, for the fourth straight year, open with an outdoor celebration at Davenport's Outing Club, treating patrons to another series of thrilling vignettes in Ballet on the Lawn. This year, however, the dancers are doubling down on their family-friendly fun by preceding the August 27 productions with Children's Day at the Ballet, a youth-centric event culminating in the half-hour stage party Giraffes Can't Dance.

“Our Ballet on the Lawn performances, in and of themselves, are very family-friendly,” says Ballet Quad Cities Artistic Associate and Giraffes Can't Dance choreographer Emily Kate Long. ”It's a little shorter than our other performances, and the setting is very casual. But Children's Day is something [Ballet Quad Cities CEO and founder] Joedy Cook has been wanting to do for a long while, and this year seemed like a great opportunity to have an inaugural one and see how it goes. I'm very, very excited for it.”

With the Outing Club's mid-afternoon and evening performances boasting seven stylistically and musically varied vignettes, this year's Ballet on the Lawn repertoire sounds equally engaging. The productions begin, appropriately enough, with choreographer Long's “Outing Club 1928,” a period piece featuring company dancers Sahsha Amaut, Eleanor Ambler, Sierra DeYoung, Stephanie Eggers, Jayne Friscia, Christian Knopp, Madeline Kreszenz, and Mahalia Zellmer. “It's a fun story about that time period," says Ballet Quad Cities Artistic Director Courtney Lyon, "and there's a speakeasy – and it's literally at the Outing Club on the lawn. It felt like a perfect way to start." That opener will be followed by a solo from the well-known Russian ballet Flames of Paris (originally choreographed by Vasily Vainonen and reinterpreted by Long), with Madeline Rhode dancing the lead at 3 p.m. and Kira Roberts taking over for the 6 p.m. production. “This is something that, a lot of times, you see on-stage as a stand-alone piece, or in a competition,” says Lyon. “It's a short, sweet, very difficult classical variation. Tutus and pointe shoes.”

As danced by Ambler, DeYoung, Friscia, Knopp, and Kreszenz, Ballet on the Lawn's third vignette is a home-grown product of two of Ballet Quad Cities' company members. “Eleanor Ambler has been with us for three season, and she also writes poetry on the side. And Mahalia [Zellmer] has choreographic talent and desire. So we paired those two together for Mahalia to bring one of Eleanor's poems to the stage. Mahalia is creating a collage with music and a sampling of some musical sounds that she's putting together with some recordings of Eleanor's poem “Poetry in Motion.” It's like a modern-dance soundscape of the poem, and something cool and totally different for us.”

Next up is another as-yet-untitled piece, this one danced by Zellmer alongside Marcus Pei and Jillian Van Cura, and choreographed by Deepali Phanse of the D4Dance Academy in Bettendorf. “She does classical and folk Indian dance – she teaches it and choreographs and performs it herself – and has done a couple things with us before. So she's taking a Bollywood approach with this piece, and it's so much fun and tremendously high energy. It makes you start clapping and cheering about halfway through.”

A tap piece choreographed and performed by current Augustana College Ava Coussens follows. “This is so cool,” says Lyon, “because I've known Ava since she was three years old or something. She started training at Ballet Quad Cities School of Dance when she was really little and just never stopped; she probably never missed a class. She's an extremely talented performer in all styles of dance, really, but tap particularly.” (Lyon adds, “I love tap. My goal is still to retire and be one of those tappers in little hot pants and stuff." She laughs. "We'll see if that happens!”)

Choreographer Lyon's popular, frequently performed rendition of Claude Debussy's "Clair du Lune" closes Act I with dancers Ambler, Rhode, and Roberts. "I felt like it was the right time to bring the piece back," Lyon says, "because it's so soft, it's very romantic, and, of course, it's Debussy, so most people know the music even if they don't think they do. I thought it would be a nice ending to Ballet on the Lawn's explosive first half."

And following the intermission, Ballet Quad Cities' full dance company will stage a work-in-progress rendition of Lyon's La Creation du Monde (The Creation of the Earth), which will enjoy full performances this spring at Cedar Rapids Paramount Theatre and the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts. "We'll be collaborating with Orchestra Iowa in April for a performance with live jazz music," says Lyon, "so I'm going to put it on stage now and keep tweaking it. It's one of those deals where it's such a meaty piece that I have to work on it by seeing how it works in front of an audience."

Before the first of August 27's two Ballet on the Lawn performances starts, however, Ballet Quad Cities will treat Outing Club patrons to the company's first-ever Children's Day at the Ballet. “We'' have snacks for kids like donuts and breakfast-y things,” says Lyon, “and there'll be activities for them that are themed around the ballet. They'll get to meet the dancers, some of whom will be in costume. And they'll get to hear the story of Gerald the Giraffe, who learns to trust the beat of his own drummer.”

Based on the popular picture book by author Giles Andreae and illustrator Guy Parker-Rees, choreographer Long's 30-minute ballet of Giraffes Can't Dance, she says, “started out as a 'Dance Me a Story,' which is the Ballet Quad Cities outreach program that we take to grade-school classrooms, to community centers, to libraries. So there was already sort of a choreographic concept behind it, and it was such a hit that we thought, 'Oh, wow, maybe this could be developed into an entire package for children.'”

As Long describes Giraffes Can't Dance, “The setting is this jungle dance, and there's this giraffe who's very clumsy. All the other animals are showing off their skills and showing off their dance moves, and when it's the giraffe's turn, he gets laughed off the floor because he can't dance very well. So he walks off lonely into the moonlight, but he finds some encouragement from one of his friends. He finds his beat, finds his rhythm, and then all of the other animals get excited and supportive. It's a little conflict and a lot of uplift.”

Seven Ballet Quad Cities dancers, among them Eleanor Amber as Gerald, participate in Giraffes Can't Dance, and as Long says, “It's very colorful and very, very fun, with the music featuring tons of different styles. Because of Dance Me a Story, the ballet has been seen by every elementary student in the Pleasant Valley district and all of the first-graders in Rock Island already. But we want every child in the Quad Cities to be able to see it.”

With both events taking place on August 27, Children's Day at the Ballet begins at 11 a.m. with face painting, treats, storytelling, personal appearances by the dancers, and more followed by a performance of Giraffes Can't Dance at noon. Ballet on the Lawn performances follow at 3 and 6 p.m., with beverages and charcuterie picnic boxes available for purchase. Tickets are $10-20 for the Children's Day at the Ballet and $15-30 for Ballet on the Lawn, and more information and reservations are available by calling (309)786-3779 and visiting BalletQuadCities.com.