Ballet Quad Cities' “Love Stories,” February 11 and 12

Friday, February 11, and Saturday, February 12

The Outing Club, 2109 North Brady Street, Davenport IA

On February 11 and 12 at Davenport's Outing Club, the Quad Cities' professional dance company Ballet Quad Cities will present its traditional assemblage of vignettes Love Stories, and this year's collection of Valentine's Weekend pieces will climax with what is perhaps the love story: William Shakespeare's timeless, tragic tale of Romeo and Juliet. Don't worry, though. Before Ballet Quad Cities breaks hearts, they'll be giving audiences plenty of reasons for cheer.

With the 2022 Love Stories a two-act performance running roughly 90 minutes, Ballet Quad Cities' artistic director Courtney Lyon says that Act I will last roughly 25 minutes, with its five individual works “shorter, lighthearted, fun pieces with a lot of different dance styles.” Artistic associate Emily Kate Long is choreographing two of them – “Special Delivery,” in which dancers will hand-deliver a valentine to an audience member, and “Dream a Little Dream,” a showcase for dancer Madeleine Rhode and the chill sounds of the Mamas & the Papas – and staging choreographer August Bournoville's highly regarded “Flower Festival in Genzano.” As Lyon says, “That one has two young lovers flirting and courting each other, and in the ballet world, it's a very well-know piece that, to be quite honest, kicks dancers' butts. You really have to know your stuff. It's awesome.”

Joining those three works on the Act I docket is an excerpt from “Rye Whiskey,” whose choreographer Lynn Bowman calls is “a product of a lot of laughter, creativity, and good old-fashioned dancing.” And Love Stories' first act is completed by “12 Temperaments,” a work choreographed by company favorite Domingo Rubio (Drosselmeyer in The Nutcracker; Dracula in many productions) when the popular guest performer was in the area for three weeks near the year's end. Says the piece's choreographer, “Paganini’s Capricio is one of the music scores that have the most diverse qualities in terms of moods – a dramatic subtle emotional drive that veers at some points into comedy. The 12 variations on a theme are an invitation to the audience to dive through their hearing into the depths of human emotion and an excellent opportunity for any dancer to explore their own physicality freeing themselves from any stereotypes.”

After intermission, however, Ballet Quad Cities unveils what Lyon calls “The heavy hitter!”: excerpts from Sergei Prokofiev's legendary Romeo & Juliet Suite whose concept and choreography are by Lyons herself, and which Cedar Rapids' Paramount Theatre premiered in 2015 before the piece made its way to the Quad Cities and, eventually, Iowa Public Television.

Calling the nearly hour-long performance a “gut-wrenching” piece that “really pulls on your heartstrings,” Lyon adds, “What's so great is that the music really takes you on a journey. You meet Romeo and Juliet when they're both young and hopeful and full of life and spirit, and there's these great pieces of music where the Capulets and the Montagues are battling on the street, and then there's a sweet bedroom scene where Romeo and Juliet vow to be together forever – and that's where I bring Fate in.”

Designing her take on Romeo & Juliet with its three main characters being the titular lovers and Fate itself, Lyon says, “Fate, to me, is like the master of ceremonies. He already knows those two are going to die, and we in the audience know they're going to die, but Romeo and Juliet don't know the future that's coming. So Fate arrives with a crew of angels – they're not sinister, really, but they're representative of the afterlife – and there are a lot of different themes.

“It's all very intense, emotionally,” Lyon continues, “and it's very intense physically, and the music is very intense. But I do end on an up note with Romeo and Juliet going to the afterlife together with a beautiful pas de deux at the end. So that gives us hope for … something.” She laughs. “We want to make people happy before they leave!”

With company members Nicholas Bartolotti dancing Romeo and Christian Knopp portraying Fate, the role of Juliet is danced by Eleanor Ambler, an East Coast native who joined Ballet Quad Cities' company in August for the beginning of the 2021-22 season.

“I've been dancing since I was itty bitty,” says Ambler. “Like three years old or so. My family lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and I grew up training in Boston Ballet School. And since then, I've been performing up and down the East Coast and a lot in Rhode Island before coming here” – a locale change that Ambler calls “a little bit of a sudden process.

“Things had gotten sort of shaken up with COVID in terms of performing out there,” she says, “so I was looking for somewhere to go. There's a Facebook audition group for dancers, and I saw that Ballet Quad Cities was hiring, and I knew some people who had been out here. Actually, I knew people who knew people who had been out here. They said it was a great company, so I sent in my materials, and they offered me a contract, and I moved out, like, two weeks later! It was very quick.”

With her previous performance credits including Swan Lake and George Balanchine's Serenade, Ambler says that among her favorite dance experiences to date, “Juliet is definitely ranking in the top right now. This is my first time getting to explore more of a lead role in a story ballet, so that's really exciting. Nick and I are stage for a lot of it, so it's been a lot to learn all the choreography, and to get into Juliet's head and figure out the character. But it's also really fulfilling to be on stage for that amount of time, because I feel that you can sort of settle into it. And not feel like, 'Oh, I have to get out there for my three minutes and then go back offstage and do it all again.'

“Emotionally, it is a lot,” Ambler admits of Romeo & Juliet. “But Nick and Christian have both been really great in terms of if there's something that's not working, when we have a break for lunch or whatever, we can get together and figure out, 'Hey, what's going on with this lift or this part of the story?' And Courtney and Emily Kate have a lot of insights into ballet technique, and also in terms of performing and developing characters. It's really been an honor to work with all the dancers and to get to explore different roles. And the audiences here and so great and so enthusiastic … Everyone's just been so nice. It's been a really great experience.”

Ballet Quad Cities' Love Stories will be presented at Davenport's Outing Club on February 11 and 12, with the 6:30 p.m. performances (doors at 5:30 p.m.) boasting a Taste of Italy buffet and cash bar, and Saturday's 1 p.m. performance (doors at noon) featuring refreshments available for purchase. Admission is $30-60, and more information and tickets are available by calling (309)786-3778 and visiting BalletQuadCities.com.