IF YOU GOWhat: Chattanooga Ballet performancesWhat: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, May 10-11What: UTC Fine Arts Center, 752 Vine St.What: $15 adults, $13 seniors, students and childrenWhat: 423-425-4269
After nine years as a principal dancer, Amanda Walker Gray will make her final appearance with Chattanooga Ballet as Odette, the Queen of the Swans, in “Swan Lake.”PRINCIPAL DANCERS• Amanda Walker Gray: Odette, the Queen of the Swans. A 2006 recipient of the Tennessee Arts Commission fellowship for artistic excellence in dance performance, she has spent the last nine years as a principal dancer with Chattanooga Ballet.• Eduard Forehand: Prince Siegfried. A dancer from the Louisville Ballet, he may be remembered for his portrayal of Albrecht in Chattanooga Ballet’s production of “Giselle.”• Dillon Davis: Von Rotbart. A graduate of the Center for Creative Arts, he began training at Chattanooga Ballet at age 12. His professional career began at Alabama Ballet, and he is currently a soloist at Dance Theatre of Tennessee in Nashville.• Professional company members Kirsten Hyde, Era Terry, Hope Smisson and Laura Schlatter will be dancing the roles of the Grande Signets.
Chattanooga Ballet will present a repertoire standard, the second act of “Swan Lake,” as well as three new works in two performances this weekend at the UTC Fine Arts Center.
Musically and as a dance drama, “Swan Lake” is the most popular of all classical ballets, says Chattanooga Ballet general director Bob Willie. The famous second act is danced by almost every ballet company in the world.
“Swan Lake” was first presented at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in 1877 with music by Tchaikovsky and choreography by Julius Reisinger. That production was superseded by a new choreographic version by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov at the Maryinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg in February 1894. Their version has been passed down from generation to generation.