MOMENTUM FOCUS:
PREMIERE BALLET “WHIPPED CREAM!” IS ALL ABOUT FAMILY
[September 5, 2024]
AMB dancer and ballet master Erin Alarcón – creator of works including The Wizard of Oz and last season’s standout Fragile Creatures – has described her new ballet as “a joyous, nostalgic tribute to summer in the 1960s.”
Beyond that, the new ballet also has a secret identity: it’s a tribute to Erin’s own family and to her “dance family” at AMB.
The idea for Whipped Cream! began early in the summer, she said, when AMB artistic director Erika Overturff asked if she was interested in creating a new work for the Season 15 Momentum program. Erin recalls that she stalled at first.
“But that day happened to be the same day as my grandmother’s 90th birthday,” she said. “My dad sent me a group of photos of my grandma and my grandpa and himself and my extended family from back in the ’60s, when he was a little boy. The pictures show the same beach that I went to with my dad when I was a child. I loved them. It made me feel nostalgic. So three hours after talking to Erika, I sent her an email that said, ‘Hey, I have this idea…’”
Set on a seaside boardwalk, the ballet’s eight lively sections unfold like an album of vacation snapshots, from tennis games (“My grandparents played tennis all the time, and they fought like cats and dogs!”, Erin recalls) to the smokey cigar bars where they’d go to dance in the evening.
“My grandparents were born and raised in Ecuador,” she said. “They moved to the United States in the late 1950s, and they didn’t know anybody. There were obstacles. But they started a family… a beautiful, big, extended family that I am a part of. They created a wonderful life for themselves despite the unknowns.
“They are very different situations, but I find similarities to my own move to the Midwest to join the company that eventually became American Midwest Ballet. I didn’t know anything about the Midwest, and I didn’t know what this company was going to turn into. But 15 years later, I consider these dancers my family. Whipped Cream! is a little 15th anniversary gift to my dance family and a thank-you to my personal family.”
BIG NEWS: LIVE MUSIC!
Erin revealed something else that wasn’t in the initial Momentum announcements: Whipped Cream! will feature live music. Omaha trumpeter Doyle Tipler, leader of the sizzling combo that accompanied AMB’s production of Swing, Swing, Swing, is putting together a band that will perform onstage with the dancers.
“I think that Doyle did an amazing job with Swing, Swing, Swing,” Erin said. “I absolutely adored both times I got to perform alongside him and his band. I think that live music adds such a wonderful element for the audience, and also for the dancers. There’s something that seems almost dangerous about dancing to live music – it feels like anything can happen, and then it always comes together. I just love that feeling!”
“My grandpa was one of the coolest guys ever, without even trying,” Erin recalls. “One thing that he really hammered home to me was: ‘They can take everything away from you in this world, except for what’s in here and what’s in here,’ – and then he’d point to his head and point to his heart. He meant that you should use your brain and be intelligent, but live with kindness in your heart and find the joyful places.
“I’ve really tried to bring that idea to this piece. I’m trying to make it as much from my heart as possible, and I want the dancers to dance the same way. I want them to really live in the moment, and dance with and for one another. I’m just so happy to share that.
“My grandpa is no longer with us, but I’m absolutely sure he’d love this ballet!”
Performances of Momentum will be at 7:30 pm Friday and Saturday, October 18 and 19, and at 2 pm Sunday, October 20, all at the Hoff Family Arts & Culture Center in Council Bluffs. Good seats are still available if you act now.
All programming is subject to change.