MIAMI CITY BALLET
Dance St. Louis--with major help from Southeast Missouri State University (SEMO)--undertook the major project of bringing the internationally renowned Miami City Ballet to Cape Girardeau and Sikeston, April 7-11, 2002. It took four years of planning, a prestigious grant from the Wallace-Reader's Digest Funds, four planes, a 56 passenger bus, and a handful of cars to get Miami City Ballet down to Cape Giardeau, but when they finally arrived they took this Missouri river town by storm. Dance St. Louis' Technical Director Larry Biedenstein and crew helped by toiling with a fork lift to move Dance St. Louis' 10 ton sprung floor into Blanchard Elementary in Cape Girardeau for a lecture demonstration at which 160 5th graders got to see Edward Villela narrate an in-school lecture demonstration with members from his company. The following day, Miami City Ballet, Dance St. Louis and Marc Strauss from SEMO moved the lecture demonstration down to Sikeston, Missouri and performed for 800 local middle school students. Education events also included SEMO dance students and dance students from area studios who were able to participate in two master classes taught by Edward Villela.
The Cape Girardeau residency ended with a glorious, sold-out performance at the Forrest H. Rose Theatre on SEMO's campus. The evening included Rubies, an excerpt from George Balanchine's masterpiece Jewels, The Quick-Step: Unspeakable Jazz Must Go! and Mambo No. 2 A.M. both choreographed by Edward Villella.
In St. Louis, Miami City Ballet danced beautifully at the Young People's Performance at the Fabulous Fox. Over 1,000 St. Louis area students had the opportunity to connect with Edward Villella, one of the greatest and nicest stars in the dance world, and see the gorgeous Miami City Ballet perform excerpts from Balanchine's masterpiece, Jewels. It was a rare treat for students and audiences in St. Louis, Cape Girardeau and Sikeston. This project was funded by a grant from Wallace-Reader's Digest Funds and by support from U.S. Bank.