Presenting dance outdoors in an urban setting like the Brickyard at Temple Court sounds risky considering the irregular surface of the brick pavers and the fact that it rained much of the day Saturday. Yet Neos Dance Theatre’s Ballet @ the Brickyard Saturday evening proceeded without a hitch. The event also included performances from the Renaissance Theatre’s production of “Peter Pan” and Ashland Regional Ballet.
Neos Dance Theatre Artistic Director and co-founder Bobby Wesner opened the evening saying, “This is a huge goal, a huge passion, of mine to continually produce performances like the one you’ll see tonight. We do a lot of story ballets, as we call them. Whether or not they’re ballets doesn’t really matter. Tonight what you’re going to see is reparatory: three totally different pieces like walking through a museum and looking at three totally different pieces of art.”
The uneven bricks giving the Brickyard its name were not an issue. The mobile stage, purchased with funding from the Richland County Foundation, was erected the day before and leveled perfectly to support the performances.
The Renaissance Theatre opened the evening performances with selections from the upcoming production of “Peter Pan,” including a song by Peter Pan and the Lost Boys and Capt. Hook and the pirates. The production will be performed at the Renaissance Theatre on Aug. 1, 2, 8, 9, and 10.
The Ashland Regional Ballet performed “Danza Caliente,” choreographed by Jennifer Lathan. The dancers included Carlyna Crum, Amanda Ehrmantraut, Elyse Kulka, Jennifer Latham, Sabrina Lindhout, Nadia Maggelet, Anna McMillen, Jamie Swartzentruder, Claire Thrasher and Brittany Wentworth.
Ballet Mistress Jennifer Latham explained that the ballet’s Opus II Dance Studio, a nonprofit extension of Ashland Regional Ballet, allows dance students a pre-professional experience. They perform six or seven shows a year, including a performance of “The Nutcracker.”
“We do an annual outdoor performance in Ashland at the band shell in August,” said Latham, citing another outdoor performance. “Our entire school is featured in it.”
Neos Dance Theatre performed three pieces: “Slow moving and almost stopped” was choreographed by Artistic Director Bobby Wesner, “Flight” was choreographed by Penny Saunders, and “Spinning Plates” was choreographed by Bobby Wesner.
The Neos dancers included Juliana Freude, Mary-Elizabeth Fenn, Alec Guthrie, Theresa Holland, Ethan Michael Lee, Anna Trumbo, Ricky Walters, Brooke Wesner (co-founder), Erin Buck, Katie Griffith, Jennifer Safonovs and Ethan Michael Lee.
The Neos dancers were supported by harpist and singer Timbre Cierpke, accompanied by Samuel Lockridge.
“We played with Neos Dance Theatre about a year ago for their Symbiosis experience,” said Cierpke.” It was in an abandoned building and they did three pieces of mine and then they did the rest of the performance with a band call De la Les, which was a band from here. We loved it, so we’ve been wanting to come back and work with them again.”
“We’re really excited to play with them because Robert Wesner is an amazing choreographer,” she added.
Not only did guests enjoy the evening performances but VIP ticket holders enjoyed fine foods and drinks, including raspberry mousse in puff pastry with raspberry caramel sauce and orange ginger glazed salmon skewers by Ed Pickens’ Café on Main.
Artists set up displays of their works throughout the courtyard. Several artists were also were working on art pieces during the evening.
Jenni Irwin, Clear Fork High School’s art teacher was painting an image of a woman with acrylic. “I had a picture of a medieval person and I just started painting it,” said Irwin describing her piece.
Hannah Barnhill of Crossroads Community Church was also painting with acrylic with the addition of sea salt, which distorted and texturized the paint. She was painting with her hands and said of her work, “It’s the darkness of life and lightness.” She added, “I never paint with brushes.”
Ballet @ the Brickyard was sponsored by Cleveland Financial Group, Charles P. Hahn. Neos Dance Theatre’s 2014-15 season sponsors include Akron Community Foundation, Cleveland Financial Group, Cooper Tires, Drs Heringhaus General Dentistry, Goschinski’s Fin Feather & Fur Outfitters, Knight Foundation, MT Business Technologies, Inc., The Nord Family Foundation, Ohio Arts Council, Richland County Foundation, Richland Source, Summit Therapy & Performance Center, as well as, Michael and Carol Chambers, MVX Incorporated, and Dominion.
Timbre Cierpke, of Nashville, Tennessee, said she knew she wanted to play the harp when she was 3 years old. She started playing when she was 8. She studied harp and vocal at Trebecca University in Nashville.
“I knew I wanted to play the harp for as long back as I can remember being aware of myself as a human being,” said Cierpke. “It wasn’t just want: I knew I was a harpist and I was just waiting for the rest of the world to recognize what I already knew.”
When she was 4 years old, he told her parents she wanted to play the harp. “And they said like ‘no’ because the harp is the most expensive instrument you could want to play. But for about four years I just bugged them and bugged them. They saved up money and got me a teacher and little Celtic harp to play on,” she added.
Cierpke said it’s hard to describe her music because the harp is such a classical instrument but but her music is not classical. “It’s all songs I have written. It’s been categorized as chamber rock or chamber folk,” said Cierpke.
Visit Timbre on Facebook and see her Wednesday at Relax, It’s Just Coffee at 3 p.m., 105 Main St.
