STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
Gemma Bond learned everything there was to know about eclipses as she prepared to choreograph a new ballet inspired by the Great American Eclipse.
But she named her the work “eight/twenty-one/seventeen”after the date of the eclipse, fearful that it could have a short lifespan if the subject matter seemed dated.
After watching Monday’s eclipse from the patio outside Carol’s Dollar Mountain Lodge with her fellow ballet colleagues, she wishes she had thrown caution to the wind and named it “Eclipse.”
“Everybody was screaming and sobbing,” she said. “I knew it would be beautiful, but I didn’t expect anything like what it turned out to be. The corona of the sun was so white, so pure. I can imagine back in the day how terrifying it must have been for those who had never seen anything like that before.”
Ten dancers from American Ballet Theatre led by principals Isabella Boylston and Marcelo Gomes will perform the world premiere of “eight/twenty-one/seventeen” during tonight’s Ballet Sun Valley Festival.
The show starts at 7:30 p.m. and will include six other works featuring New York City’s Tiler Peck and Tyler Angle, as well as principal dancers from Royal Danish Ballet, The Marinsky Ballet and the San Francisco Ballet before finishing up with Bond’s 25-minute work.
Bond, 35, was asked to write the piece by Isabella Boylston, the Sun Valley native who organized the ballet festival for her hometown with the help of Dan Drackett and Bob Smelick.
The two became instant friends upon meeting 10 years ago when Bond joined the American Ballet Theatre. Boylston has championed her friend’s emerging success as a choreographer ever since, attending Bond’s first solo show at the Joyce Theater in New York in July and applauding her recent award of the Princess Grace Award Fellowship for Choreography created in memory of the late Princess Grace of Monaco.
“Isabella is very open to many different things—like we’ll go to Hong Kong or Paris and she’s always excited to try the local cuisine. And that translates to the studio where she’s willing to try anything,” said Bond. “She’s very good at adapting and she always sets the highest standard.”
That includes commissioning the piece by Bond.
Female choreographers are not at all common in the world of ballet. Boylston said she picked Bond because she’s talented, not because she’s female. But at the same time, she’s glad to give a female a boost.
Paying it forward, Bond taught a free class on choreography to three dozen youth on Wednesday as part of several free dance classes the dancers offered aspiring ballet students who came from as far away as Salt Lake City.
“You’re never as free as when you have a new work created for you,” the petite woman with short blond hair told the youngsters. “It’s like having a dress tailored for you, instead of wearing someone else’s dress.”
Bond offered the youth tips for making the choreography process easier, such as breaking up a piece into a five-minute dance for women and a two-minute dance for men. Or, creating two minutes of quiet interspersed with a couple minutes of activity.
She had the youngsters map out routines of their own in crayon.
Some of the youngsters created elaborate, tight knit routines that included a dancer arching her back atop the back of another dancer.
Bond was enthusiastic about each.
“That’s great,” she told two dancers. “I’m going to put out one suggestion: Use the arms. You have a lot of leg work. Let’s add some upper body work.”
That’s beautiful,” she told a trio. “How about, instead of doing everything in unison, let’s mix it up.”
“You might want to use the entire floor—it’s more fun when you fill the stage, when you work the whole stage. And let’s try pushing off the floor a little bit quicker—it adds a little excitement,” she demonstrated for a third group. “If you remember last night when the dancers tiptoed across the stage, the speed at which they did it added a most exciting moment.”
For tonight’s piece set to original music by Judd Greenstein, Bond is emphasizing the tension and buildup that occurs before the eclipse.
“And then it happens and it’s back to normal,” she said. “And that extends to people in society, too. There’s some anxiety when two groups come together. And then, hopefully, everything turns out harmonious and there’s a big celebration.”
Bond is taking advantage of Boylston’s athleticism by leading off with a solo that features great amounts of jumping and turning, followed by a pas de deux.
“Isabella is a power house—she jumps, she spins, she does the whole shebang,” said Bond. “And she’s so good at seeing something and being able to do it, to make it her own.
“My piece is definitely a finale piece—full of energy. And that will make it quite challenging at 6,000 feet. It was a lot easier when they were practicing it in New York!”
Bond is delighted to premiere her work in an outdoor venue.
“We came here for Isabella’s wedding two years ago and she showed us the pavilion and said, ‘I’m going to bring all my friends back and put on a show here.’ I can’t believe she’s pulled it off.”
IF YOU GO…
Some additional Pavilion seats have been freed up for tonight’s 7:30 p.m. show. Tickets start at $50 and can be purchased at www.balletsunvalley.com or by calling 208-727-7437 or 208-622-2135. Lawn seats are $25.