For choreographers, inspiration can sometimes come from a story, or a theme, or a series of dance moves. For Ballet Quad Cities' Margaret Huling, who makes her professional choreographic debut with the upcoming
Configurations, it came from Tchaikovsky - specifically, the First Movement of the composer's Piano Trio in A Minor, Opus 50.
"I was kind of fighting with myself over what I wanted to do," says Huling, "and I kept coming back to the First Movement. It's music that really inspires me."
Yet choreographic inspiration can also come from the inspiration of others, as Ballet Quad Cities' Associate Director Courtney Lyon discovered in the course of re-staging original choreographer Johanne Jakhelln's Romeo & Juliet in the 21st Century.
"It's actually been one of the best experiences," she says, "because I don't feel pressured to generate an entirely new ballet. Johanne did all the hard work. [But] because it's called Romeo & Juliet in the 21st Century, giving the idea that it's current, we have to make sure it stays current." (Both Romeo & Juliet and Configurations, along with Erica Attwood's re-staging of Don Quixote's wedding pas de deux, will be performed at Davenport's Capitol Theatre on February 28 and March 1.)
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