Les Sylphides (student version) (2018)

Considered to be the first “ballet blanc” forgrounding aspects of form and mood in classical dance rather than the more traditional narrative elements integral to previous works in the Romantic ballet canon, Les Sylphides, was first choreographed by Michel Fokine in 1907 as Rêverie Romantique: Ballet sur la musique de Chopin. Later versions set to various combinations of piano music by Frédéric Chopin were presented under the title Chopiniana until Sergei Diaghilev commissioned the ballet in the form we now know it for première at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in 1909. My student version, commissioned by the Bainbridge Dance Center directed by Christiana Axelsen, premièred on Bainbridge Island from June 28th-30th, 2018.

Original Cast:

A YOUNG POET: 
Max VanNocken-Witmer

SYLPH QUEENS:
Julia Edwards, Brielle Kinkead, Ava Henderson, & Mary Jane Agnew

SYLPHS: 
Sela Barbo, Cora Drury, Abbey Mikami, Charlotte Miller, Valeria Ramirez, Alison Sherwin, Tasha Stearns-Clemons, Carmela Warren, & Madeline Woods

WOODLAND SPRITE HERDERS (or the lost sisters): 
Maya Dorsey & Josephine Welty

WOODLAND SPRITES: 
Sofia Campagna, Ava Coppin, Hanah Deets, Summer Dorsey, Sadie Gleasman, Clara Pickle, & Alexandra VanNocken-Witmer