{"id":2447839,"date":"2019-08-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-22T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=311338"},"modified":"2019-08-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-22T06:00:00","slug":"aspen-santa-fe-ballet-closes-season-saturday-with-beautiful-decay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-santa-fe-ballet-closes-season-saturday-with-beautiful-decay\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen Santa Fe Ballet closes season Saturday with \u2018Beautiful Decay\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Aspen Santa Fe Ballet’s “Beautiful Decay” has its final performance of the summer on Saturday, Aug. 24.<\/strong>
Aspen Times file<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

When choreographer Nicolo Fonte debuted his evening-length ballet \u201cBeautiful Decay\u201d five years ago, he sent a video to his frequent collaborators here at Aspen Santa Fe Ballet.<\/p>\n

He thought it might be a good fit for Aspen\u2019s audiences, which have thrilled his emotive contemporary dance creations over the past two decades here.<\/p>\n

When Aspen Santa Fe directors Tom Mossbrucker and Jean-Philippe Malaty decided they wanted to bring a full-length ballet to the local stage, Fonte\u2019s meditation of age and time was an ideal fit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel honored and touched that they trust me and that they believe in the work,\u201d Fonte said. \u201cI think it has relevance everywhere, but I thought it would have real relevance here where there is a substantial segment of the community that is getting up there and we\u2019re living in this ageist society.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBeautiful Decay\u201d had its local debut in July. Its final Aspen performance of the season will be held Saturday, Aug. 24.<\/p>\n

It is the first full-length ballet \u2014 other than the annual \u201cNutcracker\u201d production \u2014 in the 23-year history of Aspen Santa Fe, which normally stages triple-bill programs.<\/p>\n

Fonte worked for two months preparing the piece in the company\u2019s Colorado Mountain College studio. The preparation was emotional as well as physical, as he pushed dancers to communicate the emotional depths of the work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I say \u2018Do it,\u2019 I mean do it on a cellular level,\u201d he said after a July rehearsal. \u201cSo that every cell in your body is committed to that one moment and the next moment, and the one after that. That\u2019s a long, grueling process.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result, he hopes, is a direct emotional connection with the audience. He wants viewers to see themselves in the performers, young and old.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not going to see yourself in them hoisting their legs in the air and doing the incredible things they can do,\u201d he explained. \u201cBut you might be able to transfer your emotions to them \u2014 you might be able to recognize you\u2019ve felt that or experienced that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBeautiful Decay\u201d is the 10th ballet that Fonte has staged with the company, including eight original creations, over the past 19 years. His aesthetic has helped define Aspen Santa Fe, while the company also has pushed Fonte to some of the definitive creations of his globally acclaimed career.<\/p>\n

The piece, which debuted in 2013 at BalletX in Philadelphia, is a two-act exploration of the cycle of life, the inevitability of aging, and time\u2019s whittling away of youth. It calls for two older dancers \u2014 in this production they are longtime Aspen dance instructor Hilary Cartwright and Oregon dancer Gregg Bielemier, both in their 70s \u2014 to perform alongside the younger company cast, providing contrast between the youthful vigor of professional dancers in their prime and a pair decades older.<\/p>\n

Watching the ballet with audiences, Fonte has found that as soon as the older dancers enter, all eyes focus on them. We\u2019re used to watching perfect young dancers soar across a stage, but the 70-something dancer doing so is something rare.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is something beautiful in experiencing 40 years of experience onstage, where physical prowess morphs into something else and becomes much more of an emotional, reflective way of moving,\u201d Fonte said.<\/p>\n

His original inspiration for the concept was inspired by a 3-D photo exhibition in Portland, Oregon, which brought viewers inside of nearly dead flowers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt touched me in my core,\u201d Fonte said. \u201cSomething about it was so powerful, and the element of 3-D you were inside the flower petals. These decaying flowers retained so much of their flowerness. It was this undeniable identity screaming at me: \u2018I was once a flower!\u2019 My heart was racing. And that\u2019s really where the idea came from.\u201d<\/p>\n

atravers@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aspen Santa Fe Ballet’s “Beautiful Decay” has its final performance of the summer on Saturday, Aug. 24.Aspen Times file When choreographer Nicolo Fonte debuted his evening-length ballet \u201cBeautiful Decay\u201d five years ago, he sent a video to his frequent collaborators here at Aspen Santa Fe Ballet. He thought it might be a good fit for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2447839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-25 12:38:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2447839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447839\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2447839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2447839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2447839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}