Ballet is often tied to femininity, but a contemporary ballet debuting at Jan Serr Studio is reexamining women’s roles in the traditional ballet world.
The show, titled Sylph, is staged by Dawn Springer Dance Projects in collaboration with composer Jon Mueller and five international ballet dancers, three of whom previously danced for Milwaukee Ballet.
“What we’ve discovered is we all trained in very different places, but we have so much in common with our experiences in ballet,” says choreographer Dawn Springer, who’s an accomplished international ballet dancer herself. “I think sometimes sexism is an experience that is more felt than pointed at.”
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Using the framework of the dance form, Sylph puts a spotlight on ballet’s technical and strenuous balance between strength and delicacy, and the toll that the chase for perfection takes on dancers. During the performance, Springer and her cohorts channel their experiences to convey how empowering and disempowering femininity can be.
“With Sylph, I think that my own experience as a director meant I could choose the people in the room that I trusted and that extends beyond the dance studio – there were many experiences where I had to fight for my vision,” Springer says. “It’s been incredible having a team that trusts each other completely.”
The ensemble of dancers is made up of Sejain Bastidas, Itzel Hernandez, Annia Hidalgo, Janel Meindersee and Natalie Dellutri. To lay the foundation of Sylph, Springer blended their stories dancing professionally around the world with her own journey. And the team’s joined love for the art form of ballet became the driving force behind the production.
Sylph will be performed in-the-round, which means the audience fully surrounds the performance. The up-close view is meant to create an emotional, vulnerable experience as the dancers grapple with their relationship to ballet and its ideas of femininity.
“I have such an intense relationship with dance and working through this process has been healing. It’s been like turning a new chapter,” Springer says.
Sylph runs Oct. 11-12. Tickets for each of the three performances can be found here.
