EMBER Series 26 Choreographer Madison Massara-Leister
Meet Madison — longtime Deos Ballet dancer and recently prolific choreographer. Her work has been highlighted as a part of Deos’s annual AWAKEN Series productions, encouraging dancers and Deos Ballet faculty to try their hand at choreography for the professional ballet stage. This is her first mainstage premiere outside of the AWAKEN Series, and she’s excited to share her vision for two new works. Learn more about them below.
Reel Around the Sun
Music: “Reel Around the Sun,” an old Celtic song used in Riverdance
“My first exposure to dance was the 1997 recording of Riverdance. My brother and I would dance along with the music, and it’s part of the reason I fell in love with dance. This piece puts a balletic spin on this famous work with an Irish Step influence.”
Costume ideas: “I wanted to pay homage to Riverdance by having black leotard, short green skirts, and black pointe shoes to match the black Irish tap shoes.”
Through Time
Music: I am using three different pieces of music, all by different classical composers. One is Sonata in D by Henry Purcell, the next is Concerto in G Major by Vivaldi, and the last is Stabat Mater Giovanni Pergolesi
“I was inspired by Emily Bronte’s poem Past, Present, Future. Each dancer represents a segment in time, and I wanted to embody how Emily described each segment with the movement.”
Costumes: “Since the poem draws comparisons to nature, I wanted to have the dancers barefoot and have more grounded movement. The three women will also be in flowing long skirts in different colors that add to the comparisons that the dancers are embodying. “
Past, Present, Future
Emily Brontë
Tell me, tell me, smiling child,
What the past is like to thee?
'An Autumn evening soft and mild
With a wind that sighs mournfully.'
Tell me, what is the present hour?
'A green and flowery spray
Where a young bird sits gathering its power
To mount and fly away.'
And what is the future, happy one?
'A sea beneath a cloudless sun;
A mighty, glorious, dazzling sea
Stretching into infinity.'
The inspiring music's thrilling sound,
The glory of the festal day,
The glittering splendour rising round,
Have passed like all earth's joys away.
Forsaken by that lady fair,
She glides unheeding through them all;
Covering her brow to hide the tear
That still, though checked, trembles to fall.
She hurries through the outer hall,
And up the stairs through galleries dim,
That murmur to the breezes' call
The night-wind's lonely vesper hymn.
What are you most excited about regarding your choreography for EMBER?
“I am most excited about collaborating with the dancers. I love coming into the studio with a plan and letting the dancer naturally take the movement in their own direction. I am so inspired dancing with my fellow coworkers and it gives me a cool perspective on how they move so I can craft something that plays to their strengths.”
Learn more about EMBER Series 26 here.