Spring performance blends classical ballet, live music and emerging choreography

AMHERST, Mass. — Amherst Ballet shines a bright light on the future of contemporary ballet in “Shatter into Light,” a spring show with plenty to say. Performances will take place at the Northampton Center for the Arts on Friday, June 5, at 7 p.m.; Saturday, June 6, at 2 p.m.; and Sunday, June 7, at 7 p.m.

As Amherst Ballet Director Mikayla Archambeau sees it, contemporary ballet must find a way to fuse the artistry of its past traditions with new visions of shape, sensibility and style. She gives this aspirational fusion of past and present a name: “living ballet.”

According to Archambeau, “living ballet” embraces new choreographic approaches that demand rigorous classical training and an expressive movement vocabulary that is supple and mindful of where we are and who we are today.

Amherst Ballet’s upcoming spring show promises to offer audiences a compelling example of what such a contemporary “living ballet” might look like. Key ingredients are all in place: a live string quartet performing on stage, an intimate ensemble of semi-professional Amherst Ballet Company dancers and the participation of young Amherst Ballet students devoted to their ballet training.

True to its vision, “Shatter into Light” invites audiences to experience how “living ballet” brings dancers and musicians together in real time and space to create an evolving dialogue designed to speak to both heart and mind.

The creative process begins in the rehearsal studio, where choreography takes shape. Amherst Ballet’s new North Amherst studio provides a home for artistic inspiration, experimentation and the refinement of ballet in the making.

For Archambeau, music serves as the primary “driver” of a dialogue between dancer and musician that forms the shape and tenor of an emerging ballet. As part of the choreographic process, she looks to dancers for both acute musicality and vigorous technical skills, while also asking them to make the movement deeply personal.

Company dancers rehearsing for the spring show have embraced that challenge. Rehearsals are marked by enthusiasm and collaboration as dancers work through difficult combinations requiring technical precision and seamless transitions. Dancers assist one another with lifts that initially seem impossible, eventually finding the balance and momentum needed to bring the movement fully to life.

Archambeau guides rehearsals with a keen eye and supportive demeanor, occasionally stepping in to demonstrate the mechanics of a difficult sequence or the dynamics of a gesture that must fill the dancer’s body from fingers to toes. Deep dips to the floor, rapid turns resolving into stillness and soaring jumps define a choreographic style that is both playful and generous of heart.

As rehearsals conclude, company dancers begin working with Amherst Ballet’s youngest students, guiding them through the movement patterns that will bring them onto the stage. Though brief, these moments promise to offer audiences a joyful glimpse of the next generation of dancers and ballet enthusiasts.