Performed as the full ballet, Appalachian Spring touches on the primal issues of marriage, survival, and eternal regeneration. The piece was commissioned and choreographed by the legendary Martha Graham and for the first time presented with NEW CHOREOGRAPHY by the talented Andrea Schermoly, choreographer in residence at Louisville Ballet.
Plus The Way Forth, a new folk opera & film by Louisville native Rachel Grimes. Highlighting real and imagined perspectives of generations of Kentucky women from 1775 to the present day, and inspired by a treasure trove of family photos, documents, and letters, The Way Forth sifts through familiar stories to explore lesser-told tales of the historically oppressed. Through music, voice, and film, the work honors the emotional legacies of the silenced, the feminine, the holistic, the beauty of daily life, and the eternal grace and redemption of time, as symbolized by the great Dix and Kentucky Rivers.
AARON COPLAND: Appalachian Spring
RACHEL GRIMES: The Way Forth
TEDDY ABRAMS, conductor
ANDREA SCHERMOLY, choreographer for Appalachian Spring
CATHARINE AXLEY, The Way Forth film co-creator and editor
LOUISVILLE BALLET DANCERS: Natalia Ashikhmina, matriarch • Rob Morrow, counselor • Lexa Daniels, wife • Mark Krieger, husband • Community Members: Erin Langston Evans • Annie Honebrink • Emily Reinking O’Dell • Ashley Thursby • Brienne Wiltsie • Aubrielle Whitis • John Brewer • Justin Michael Hogan • Sanjay Saverimuttu • Phillip Velinov • Trevor Williams • Kristopher Wojtera
THE WAY FORTH ENSEMBLE: Timbre Cierpke • Scott Moore • Erica Pisaturo • Laura De St. Croix • Charlie Patton • Cecilia Huerta-Lauf • Aaron May • Jecorey Arthur • Rachel Grimes
CAST: Stephen Webber • Martha Neal Cooke • Joe Manning • Doris Smith • Laquida Garner
CHOIR: members of SONUS • The University of Louisville Collegiate Choral • The Women’s Choir of Eastern High School
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