Courtesy of Saint Louis Ballet
Roxy Shackelford
Gen Horiuchi saw the writing on the wall. He was in Japan when the coronavirus pandemic struck; weeks later, outbreaks in Europe and the United States shuttered theaters and brought the performing arts worldwide to a standstill. As the artistic director of Saint Louis Ballet, Horiuchi made the tough decision to cancel scheduled performances of Swan Lake in April and the company’s annual gala. He was one of the first to muster the courage to cancel live performances of The Nutcracker, a major line item that keeps the doors open and the lights on at every major ballet company.
“We were one of the first companies in the country to go ahead and do it right away,” Horiuchi says of his decision to cancel The Nutcracker. “I knew there was no way we were going to go back to the theater before February or March, at the earliest.”
That’s not to say St. Louisans can’t see locally produced ballet this fall. Against all odds, Saint Louis Ballet managed to create a brand-new, evening-length work choreographed by Horiuchi and filmed on stage at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.
Titled This Is Who We Are, the suite of solos and duets will premiere online this Saturday, October 24, and continue through October 27.
Horiuchi adhered to strict pandemic guidelines—hence the solos and duets, which are performed by company members who’ve been sheltering-in-place together—as the dancers learned to dance in masks after months of taking ballet class in their living rooms.
Roxy Shackelford, who just started her second season with the company, opens the second of three sections with a blithe, but challenging, contemporary ballet solo. Shackelford spent the spring and summer in her native Georgia, leaning on her family and the company’s online classes to stay motivated. Although back in the familiarity of the dance studio, Shackelford says the rehearsal process is very different.
“Wearing a mask was challenging, at first, but now that I’ve built up my stamina I’m getting used to it,” says Shackelford. “It’s different working one-on-one with Gen, but it’s been great to have a little more individual attention. We pass our fellow dancers in the building, so it’s been great to see them a little even though we have to stay social distanced.”
Horiuchi also saw the necessary restrictions as an opportunity to focus on each dancer specifically, setting more than a dozen simply costumed solos and duets to a gaggle of Bach’s French Suites for solo piano.
“I love creating solos,” he says. “I enjoyed working with dancers individually; it helped us establish trust and rapport. I used the dancers’ turning, extensions, or acting ability to make pieces tailored to their strengths.”
The Nutcracker, by the way, is not entirely off the table. Beginning December 12, audiences can view a streamed version of the holiday favorite that combines archival footage of the first act with newly recorded, socially-distanced versions of divertissements from the Land of the Sweets.
Coming in 2021, Saint Louis Ballet is planning to host live audiences, though the exact dates and details are adaptable to the pandemic. Previously planned engagements are still a go, for now, with a sweet selection of love-themed pieces slated for February that includes Nine Sinatra Songs, by Twyla Tharp, and works by George Balanchine and Christopher Wheeldon. And in celebration of Horiuchi’s 20 years in St. Louis, a program dedicated to his roots with the New York City Ballet is planned for April, with Justin Peck’s gorgeous, minimalist piece called In Creases (set to music for dueling pianos by Philip Glass) and the local premiere of former artistic director Peter Martins’ Ash.
For free access to Saint Louis Ballet’s virtual productions, This is Who We Are and The Nutcracker Extravaganza, visit stlouisballet.org.
