Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre has been through a lot of ups and downs since it was founded six years ago, but a consistent thread has been director John Welker’s commitment to creating new narrative ballets that push the art form forward. “Storytelling is a hallmark of what we do,” he says.
Welker discusses that vision with every choreographer who creates for the company, but he leaves it up to her or him to decide whether to craft a literal storytelling work or something more abstract.
One of the premieres launching the company’s 2023-24 season on September 23 in its new White Box Theater in Buckhead is The Adoption of Faith, a new, mostly literal narrative work by choreographer and Atlanta Ballet dancer Darian Kane.
It’s the first work Kane has choreographed for Terminus and the first she has created with her partner Alec Zais, a composer, writer and lover of history. He composed the score and created the storyline while Kane developed the movement, relying heavily on pedestrian gestures and stripping movement down to its raw essence.
The Adoption of Faith is a fictional story set in World War II and follows a group of Romani women and children, giving them a voice not often heard.
According to Zais, the idea emerged from his learning about the gypsy culture and its history throughout Eastern Europe. “I was moved by their unique struggle,” he wrote in an email, “more specifically the near complete ignorance of 800,000 of their people murdered in the Holocaust, and what seems to be an unspoken general acceptance of their discrimination to this day.”
The day after a weekend of performances in Atlanta Ballet’s La Sylphide, Kane talked about the work and her process. She admits it’s been a heavy lift, learning how to effectively weave story telling with movement, but she clearly enjoys the challenge.
“This is the first time I’ve taken on a…
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