Running Time: 9 minutes, 48 seconds

Music: Sergei Prokofiev

       First Violin Concerto, Andante

Dancer Requirements:

One Female Soloist & One Male Soloist

Three Female Demi-Soloists

Three Male Partners

Six Female Corps

Soloist women must have strong pointe work and partnering skills, acting ability and be comfortable with modern dance movement.

All men must be strong partners.

Technical Requirements:

Stage Size: 30 x 20 preferred

Crossover needed

Costumes:

Women: Originally set with Short Dresses in silk chiffon. Six dresses in blue, Three in peach.  Pointe shoes for all women, and pink tights.

Men: Black Pants, Poet-sleeved shirt to match partner's dresses, Black ballet slippers

  Owned by: Georgia Youth Ballet in Atlanta, GA

                 and Fort Lauderdale Ballet Classique

First Movement

First Movement Corps Work

Pas de Deux

Trio

End of First Movement

Allegro

Final Movement

Final Pas de Deux

Description

Sublimation is a semi-abstract contemporary ballet, dealing with love, death and resolution, in three movements: The first movement begins Adagio and ends with a bravura Scherzo, the second movement begins Andante and builds to an intense Allegro, and the third movement, which repeats and embellishes on the musical motifs of the opening adagio.

The choreography incorporates contemporary ballet and some modern dance movements (especially from Limon syllabus).

In the first movement, all the corps dances and the lead couple is introduced. There is a flowing pas de deux with swooping drops, long pulled-out lines and lovely spinning dips.  The corps returns with an exciting series of crossing turns, lifts, and drags into the dramatic entrance of the demi-soloist trio, loosely interpreted as "the angels," wearing a second color.

The mischievous angel trio separates the lead couple in a tense moment of the music, sending the lead male off stage and enlisting the men to trap the lead female as they dance a quirky scherzo, demonstrating challenging pointe work including hops and slides on pointe, battu, and unconventional musicality.  The trio ladies and the three men encircle the lead soloist as she dances a frightened solo, ultimately ending with her being thrown from one man to the next until she collapses to the floor as the feverish violin music comes to silence.

The next movement begins with the lead male discovering the lead female fallen on the ground and trying to bring her to her feet as the six corps ladies in blue dance an adagio canon of penchee and cambre to stage right. 

The corps begins the allegro section which has a series of vignettes including:  a driving entrance for the "angel trio" - traveling swiftly across the floor with low swinging rond de jamb, aggressive front cabriole and eccentric use of petite allegro movement; a fiery solo for the lead female filled with battu and quick direction changes; the lead male dancing with the corps; and an exciting allegro with the corps men trading partners in high, brisk lifts and turns.  The allegro finishes with a menege involving the full cast before the music winds down to a beautifully poignant violin solo.

As the music quiets, the dancers split the stage with the lead couple and the peach trio with partners performing striking unison partnering which finishes with the three men lifting the lead female soloist out of the hands of her partner.

The moving final pas de deux uses lovely lifts and unusual spiraling promenades as the entire corps looks on, then dances in crossing canons before separating the lead couple.  Finally, each dancer exits solemnly, with the lead male carrying his partner upstage over head, followed by the "Angels" in long partnered leaps offstage.

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Final Movement

History:

Sublimation was first commissioned by Magdalena Maury's Georgia Youth Ballet in 2003.  It was selected from over one hundred works adjudicated to premiere at the Southeastern Regional Ballet Association festival in 2004.