ON STAGE
ZarYevka Ballet presents Thief on 42nd Street
Where: Metro Theatre
When: Friday to Sunday
Tickets: $25 for adults, $20 for seniors and students, and $15 for children under 12, available online at ticketrocket.org or by phone at 250-590-6291
ZarYevka Ballet is paying homage to the whodunit crime capers of yore with its second full-length production, Thief on 42nd Street.
Unlike Peter and the Wolf, the local company's debut outing, the new ballet features an original storyline, one that invokes a jazzy, film-noir esthetic from the 1930s and '40s.
It is about Sid Saltovsky, a New York City private eye on the hunt to track down an opera diva's missing red wig. While on the case, he encounters a cast of mysterious characters, including a tempestuous ballet director, a whoopee-cushion magnate and an Irish governess.
"I was drawing from the bits that stick with me as glamorous from that period - the society balls, the movie stars, the makeitorbreak-it on Broadway," said Capri Aspe, the show's writer, director and choreographer.
"It's a totally romanticized version."
Some of the inspiration for Thief came from Aspe's time at the prestigious Joffrey Ballet School in New York, where she studied from 2006 to 2008.
One character, Maria, a busking chanteuse who aspires to theatre stardom, is derived from Aspe's own experiences trying to stand out as a performer in the harshly competitive metropolis.
"I think that's what Maria came out of - pouring your guts out and people not really responding because you don't have skills yet, but keeping going anyways."
Aspe's persistent spirit came in handy for the production, which the 27- year-old said she has worked on "at least full-time" since January.
She took swing dancing lessons in order to choreograph the dance-hall scenes, noting that infusing a little jump 'n' jive into a ballet was not as tricky as one would expect.
"Swing is so much about bent lines - which is not massively unlike contemporary ballet," Aspe said.
Wisdom she gleaned from putting together last year's Peter and the Wolf rendered her a more efficient writer and director, she said.
"Peter and the Wolf scared the pants off of me and I thought it was going to kill me just to get through it," Aspe said.
"On the creative end of things, the big thing I learned is that it's alright to require yourself to be logical."
Billed as an all-ages ballet, Peter and the Wolf had its initial two-show run in November extended by one night.
"The first two definitely had tons and tons of little kids," Aspe recalled.
"That was great because who doesn't love to have people who say 'Look out, Peter! The wolf is coming'."
"I could tell by the laughter that the last performance was primarily filled up with grownups," she added.
Explaining the show's broad appeal, Aspe said it has been described as "Pixar ballet," a reference to the film studio that has produced computeranimated blockbusters such as Toy Story and Cars.
"It's not a bad analogy. It's like a kids' movie, but there's a whole lot of levels of things that are fun for everyone.
"Same direction with [Thief on 42nd Street], but I think with the genre that we chose, it's a bit more midage to begin with."
