PROGRAM - Mondavi Center

Ron Cunningham by jeff hudson
A quarter century at the helm, through sometimes turbulent times.
That’s the thumbnail description of artistic director Ron
Cunningham’s tenure with the Sacramento Ballet. He came
onboard in 1988—a heady year. Right around the same time
Cunningham began laying out his plans to grow his company,
actor/producer Tim Busfield was setting up the B Street Theatre;
the long-established Music Circus series of locally-produced
summer musicals sprouted Broadway Sacramento (hosting
touring shows) and a certain basketball team moved into a hastily
constructed ARCO Arena.
Cunningham is now the longest serving artistic director with any of
Sacramento’s arts organizations— and early on, he started sharing
those duties with his spouse Carinne Binda. (If you visit Sac Ballet’s
studios, you will quickly observe that they really do function as a
team—but Ron generally takes the lead with the public.)
One thing for sure: Cunningham appreciates Shakespeare (ordinarily
thought of as a “word guy”). Cunningham’s choreographed
Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet and The
Tempest (which premiered at the Mondavi Center in fall 2002).
He’s also likes American material, like A Streetcar Named Desire
(also performed at the Mondavi Center), and his big project this
year—an original ballet based on The Great Gatsby.
I fondly recall Cunningham’s ballet in 2007 based on Tamsen
Donner, a member of the ill-fated Donner Party. (Cunningham
told me that he got the idea when he drove past Donner Lake on
his way from Boston to Sacramento in 1988; he researched
further listening
the idea and considered for years before bringing the piece
to fruition.)
All the while, Sacramento Ballet has staged classics by the
likes of Balanchine, and newer works by contemporary
choreographers.
Cunningham also added sparkle Sac Ballet’s Nutcracker, with
lovely scrims and backdrops commissioned from Russian artists
in St. Petersburg.
Directing 25 years of Nutcracker productions—including, over
the years, literally thousands of Sacramento area youngsters—
have made Cunningham into an expert on child psychology.
He’s learned that it’s best when he introduces the big mouse
costumes (worn by adult male dancers) g-r-a-d-u-a-l-l-y, so that
the younger kids aren’t shocked to find themselves standing
next to a seven-foot-tall dancing rodent.
Along the way, Sac Ballet has kindled a love of dance in the
hearts of countless youngsters (and their parents, too), even
as the company survived two sharp downturns in regional
company, among other adversities. It’s really quite a record
of artistic leadership and community connectivity— no small
accomplishment.
Jeff Hudson contributes coverage of the
performing arts to Capital Public Radio, the
Davis Enterprise and Sacramento News and Review.
original cast of Billy Elliot the Musical and performed on Broadway in
Hairspray and Aida. The New York Times wrote “Moultrie moves his
dancers around the stage with remarkable authority[and]… is obviously
someone to watch.” Darrellgrandmoultrie.com.
Nicole Haskins (choreographer), a former company dancer with the
Sacramento Ballet, has danced in George Balanchine’s Four Temperments
(Melancholic), Scotch Symphony (Scotch Girl), Concerto Barocco, Allego
Brilliante, Serenade and Donizetti Variations, Ron Cunningham’s Alice in
Wonderland, Etosha, Carmina Burana and The Nutcracker (Rose, Lead
Marzipan, Solo Candy Cane), Petipa’s The Sleeping Beauty (Fairy of
Happiness, Pas de Cinq), Septime Webre’s Fluctuating Hemlines, David
Lichine’s Graduation Ball (Fouette Competition) and Amy Seiwart’s end
quote. She has danced in premieres by John Selya, Sidra Bell and Ron
de Jesus. Haskins received her training from the Westside School of
Ballet under the direction of Yvonne Mounsey, where she was a recipient
of the Rosemary Valaire Scholarship and was a 2004 Los Angeles
Music Center Spotlight Award winner. Haskin’s choreography has been
chosen three times for the McCallum Theater’s Dancing Under the Stars
Choreographic Competition, and this year she has been selected for the
prestigious New York Choreographic Institute. She is currently in her
first season dancing with the Washington Ballet.
Stefan Calka (choreographer) is a graduate of Indiana
University, where he trained with the legendary Violette Verdy.
There he performed the roles of the Cavalier in The Nutcracker and
Siegfried in Swan Lake. In his eighth season with the Sacramento
Ballet, he has danced numerous principal roles including Romeo
and Juliet (Romeo), The Sleeping Beauty (Prince Desire), Ron
Cunningham’s Bolero, Carmina Burana (Beige Couple), and he
created the role of Jonathan Harker in Dracula as well as dancing
the title role. Calka has also danced principal roles in the works
of George Balanchine, Twyla Tharp, Trey McIntyre, Lila York,
Septime Webre, Amy Seiwert, Mathew Neenan, Darrell Grand
Moultrie and Edwaard Liang to name a few. He has toured China
with John Clifford’s production of Casablanca and assisted him in
staging Balanchine ballets for the Kirov and Bolshoi Ballets.
MondaviArts.org | 29