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With its Second Season Production ‘Collide,’ Deos Contemporary Ballet Looks to Up its Visibility around Western Michigan

by Steve Sucato
August 1, 2019
Peter Martin Wege Theatre
341 Ellsworth Avenue SW 
Grand Rapids, Michigan

Frauenthal Center’s Beardsley Theater
425 W. Western Ave.
Muskegon, Michigan
Steve Sucato is a former dancer turned arts writer/critic. He is Chairman Emeritus of the Dance Critics Association and Associate Editor of ExploreDance.com.
Tess Sinke’s Deos Contemporary Ballet enters its sophomore season with a new mixed repertory program of dance works and bit of growth as an organization. The Grand Rapids, Michigan-based, summer-only troupe consisting of local professional dancers and those from around the country, will not only be returning to downtown Grand Rapids’ Peter Martin Wege Theatre for performances of its latest production Collide on August 2 & 3, but will also repeat the production in nearby Muskegon on August 9 & 10 at the Frauenthal Center’s Beardsley Theater.

For a company still looking to get a foothold with Grand Rapids dance audiences, the move to add performances in a second city is an ambitious step forward. One Sinke hopes will pay off in higher visibility for the company going forward.

As with last summer’s inaugural production An Evening of Brahms, this summer’s Collide will predominately be a showcase of Sinke’s choreography along with a new ballet by former Grand Rapids Ballet star Cassidy Isaacson, and a reprise of Attila Mosolygo’s “Brahms Trio” from last season.

The program (subject to change) will open with Senke’s new 4-minute ballet “Martha” that she says was inspired by the many strong women in her life. The warrior-like ballet for 5 women costumed in red is set to Daniel Pemberton’s song “Jackeyes Tale,” from the soundtrack to the 2017 film, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.

Next will be Isaacson’s debut work for Deos, “Happiness Does Not Wait” to music of the same name by Iceland’s Ólafur Arnalds. The 4-minute contemporary dance work looks at two different personal relationships juxtaposed together onstage. In one, a male-female couple struggles with a one-sided relationship while in the other, an all-female couple who are both fully invested in theirs thrives. Isaacson says she drew inspiration for the work from recent personal experience with her boyfriend who took a leap of faith in their relationship and moved with her to San Francisco after she accepted a dancer contract with Smuin Ballet.

A veteran dance studio competition choreographer, Isaacson says she ramps up the intensity and technical levels of her choreography when working with professional dancers. “I do very energetic and athletic works and I love pushing the boundaries in partnering and floor work,” she says.

“Remembrance,” another new ballet by Sinke, also has its genesis in personal experience. This time stemming from Sinke’s recent devastating miscarriages.

“My husband and I have dealt with two miscarriages in the last 8 months and the ballet is about how society views miscarriage and infertility, and how it is still taboo to talk about,” says Sinke. “Most women deal with this struggle on their own, almost feeling like it is not something they are not allowed to grieve about.”

Also danced to music by Ólafur Arnalds, the 15-minute contemporary ballet in 4 movements is for 9 dancers (8 female, 1 male) including Kathryn Tokar of Virginia’s Charlottesville Ballet who says of Sinke’s approach to the ballet, “Tess is really good at creating emotional and gestural movement that isn’t too literal in conveying the work’s subject matter.”

In “Remembrance,” the dancers are seen reaching for a single light bulb suspended above them just out of reach. The lit bulb is meant to symbolize for those who have experienced a miscarriage the life they wanted to bring into the world but was lost.

The program then shifts moods to lighthearted with Sinke’s new ballet “Curiosity,” danced to music by London based singer-songwriter Ben Cocks. The 12-minute piece for 8 dancers costumed in all white says Sinke “is just that inner child in all of us coming out.”

Following Mosolygo’s aforementioned “Brahms Trio,” will be Sinke’s new 10-minute pas de deux “Unfinished” danced to Iskra String Quartet’s recording of composer Peter Gregson’s “Chorale (Five).” Taking its inspiration from the line “Do not look for healing at the feet of those who broke you,” contained in Canadian-Indian poet Rupi Kaur’s poetry collection Milk and Honey, the work features a male character that represents the darkness in a female character’s life that she ultimately chooses to move away from.

Rounding out the program will be Sinke’s re-worked ballet “Lord, Look Down.”  Created in 2012 while Sinke was a student at Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania, the 15-minute multimedia ballet for 11 dancers to music by Dmitri Shostakovich, John Williams and others, features a 20-foot church pew set piece. Says Sinke of the ballet, “It is an inward look at ‘the church’ as being a place where we often feel we need to be perfect when in reality it is a place where people who are flawed and have made mistakes come together to love one another without judgement.”

Deos Contemporary Ballet performs Collide, 7:30 p.m., Friday, August 2 and on 2:00 & 7:30 p.m., Saturday, August 3 at the Peter Martin Wege Theatre, 341 Ellsworth Avenue SW, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Tickets are $35 and available at ticketmaster.com or by calling (800) 982-2787. The program repeats 7:30 p.m., Friday, August 9 and Saturday, August 10 at the Frauenthal Center’s Beardsley Theater, 425 W. Western Ave., Muskegon, Michigan. Tickets are $35/Advance, $40/Day of Show and are available at startickets.com or by calling (800) 585-3737. More information at deosballet.com.
Deos Contemporary Ballet dancers Kristen Hammer, Christine Settembrino, and Kathryn Tokar rehearsing Tess Sinke's 'Remembrance.'

Deos Contemporary Ballet dancers Kristen Hammer, Christine Settembrino, and Kathryn Tokar rehearsing Tess Sinke's "Remembrance."

Photo © & courtesy of Jon Clay


Deos Contemporary Ballet dancers Michael Burke and Melissa Ludwig rehearsing Tess Sinke's 'Remembrance.'

Deos Contemporary Ballet dancers Michael Burke and Melissa Ludwig rehearsing Tess Sinke's "Remembrance."

Photo © & courtesy of Jon Clay


Deos Contemporary Ballet dancers Gracie Holway and David Sent rehearsing Tess Sinke's 'Unfinished.'

Deos Contemporary Ballet dancers Gracie Holway and David Sent rehearsing Tess Sinke's "Unfinished."

Photo © & courtesy of Jon Clay

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