April 11, 2001

Faery tale

Theater group stages ballet full of magical enchantment

By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
The auditorium of Traverse City West High School was transformed last weekend into a magical forest filled with fairies, sylphs, goblins and enchantment for a production of A Midsummer Night's Faery Tale. Presented by the Northwest Michigan Ballet Theater, the full-length ballet told the story of one enchanted night of intrigue, triumph and celebration.

Photo by Carol South
Featuring sylphs, fairies, enchantment, wizards and goblins, A Midsummer Night's Faery Tale was based on a children's book by Wendy Froud and Terri Windling.

For director Thomas Morrell, the ballet was a chance to combine his lifelong interest in fairies and magical creatures with his passion for dance. He adapted the ballet from a children's book of the same name, basing the characters, costumes and scenery on the book's rich and vivid illustrations.
"Ever since our company's first ballet four years ago, The Legend of Knockgrafton, people know that I have this affection for fairies," said Morrell, owner of Ballet, Etc., and a professional dancer, choreographer and teacher for 24 years. "My receptionist found this book and brought it in and said this might be a nice idea for a ballet. This ballet is different than anything else I've done."

Photo by Carol South
Holly Provenzano dances with the other handmaidens during a scene.

Despite the huge challenge, creating a ballet from scratch and bringing an unknown story to life is very satisfying for Morrell. From choreography to music selection and arrangement to costumes and sets, he and the company were forging into uncharted territory with this production.
Even down to the choreography, Morrell was starting from ground zero and often invited input from his dancers. They worked closely with him on designing moves, gestures and dance sequences that would best convey the story.
“One difficulty is that no one knows the story,” he noted. “But my purpose is to present stories no one knows about and bring these new stories to life. This will hopefully expand young people’s reading interests.” The work of putting on a production was a team effort, Morrell is quick to point out. Without the extreme dedication of parents and his dancers the production would not have gotten very far.
First of all, the company needed 43 costumes designed and made from scratch, including 18 sets of wings for the ethereal Faery costumes. Costumers Christine Campbell and Nancy Church stepped up again to lead the effort, their seventh production working together.

Photo by Carol South
Colin Baja and Rachel Pizii glide through a dance during the show, framed by the backdrop that was designed and painted by Shelley Bean for the ballet.

From shoes to headpieces, the two were responsible for all but a handful of special costumes made by other parents. Campbell and Church began sewing like mad two months ago, after snapping up and dying yards and yards of bargain fabrics at post-holiday sales. The skirts were made to flow and swirl so they matched the female dancers’ flowing hair, left down from its non-traditional ballet bun for this contemporary production. Morrell points to the wings as the coup de grace of the costumes, their sparkling lightness created by Church set the tone for the magical fairies.
“The wing construction, that was the creative genius,” agreed Campbell, a seamstress, who noted she and Church created more than 120 parts for costumes, not including leotards and tights. Pointed, prosthetic ears, designed by a Hollywood costume designer in Minnesota, rounded out the dancers’ otherworldly look. Adding to the atmosphere was a huge hand-painted mural of a magical forest for a backdrop to the ballet. Artist Shelley Bean created this 16-by-45 foot mural just for the production.
“She had been talking about doing something like this for years,” Morrell said. “She came up with a bunch of different thumbnail (sketches) and put it together on a computer to design it. She showed me a computer image and we added some bright flowers and mushrooms and then she started painting. She threw it together in a couple of weeks.”