One of my favorite culinary experiences at a restaurant is ordering many appetizers and sampling all the different tastes on the menu.
I think that is why I always look forward to SNB’s annual Brew Brats and Ballet (BBB) program each Spring. BBB offers the experience of sampling brand new short choreographic works by several different choreographers and combines it with some brats and beer for a real fun and intimate experience. Each work is very different and is introduced by the choreographer talking about their individual creative process. Last year (because of COVID) the company was forced to cancel all live performances just prior to our annual performances of Brew, Brats and Ballet.
This year, despite challenging COVID restrictions, thanks to the City of Reno and our wonderful community filled with support for the arts, Sierra Nevada Ballet has been able to continue this BBB tradition which has become quite popular in Reno and Carson City.
This year SNB films an eclectic program of new choreography at the Reno Little Theater to be shown at the Brewery Arts Center’s Drive-In Movie on May 15 and 16 and shown virtually on the Reno Little Theater website on May 20, 21, 22, and 23.
The event is filled with exciting dance offerings introduced by the individual choreographer. Oliver Adams creates an electric, very fast-moving, athletic contemporary piece, Ricochet, to the wild musical sounds of Drehz, while Barbara Land presents a sinister, almost spooky piece to the eerie music of Peter Gundry, One of Her Kind.
Jennifer Boyle August contributes two very different yet very movingly dramatic pieces: the powerful Torn to the music of Nathan Lanier reminiscent of Tribal warriors and Lost Things to the music of Olafur Arnold. I found myself in tears watching this piece and asked Jen about it. “The piece is a personal reflection of my adoption,“ she told me. “It is a tribute to all the parts of me, the parts I know and the parts I don’t know, to the mother and father who adopted me and to the people who created me. It is a piece that I connect close with, expressing all my emotions about my adoption through movement.”
Ananda Bena-Weber created The Fool in 2019 as part of SNB’s 12th Night production as a very funny solo for SNB’s Carson Ford and it was an immediate audience favorite with its clever comic choreography to the mirthful music from the Third Man by Gertrude Huber.
In extreme contrast to this risible musical theater type of dance is the very classical Dance of the Wilis from the 2nd act of Giselle, complete with the very difficult and very well-known one-legged hops for the corps de ballet, affectionately known to dancers as the arabesque “chugs” .
My contribution to BBB is Ballango, dedicated to the Director of Reno’s month-long Artown Festival, Beth MacMilan. Beth introduced me to the Argentine Tango music of composer Astor Piazzolla about 18 years ago, and it was love at first listen for me, so I thought it appropriate to dedicate this Piazzolla piece, which combines the styles of ballet and tango, to Beth MacMillan who has done so much for the arts in our community through the Artown Festival.
The last piece on the BBB program is a delightful and quirky piece choreographed by SNB’s new Ballet Master/Choreographer In Residence, Alexander Biber. The music by Cosmo Sheldrake is addicting and humorously funky, and Biber’s choreography matches it perfectly. This piece, Come Along, invites the audience to remember a joyful time in the US when we were all together sharing the “good life” and the “good dream” together. The work is particularly meaningful at this time in our history as it promises that there is a better life to come for all of us.
Tell us about your favorite brat and brew on SNB’s Facebook Page and enjoy them when you come along and join SNB for a fun evening of Brew, Brats, and Ballet on May 15 and 16 at the Brewery Arts Center Drive-In and on May 20, 21, 22, and 23 on the Reno Little Theater’s website.
Alexander Cain Biber (Principal Dancer/ Ballet Master/ Choreographer in Residence/Teacher) grew up in a performing arts family and has loved theater and performing from an early age. He began his ballet training, at the age of 14, with Rosine Bena at Western Nevada Performing Arts Center – studying ballet, jazz, tap, and musical theater. In 2003, Alexander became an apprentice with Sierra Nevada Ballet and was promoted to the first company in 2006, to soloist in 2008, and to Principal in 2012.
Jennifer Lightfoot-Johnson (Grant Writer and Development Consultant) comes to SNB with 16 years of experience, both professionally and as a volunteer, in grant writing and working in the nonprofit sector.
Jennifer Boyle August (Guest Teacher/Choreographer) discovered her love of dance in Reno, Nev. During her time at Reno High School, Jennifer took a Modern class at TMCC, with instruction in Graham, Luigi, and Horton dance technique. While Jennifer was educated in other areas of dance, she felt these styles spoke to her more than anything else. After graduating from Reno High School, she moved to Boston to study dance with Joan Palladino at Dean College where she received her Associate’s Degree in Dance. She was then hand-selected by Judith Jamison to study at Alvin Ailey Summer Dance Intensive program in New York City.
Sara Weir (Demi Soloist) was born in Provo, Utah, and started ballet at age three. She trained in dance with Trisha Wilstead at Rocky Mountain Dance and then trained with Brittany Squires and Heather Gray at Jaquiline’s School of Ballet. She performed professionally with Showcase and Theater Ballet at Brigham Young University, Utah Regional Ballet, and Sacramento Ballet.
Carlee Bertero (Soloist/ Teacher) was born in northern Nevada and began studying dance at an early age at Fascinating Rhythm School of Performing Arts in Reno. Carlee was invited to join the Sierra Nevada Ballet Apprentice program in 2012; was raised to the first company in 2013; to featured corps member in 2016, to Demi-Soloist in 2017, and to Soloist in 2021. She has performed in many SNB story ballets such as Peanutcracker-The Story In A Nutshell, Giselle, Swan Lake, Coppelia, Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty-A Fairy’s Tale, A Midsummer Nights Dream- A Steam Punk Ballet, and Twelfth Night-A Ballet Noir. She has performed as a featured dancer with SNB annually in Dancing By The River as part of Reno’s Artown Festival and in SNB’s annual Brew Brats and Ballet in Reno and Carson City.
Domingo Rubio (Second Permanent Guest Artist/Guest Teacher) is SNB’s second Permanent Guest Artist as of May 2005. He has danced professionally for some 30 years. Domingo has danced with the Joffrey Ballet and Ballet Hispanico and was featured in the Robert Altman film, The Company. Rubio danced the role of Maxfield Parrish in SNB’s, A Painter’s Love Story and is a featured artist in SNB’s Dancing By the River and annual ballet classics.
Sam Weber (First Permanent Guest Artist/ Guest Teacher) is SNB’s first Permanent Guest Artist and is a founding member of the Company. He was one of the first permanent guest artists of The Reno Ballet under the direction of Rosine Bena. Weber danced with the Joffery Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, Peninsula Ballet Theatre, and The Jazz Tap Ensemble. Besides being a fine ballet dancer, Weber is considered one of the greatest tap dancers in the world. He is known as “the fastest feet in tap.”
Gina Nelson (SNB Company Coordinator for Carson City and SNB Board Member) is originally from Napa Valley, Calif., and a long-time supporter of the arts and arts education. Gina worked as a crisis prevention specialist in a day treatment elementary school and was a counselor/teacher in a non-public school for at-risk boys.
Steven M. Porter (SNB Board President/SNB CEO) is a long-time devotee of the arts. Originally from the East Coast, Steve was raised with love and devotion to all the arts.
Cathy Mercer (SNB Company Coordinator for Reno/Managing Director/Board Member) grew up in Carson City and is a former dancer with a long-time devotion to the art form.
Ananda Bena-Weber (Associate Director, Dance Artist/ Ballerina/Principal/Teacher) is a principal dancer and NY award-winning artist and the Associate Director of the Sierra Nevada Ballet and a founding member. She has danced professionally as a soloist with the Reno Ballet when it was formed in 1994/95 and 1996. She danced with Perspectives Dance Theatre and Fascinating Rhythm Productions. She has appeared as a featured soloist with Sam Weber performing in Morton Gould’s “Concerto for Tap Dancer and Orchestra” throughout the SF Bay Area. She has appeared in principal roles in several original dance works such as Take Me To The River and Blue Rondo, and classics such as Les Sylphides, Romeo and Juliet, and Paquita.
Rosine Bena (Founder and Artistic Director/Master Teacher)
Sophia Riella (Trainee) was born in Truckee, Calif. She started ballet at the age of two with Sherrie Petersen, Sierra Ballet School and continued there for six years while also studying Irish and Scottish Dance with Lindsey Marccaci in Lake Tahoe and at Truckee Dance Factory doing competition dance. She has also studied classical music, composing, and piano with Elaine Courtney and has studied voice with Stephanie McMoy.
Erin Garman (First Year Company) began dancing at the age of 12 at Scene Stealers Theatre Arts where she trained in jazz, tap, lyrical, musical theatre, and ballet. She later began training with Fascinating Rhythm School of Performing Arts where she continued training in many styles and at Sierra Nevada Ballet Academy where she first met Rosine Bena, and started getting more serious about ballet, also dancing with Spiral Ballet.
Maya Macias (Trainee) was born in Houston, Texas into a military family. While her family was stationed in Memphis, Tennessee, at age two and a half years old, Maya began studying dance at the Children’s Ballet Theater because she wanted to go to “ballerina school. “ Maya continued her ballet training at Space Coast Ballet and when she was six years old, she began performing with Space Coast Ballet in the Nutcracker.
Olivia Mann (SNB Summer Demi Soloist) began studying at the age of four at Dallas Metropolitan Ballet, and the Dallas Ballet Center and later trained at Booker T. Washington for the Performing and Visual Arts.
Heather Rodriguez (Trainee) started dancing at nine years old in Corpus Christi, Texas. She continued studying Ballet, Contemporary, and Jazz throughout her childhood with Corpus Christi Concert Ballet.