When The Four Seasons Reimagined made its world premiere under an open sky and spring breeze at the Festival at Highmark Mann this past June, the piece came to life in a singular moment shaped by the energy of the audience, and the dancers and extraordinary team of artists working together to create magic.
Each chapter of this epic love letter to Mother Nature unfolds with choreography by Morgann Runacre-Temple (Summer), Penny Saunders (Fall), Jamar Roberts (Winter), and Trey McIntyre (Spring), alongside innovative composition by Dan Deacon, immersive costume and scenic design by Emma Kingsbury, and shape-shifting lighting by Christopher Ash. Together these artists create a landscape that is ever-changing, much like the natural world that inspired it.
Now, the work turns over a new leaf as BalletX brings the production to the Mullen Center’s Topper Theatre at Villanova University, September 10- 12. We sat down with BalletX Dancers Eli Alford, Itzkan Barbosa, Ashley Simpson, and Francesca Forcella to explore what it means to return to a work that has already been lived in. Together, each dancer brings a new perspective on the creative process and what they hope the audience takes away from this new chapter. Like the seasons themselves, the work continues to shift, transform, and reveal something unexpected with each performance.
How do you approach revisiting choreography and returning to The Four Seasons Reimagined for Villanova?
Eli Alford: “Every time I get to revisit a work that I have done before I see it as an opportunity to dig deeper and meet the work where I am now as a dancer. For The Four Seasons Reimagined, in particular, I have been able to listen to the music more so I feel that I have a greater connection to it and am able to really hear it as opposed to just counting it. This hopefully allows me to dance with more freedom.”
Itzkan Barbosa: “Returning to The Four Seasons Reimagined feels very personal to me. When we first premiered the work at the Mann in June, everything was new, the movement, the music, the physical and emotional world we were creating together. Now, coming back to it for Villanova, I feel like I’m meeting the work again, but from a different place within myself. The choreography has had time to settle into my body, and I’ve had time to live with the experience of performing it. I find myself noticing different details and discovering new sensations in movement that may have passed me by the first time. I’m trying to honor what I found in the piece during the premiere while also allowing myself the freedom to experience it differently now. For me, that’s one of the most beautiful things about being a dancer. We can return to the same choreography, but we never return as exactly the same person. Our bodies have changed, our experiences have changed, and even the way we listen can change. So rather than trying to recreate June, I’m looking forward to bringing the work with me into this new moment and seeing what it has to say to me and to the audience now.”
How do you embody the essence of the seasons through movement?
Eli Alford: “As the hottest season, summer has an intensity to it, and Morgann Runacre-Temple leaned into that intensity in certain sections, especially towards the end of the piece. One way I attempt to embody the essence of Summer is to imagine that the physical heat that builds up in my body while dancing is coming from the sun, and I try to connect to a “sunbathing sensation” when dancing as if I were at a beach on a hot sunny day.”
Ashley Simpson: “I like to approach Winter with the ideas Jamar Roberts presented to us in the creation process. The ones I resonated with the most were: feeling like we were trudging through icy snow, or that I was a winter crane, slowly moving through a white snowy world.”
Is there a particular story or emotion you hope to evoke from the audience?
Itzkan Barbosa: “I hope the audience can connect to the feeling of change without needing to attach themselves to one specific story. Fall can bring up a lot of different memories and emotions such as nostalgia, reflection, warmth, melancholy, even a sense of anticipation. I hope the movement gives the audience space to feel whatever that season means to them. Maybe it reminds them of a particular person, a place, a chapter of their life, or simply the feeling of watching something change. I think dance can be most powerful when it leaves room for the audience to bring their own story into it.”
Francesca Forcella: “I have created my own story in my head for the progression of Trey McIntyre’s Spring. Some of my thoughts come through little comments that Trey made throughout the rehearsal and creation process, and some can be way off from what he may have intended but did not fully share with us. In my mind, the entirety of the ballet follows the growth of a flower from a seed being planted to a flower blooming. The opening of the ballet feels like seeds germinating mixed in with a little farming in the arm movements. Then the movement blossoms into the very first baby root finding its way through the soil. Next two stems start to grow peeking just out from the surface. This is followed by strong, powerful deeper roots taking place to allow for continued growth and leaves to form on the stems. Via the wind or bees or other vessels pollen is carried to allow a bud to form and finally blossom into a full flower that is ready for summer to begin again.”
What do you hope audiences take away from experiencing this production live?
Ashley Simpson: “I hope audiences everywhere feel a breath of relaxation from The Four Seasons Reimagined. The production is in homage to our natural world, so I hope those who see it are able to sit back and reflect on the beautiful movement, and connect it to memories they might have of nature. I hope they are able to meditate on the themes presented, and the personal connection they might have with the world around them.”
Francesca Forcella: “I always hope that by coming to a BalletX show our audience will connect to at least one aspect of the production–and The Four Seasons Reimagined is no different. I hope that each audience member can find their own story within each of the seasons. Perhaps they can allow the music, dancing, choreography, set, and costumes to guide them in imagining what each of those seasons feels like to them and what memories or sensations witnessing this show might stir.”
