Kansas City Ballet announces new season, celebrating artistic director’s 10th season

Devon Carney may be the most significant figure in the history of the Kansas City Ballet, after Tatiana Dokoudovska founded the organization in 1957.

Carney, who became artistic director in 2013, took an already very fine company and helped turn it into one of America’s finest regional ballets. Under him, the group performed its first “Swan Lake” and other full-length ballets it had never done before.

And with wise leadership and creative initiatives, Carney has helped it survive the biggest existential threat of its history: the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now Carney is about to mark his 10th anniversary with the company, and he has just announced a celebratory 2022-23 season that shows off his and the company’s biggest strengths. There are two full-length ballets on the schedule, “Giselle” and “Cinderella,” the return of Carney’s dazzling “The Nutcracker,” a groundbreaking New Moves and a season finale featuring three of the world’s greatest living choreographers.

“The season is a sort of wish list of things I had done and wanted to do,” Carney said. “I hope it reflects the kind of director that I’ve been for the past 10 years. It’s been an exciting road. The company has grown in so many beautiful ways. So this season reflects that and I’m really happy about the kind of season it’s turned out to be.”

It begins Oct. 14 with “Giselle,” one of the most iconic full-length 19th century ballets. The Gothic masterpiece tells the story of a beautiful and innocent peasant girl who is seduced and discarded by a scoundrel aristocrat. But there are the Wilis to wreak vengeance, ghosts of young women wronged by their former lovers who now force the villains to dance to their deaths.

“It’s like a Monet, it’s like a Renoir,” Carney said. “It’s timeless in its approach. I’m pretty darn sure it’s the oldest ballet still in continuous artistic performance. It’s really exciting that we’re able to do a ballet that comes from 180 years ago.”

The Kansas City Ballet has performed “Giselle” many times before, under Carney and his predecessors. But Carney brings a special, personal history to it.

“This might be the fourth or fifth time I’ve done my version of ‘Giselle,’ either here or in Cincinnati,” Carney said. “As a dancer, I’ve probably had a chance to perform it 10 times. Every time I come back to ‘Giselle,’ I see different and new intricacies within the work that are exciting to bring forward and highlight.”

Carney’s “Nutcracker” returns in December to charm Kansas City with its holiday spectacle. First presented in 2015, Carney’s “Nutcracker” has everything you could want: incredibly creative choreography rooted in 19th century classicism, eye-popping sets, costumes and special effects and, of course, Tchaikovsky’s score, performed live under the baton of the company’s superb music director, Ramona Pansegrau.

There’s more fairy tale magic in store with “Cinderella” in February 2023. Prokofiev’s now classic work was first performed by the Bolshoi Ballet in November 1945, giving the Russian people some much needed joy and relief after the end of World War II.

Carney has his own history with “Cinderella,” having danced the role of the prince many times.

“As a matter of fact, ‘Cinderella’ was the very first production I ever did with a professional ballet company when I was 18,” Carney said. “I was a trumpet player announcing the arrival of Cinderella. Again, the ballet is very apropos for my 10th anniversary. Who would have known all those years ago that I would be artistic director today?”

Carney will be creating his own choreography for the work.

“I’m really excited to finally have a chance to get to it and bring my ideas to the story,” Carney said. “It really does kind of look like the Disney animated version. It’s whimsical in nature. Cinderella is, of course, a love story, but it’s also a comedy with our stepsisters. There are some fun moments and definitely something for everyone.”

New Moves is another initiative begun by Carney. Every March, the ballet presents a program of new choreography in the intimate setting of the Frost Studio Theater in the Bolender Center.

“Bliss Point” will conclude the season in May, and Carney says it will be a fitting end to a very special season. The work of three of the world’s most acclaimed living choreographers will be featured: Mark Morris, Jiří Kylián and Alexander Ekman.

The first work, “Sandpaper” by Mark Morris, will be danced to the orchestral miniatures of Leroy Anderson, the composer of “Sleigh Ride,” ‘The Waltzing Cat” and other delights. Carney describes “Sandpaper” as “very whimsical.”

“It has a very large cast of 25 dancers and they’re all dressed in these fantastic costumes, which from the mid-torso up look like blue sky and white clouds are painted on their costumes,” Carney said. “From their mid-torso down they’re the color of grass. It’s like seeing the grass and the sky when you see all 25 of them standing there. It’s like you’re looking at a field.”

The ballet has previously done Kylián’s 1991 work “Petite Mort,” and Carney says he’s bringing it back by popular demand.

“It’s such a gorgeous work,” Carney said. “I can’t say enough about how incredibly beautiful it is and how rewarding it is from an artist’s point of view as well as the audience. It’s almost mesmerizing. It’s so intimate, close and personal.”

The final work on the program is “Cacti” by Swedish choreographer Alexander Ekman, who describes the work as a reflection on the “high browed snobbish art world.” Carney says Ekman created the work in 2010 as a gift to the royalty of the Netherlands.

“You’d think it would be something elegant and full of pomp and circumstance, but it’s the farthest thing from that,” Carney said. “This is just hard, intense, in-your-face kind of stuff. It’s really fun and very interesting and creative.”

But what about those cacti?

“It’s called ‘Cacti’ because everyone has their personal cactus,” Carney said. “A big question of the piece is ‘What are the cacti all about?’ And I think that speaks to the fact that you interpret art the way you see it, not the way anyone else sees it. Even the ending is fun and unusual. But it’s a spoiler if I tell you what it is.”

All performances are at the Muriel Kauffman Theatre int the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, unless otherwise noted. For tickets and more information, 816-931-8993 or kcballet.org.

Sept. 16 and 17: New Dance Partners (Midwest Trust Center, Johnson County Community College, 12345 College Blvd.)

Oct. 14-23: “Giselle.” Music by Adolphe Adam, choreography by Devon Carney after Jules-Joseph Perrot.

Dec. 7-24: “The Nutcracker.” Music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, choreography by Devon Carney.

Feb. 17-26, 2023: “Cinderella.” Music by Sergei Prokofiev, choreography by Devon Carney.

March 23-26, 2023: New Moves (Frost Studio Theater, Todd Bolender Center for Dance & Creativity, 500 W. Pershing Road).

May 17-21, 2023: Bliss Point, works by Mark Morris, Jiří Kylián and Alexander Ekman.

‘Voices of VITAS’

KC VITAS, led by Jackson Thomas, is devoted to performing choral works by living composers. On Feb. 6, the group will present “Voices of VITAS” at St. John’s United Methodist Church. The concert will feature works by Michael O’Callaghan, Chinchun Chi-Sun Lee and other up-and-coming choral composers. Percussionist Alex Smith, bassoonist Ryan Morris, and pianist Robert Pherigo will join the choir for the performance.

3 p.m. Feb. 6. St. John’s United Methodist Church, 6900 Ward Parkway. $15-$20. kcvitas.org

You can reach Patrick Neas at patrickneas@kcartsbeat.com and follow his Facebook page, KC Arts Beat, at www.facebook.com/kcartsbeat.

This story was originally published February 4, 2022 at 5:00 AM.