Newport Contemporary Ballet (formerly known as Island Moving Co.) is staging two weekends of performances inside the Keats Theatre on the campus of St. Andrew’s School in Barrington this month.
The first is the company’s production of “Elements,” a strikingly diverse program with works ranging from beautiful, neo-classical ballet, to powerful contemporary dance. The program includes world premieres by choreographers Caleb Mitchell, Juan Rodriguez, and Yoshito Sakuraba.
Newport Contemporary Ballet’s Artistic Director Danielle Genest said, “I am thrilled to have each of these brilliant choreographers here creating on our company and sharing their artistic voices with our community.”
“Elements” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday to Saturday, March 16 to 18, and Friday and Saturday, March 24 and 25.
The second featured performance is a Family Series Production of “Are The Crayons Quitting?”, based on bestselling author Drew Daywalt’s book “The Day The Crayons Quit!” These shows will be at 4:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, March 24 and 25, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 26.
“Are The Crayons Quitting?” is Newport Contemporary Ballet’s newest premiere production. It engages some of Rhode Island’s most talented artists, composers and designers to realize Artistic Director Danielle Genest’s vision to bring this charming, hilarious and relevant book to life.
With more than 60 national and international book awards, “The Day The Crayons Quit!” has been called “fresh and funny” by the Wall Street Journal and described by Fast Times as “A humorous epistolary odyssey of a 4-year-old boy who finds that his box of crayons have walked out on him for various reasons. Red is pissed he has to work holiday overtime on Christmas and Valentine’s Day; Orange and Yellow aren’t speaking to each other because they both think they’re the right color of the sun; Black is done with just outlining things.” The book spent more than a year as #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List.
“We were thrilled to have received the rights from the author and his literary agent to take the story off the page, and onto the stage — a rare and unique opportunity indeed,” said Newport Contemporary Ballet Executive Director Peter Bramante.
Genest tapped local artists to design and build the production, including composer Ben Shaw to create an original score, artist/illustrator Jen Corace for scenic design, and costume designer Alana Fruktoff.
“I am very excited to bring this thoughtful, funny, wonderful story to life on the stage,” Genest said. “The creative process for ‘Are the Crayons Quitting?’ has been very inspiring – full of new ideas, positive energy and lots of collaboration. I am grateful to be working with all the amazing artists who are part of this very special show and am looking forward to sharing it with our audiences soon.”
More information, event registration, or tickets to the shows, can be found at www.newportcontemporaryballet.org.