Three Cincinnati arts institutions will share one stage next weekend. Cincinnati Ballet will present “LIVE!” on November 6-7 at Music Hall, a program built around the world premiere of three ballet works set to live music by Over the Rhine, the husband-and-wife folk duo of Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra will join Over the Rhine and the dancers onstage for the performances, with Cincinnati Ballet Music Director Alyssa Wang conducting, the Enquirer reported. “It’s exciting to bring together the world of orchestra, Over the Rhine, and ballet in such a direct way,” Wang said in a statement quoted by the Cincinnati Enquirer, noting that the orchestra usually performs from the pit when the symphony plays with the ballet.
“LIVE!” marks Over the Rhine’s third collaboration with Cincinnati Ballet, the Enquirer reported. The partnership began in 2011, and the band returned for the ballet’s 50th anniversary season in 2014. Since forming in 1989, Over the Rhine has released 15 studio albums.
The three new works come from choreographers Young Soon Hue, David Morse and Kenneth Tindall, who each drew inspiration from Over the Rhine’s discography, according to the Enquirer. Morse, director of the Otto M. Budig Academy at Cincinnati Ballet, created “In the Wake,” a piece exploring the aftermath of losing a loved one and the yearning that follows, built from themes of mortality, mourning, prayer and nature he found across the duo’s catalog.
Much of the couple’s music references Southwest Ohio, giving Morse’s piece a “sense of place,” he told The Enquirer. “Through this whole creative process, I felt such a responsibility to the two of them, because they’ve essentially put their heart out on their sleeves,” Morse told The Enquirer, adding that he hopes longtime listeners hear the familiar music in a different or deeper way.
The program also features the world premiere of “Meet Me at the Edge of the World” by Tindall, his first collaboration with the company, which explores “what lingers when something has begun to disappear,” Cincinnati Ballet marketing associate Natalie Lindsey told The Enquirer. The third piece is “Trouble?” by South Korean choreographer Young Soon Hue, created for her Cincinnati Ballet debut and inspired by six Over the Rhine songs, including the duo’s 2007 track “Trouble,” the Enquirer reported. Hue has created 56 works for 25 companies worldwide.
What happens next is the two-night run itself: “LIVE!” takes the Music Hall stage on November 6 and 7, with the symphony out of the pit and onstage alongside the band and the dancers for all three premieres.
Photo: Ohio Redevelopment Projects – ODSA, CC BY