About the Show
Ballet Synopsis:
The King and Queen of the fairy world, Oberon and Titania, quarrel over the Changeling Indian Boy. To whom shall he belong? Oberon sends his sprite Puck through the forest to pluck a strange flower. The juice of the flower when dropped in the eyes during sleep brings love for the first living thing seen on the waking. Oberon plans to use this drug to spite Titania. Meanwhile, into the forest strayed a happy pair of lovers, Lysander and Hermia, and their unhappy friends Helena and Demetrius. Helena’s desire for Demetrius is unrequited, for he mistakenly desires Hermia. Oberon has watched these mortals, and when Puck returns with the magic flower he sends him with the potion to charm Demetrius into love with Helena.
Oberon drops some of the charm into his Queen’s eyes and Puck causes her to be awakened by a rustic named Bottom on whom the returning Puck, to heighten his master’s revenge, has fixed an ass’s head. On waking, Titania at once falls in love with Bottom the Ass. Puck, for all his cleverness, has complicated the affairs of the other mortal lovers, by charming the wrong man, Lysander, into love with Helena. Oberon creates a fog, under cover of which all that is awry is magically put right. Titania, released from her spell, is reconciled to her husband, Oberon, and returns the Changeling. Additionally, the mortal lovers are happily paired off. Bottom, restored to human form but with dreamlike memories of what lately happened to him, goes on his puzzled way.
About the Choreographer:
Richard Cook was a part of the ballet world for over 30 years. As a dancer, he performed with the San Francisco Opera and the Perm Ballet. His taught at the School of Pennsylvania Ballet (now the Rock School) under the direction of Lupe Serrano and later worked as Associate Director of the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. Mr. Cook was awarded two choreographic fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and staged works on Atlanta Ballet and Dayton Ballet. His choreography was featured in Carlisle Project Showcases and he served as Artistic Consultant for the award wining film, "Children with a Dream." In 1997, his ballet, "Dance of the Hours," was chosen to open the Jackson International Ballet Competition. Mr. Cook taught for over a decade as a full time member of the ballet faculty at State University of New York (SUNY) Purchase Conservatory of Dance and served on the faculty of the Julliard School Dance Division. He created the ballet “Dream Threads” for the Patel Conservatory and serving as a guest teacher before his untimely death in 2009.
NIESER ZAMBRANAN (guest artist - Puck) studied ballet at the National Ballet of Cuba School where he won a silver medal at the National Competition in Havana. He joined the National Ballet of Cuba in 2007 under artistic director Alicia Alonso where danced in many classical ballets including Swan Lake, Giselle, Coppelia and Don Quixote. Mr. Zambrana was also a principal guest artist with the National Ballet of Venezuela where he danced the Cavalier in Nutcracker and the Torero in Carmen.