Enjoy a digital performance by the CCM Ballet Ensemble on March 20

Travelogue is a 90-minute long virtual performance featuring the CCM Ballet Ensemble. "Travelogue is a mixed repertory performance featuring a vivid array of classical and contemporary ballet, modern and jazz works," explains CCM Dance Department Chair Shauna Steele, who directs the performance. "As we sat and planned our potential fall season during the unprecedented coronavirus shutdown in spring 2020, we kept returning to the idea that dance is community, it is catharsis, and it is vitally essential, thus Travelogue … where we as the artists could share through a visual medium places and experiences encountered by a ‘traveler.’ It can let us visit people, communities, myths, legends and monumental moments in our shared history allowing the audience to travel without moving."

The program opens with Les Sylphides, with choreography by Mikhail Fokine restaged by CCM faculty member Deirdre Carberry. This popular one-act Romantic ballet is set to the music of Frédéric Chopin.

The concert features three premieres choreographed by CCM faculty members: Handel Concerto choreographed by Thomas Bell, The Space Between choreographed by Shauna Steele and Death and the Maiden choreographed by Jiang Qi.

The performance concludes with August Bournonville's iconic Napoli restaged by CCM faculty member Tricia Sundbeck. Subtitled "The Fisherman and His Bride," this ballet depicts a love story in a small Italian fishing village and is celebrated for its solos. Steele explains: "In Napoli, we see through the eyes of August Bournonville, who visited a small Italian village in 1841, and was so enchanted that he created a composition that would forever capture that joyous, bright day and coincidentally created an enduring and touching ballet."

A collaboration with CCM's Department of Theatre Design and Production, Travelogue also features scenic designs by CCM student Karissa Hodge and lighting and projection designs by CCM student Ian MacIntosh.

Like other episodes in CCM's new virtual performance series, Travelogue features commentary from CCM students and faculty. All episodes of CCMONSTAGE Online can be digitally streamed for free. After the premiere broadcast, each installment in this ongoing series will remain available for on-demand viewing on CCM’s website, YouTube channel and Facebook page.

Travelogue was recorded live in CCM's Corbett Auditorium on Nov. 14, 2020. Video production by MasseyGreenAVP, LLC. This digital performance series is made possible by support from CCMONSTAGE Online Broadcast Sponsors CCMpower and ArtsWave, and CCMONSTAGE Online Production Sponsors Dr. & Mrs. Carl G. Fischer.