State Street Ballet’s ‘Recess!’: Fun for Kids of All Ages

Millions of people were captivated by last month’s Winter Olympics, many especially enraptured by the women’s figure skating competition, as Alysa Liu became the first American woman to win an individual medal (Gold!) since Sasha Cohen in 2006, and brought to the endeavor a smart combination of power, athleticism, and grace; not to mention a boatload of personality. 

All those traits will be on display this weekend at the Lobero Theatre, where State Street Ballet’s annual family-friendly program exhibits the same attributes and attitudes, albeit on stage rather than ice. Recess! puts together three vastly different pieces in the Carnival of the Animals, choreographed by Alexei Kremnev for the Joffrey Ballet 15 years ago; Interplay, an early and playful work by legendary choreographer Jerome Robbins; and Level Up, the premiere of an SSB commission created by Autumn Eckman and inspired by video games.

The lighthearted yet challenging program was sparked by Camille Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals, a beloved musical suite whose 14 movements are each focused on a specific animal. Artistic Director Megan Philipp wanted to steer SSB’s annual children-oriented program away from a full-length story ballet and into a more character-driven choreographic outing, one with pairings that require precision as well as playfulness. 

“It’s very fun for kids in that the music sounds like the animals, while Alexei’s choreography is so unique,” she said. “It’s very fun for children but also a very abstract, artsy piece with sophisticated movements at the same time. The original costumes were created out of paintings, but the animal characters come more from the movement themes. All the animals from the zoo are there, and four human visitors. It’s so fun and audience-friendly.”

Philipp paired Carnival with Interplay, one of Robbins’ very early works, and something vastly different from what was exhibited in the Tiler Peck-curated dance concerts at the Granada earlier this month. The Robbins piece is a series of jazz-infused vignettes filled with both charm and athleticism and – in a literal allusion to the program’s title Recess! – takes its energy from kids having fun on a playground.  

Set to Morton Gould’s “American Concertette,” Interplay, as its title suggests, features fast and fancy footwork from the ensemble of dancers, a number of remarkable jumps that recalls ice skaters’ free programs, and other moves requiring exquisite timing to pull off. 

“Kids will love it partly due to the brightly colored costumes, as well as a touch of comedy,” Philipp said. “Adults will appreciate the difficulty of the dance moves. The detail and precision Robbins requires is phenomenal.” 

Live music by the Opera Santa Barbara Orchestra conducted by Kostis Protopapas adds another dimension to the two pieces. 

Eckman’s Level Up breaks new ground in an SSB commission, the choreographer’s fourth for the company. Tasked only with video games as a theme, Eckman came up with the idea of having the dancers behind a scrim to create the illusion that they’re actually characters inside a video game, mirroring today’s virtual reality as projections will serve as the immersive setting. And it’s not just a single game, but a mashup inspired by dozens of classics dating back to Atari and stopping just short of today’s ultra-violent diversions. 

“Video games unite generations,” Eckman told a preview audience last week. “I dropped off somewhere around Nintendo but working collaboratively with the dancers I learned about a lot of newer games with avatars and Dance Dance Revolution. We’re putting all of them in there in a blur of reality with the setup that a gamer can’t find their remote and ends up inside the game like in Wreck It Ralph.” 

The dancers will dive under coins and over blocks, get chased by fireballs, grab stars, and climb a flagpole, among other endeavors in the eight-minute piece, said Eckman, who cited Pac-Man, Qbert and Galaga among her favorites. Those are among the games that loosely show up in the soundtrack by musician/composer Role Music, whose score serves as an earworm. 

Just as in the other two works on the program, Eckman engages the SSB dancers with challenging choreography, but reported that last week’s rehearsal process was upbeat throughout. 

“We can be serious in the studio, but we’re also having a lot of fun,” she said. “I think the audiences will too.” 

Which Philipp said is precisely the point of Recess!

“We’re at a point in the company where making ballet relevant for kids can have really sophisticated dancing in a package that’s very accessible for both children and people who go to the ballet all the time. It’s a completely joyful program that just sums up everything wonderful about being a kid – having imagination and very few worries, and just finding that really honest, raw joy in life that we somehow forget when we’re older. It’s what the world needs right now. You’re going to walk out happier than you were when you came in.” 

State Street Ballet’s Recess! has three performances March 21-22 at the Lobero Theatre, including a “Sensory-Friendly” Saturday matinee. A partnership with the Santa Barbara Zoo, the Grace Fisher Foundation, and State Street Ballet Young Dancers offers interactive activities for the family before each performance and during intermissions. Visit www.lobero.org