Stages of Beauty features the second act of Tchaikovsky’s beloved Swan Lake, plus the World Premiere of Player by Executive Director Ye Li. Guest artists from Oregon Ballet Theatre (OBT) will dance lead roles alongside OIBA students, elevating this production to the professional level that characterizes OIBA’s incredible work.
Player reflects stages of growth and the interconnectivity of our choices. By engaging OIBA’s youngest dancers at the start of the piece to showcase the playfulness of childhood and the games of chance and choice children engage with, Li lays a meaningful and relatable foundation for the piece. The work then gradually cycles through dances with increasingly older children, showcasing how the decisions we make and the directions we take in our lives play out through myriad possibilities until the piece culminates with the stunning movements of soloists from OBT2, the Oregon Ballet Theatre’s training program for which Li is Rehearsal Director.
To complement this new work, more than forty-seven OIBA students and ten top-level student soloists will bring joy and beauty to the stage within the context of the full second act of Swan Lake, specially choreographed by Artistic Director Xuan Cheng, recently appointed Ballet Mistress of the world-renowned Hong Kong Ballet. Guest dancers include OBT principal Brian Simcoe, Nicholas Sakai, Isichel Perez Rivero, and rising stars Medea Cullumbine-Robertson and Isaac Lee.