Youth Ballet will help honor muse of dance

• By ROBIN MILLER
• Arts writer
• Published: Jul 6, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 am

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Imagine Terpsichore accompanying Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre’s young dancers on her lyre.

Imagine her as Rita Hayworth, if you like. Hayworth played Terpsichore in the 1947 film Down to Earth. Olivia Newton-John played her, too, in the 1980 film Xanadu.

That story used a variation of the muse’s name, shortening it to Kira.

Nevertheless, Terpsichore is a popular muse, the one of Zeus’ nine daughters who rules over dance and dramatic chorus. She’s usually depicted holding a lyre, so it’s easy to imagine her music flowing through the Louisiana State Museum’s grand space as her beloved ballerinas dance Graduation Ball.

That’s the ballet performed by the ballet theatre’s Youth Ballet in local libraries, summer camps and retirement homes in June. The troupe will reprise the show Sunday, July 13, for the third in the state museum’s series of programs honoring the sisterhood of the Greek muses.

The museum is using the muses as a means to tie together programs on history, culture and science and how they affected Louisiana. They were developed by museum marketing and public relations director Erin Rolf.

Urania, the muse of astronomy, was celebrated May 4 with a visit by a team from BREC, LSU, BRAS Highland Road Park Observatory. The museum honored Thalia, the muse of comedy, June 4.

Now it’s Terpsichore’s turn in the spotlight.

“And I’m very excited about this one, because this is program will be more active, and children will be able to relate to it,” Rolf said. “And it will be so great having Susan here speaking about dance. She’s someone who is living and working in dance in Louisiana, and she speaks from experience.”

Rolf is talking about Susan Perlis, the ballet theatre’s associate artistic director. Perlis also heads the Youth Ballet and choreographed Graduation Ball.

“We finished the summer tour two weeks ago, and some of our dancers are now taking summer dance intensives,” Perlis said. “So, we’ve had to recreate a few things. A couple of our girls have had to learn new roles, and we’re down to only one boy, but it’ll be fine.”
Perlis will speak on ballet’s relevance in modern society.

“Why is something as old as ballet still appealing in today’s cultural society?” she said. “It’s classic for a reason.”

Rolf is no less than inspired by the thought of a ballet performance in the museum. To her, it’s the perfect setting.