Saturday night, Sacramento Ballet invited guests to enjoy beer and a variety of appetizing performances choreographed by the dancers.
Pairing beer with a highbrow type of entertainment is a welcoming event for theater lovers and beer drinkers.
Brew It Up provided the beer that the dancers brewed themselves. The dancers mixed specialty blends to create a Heffeweisen, “Stumble-ina” and a Märzen Dark Beer, “Black Out Swan”.
The gentlemen I sat next to would not put his cup down, at the end of each short performance he would clap for the dancers while holding his cup with his teeth.
In the casual setting of their studio, seating was limited. Guests were stacked in the three rows of seating, breaking that distance barrier of dancer on stage.
Jo Balachandra, a first timer to Beer and Ballet enjoyed the performance. “It’s a lot more personal seeing them up close; it’s a different experience compared to seeing them on stage.”
Beer and Ballet exposed the dancers for the hardworking individuals they are. This year, each choreographed piece was introduced by the creator and with that the audience was able to understand their background, personality and in some cases the dancer’s humor.
Some dancers chose songs like Adele’s “Feel My Love”, while others chose songs played by a unique instrument they played, the euphonium. The dim lighting and warm spotlights followed each dancer and highlighted the creative choreography.
One dancer, Chloe Horne was inspired from a trip to Europe, where she watched folk dancing and incorporated the joyous group like dancing, stomping and ground thumping with ballet flats.
The audience could feel the dancers shoes strike the floor and the warm temperature emitting off each dancer’s body. These dancers were more real then the proper stage like dolls we tend to see from a distance at the Community Center Theater.
Susan Abernathy attends Beer and Ballet every year. “I think you can appreciate a lot more of the effort they had to put into those moves and you can see their facial expressions when they are lifting each other. “
Even if you didn’t get a chance to meet and mingle with the dancers during an intermission, you felt like you met them, with each personal performance.
13 ballet performance tastings, two intermissions, and free beer made for a cultural event, with a capital “C”.
Beer and Ballet will be running through May 25, 26, 27, 28 at 7 p.m., and May 29 at 2 p.m. Sacramento Ballet Studios is located at 1631 K St. Tickets run from $35 and are available at sacballet.org.
