Arabian Nights: Ballet Excel Ohio Presents "Aladdin"

Hope, desire and love are exhibited in artful turns, leaps and facial expressions on a brightly lit stage — where the magical story of Aladdin plays out through dance. Donning vibrant, shimmering costumes, Ballet Excel Ohio dancers are practicing as they prepare to perform the world premiere of the new full-length ballet March 14 and 15 at the Akron Civic Theatre. Witness Erich Yetter’s original choreography.

“It's a magical story,” he says. “I thought it would make perfect sense to make it a ballet because it has a lot of the theatrical elements of movement of ballet.”

With inspiration from the original "Aladdin" tale, Yetter worked to spin together a unique retelling to celebrate the Cuyahoga Falls-based company’s 50th anniversary. Enjoy festive small bites and refreshments at Aladdin’s Arabian Nights Tea Party before the 2 p.m. shows on both days. See guest New York City Ballet artists Shelby Mann and Daniel Ulbricht, as well as alumni performers Dustin True and Ashley Klinger, March 14 at 7 p.m. Yetter shares his inspiration and how he’s taking audiences to a whole new world.

Akron Life: Why did you choose to depict "Aladdin" through ballet?

Erich Yetter: It has a central love story, because ballet, it really portrays love, and it makes human relationships visible. … When you have two people onstage, that emotion can be conveyed easily. But also you have a villain who causes trouble, and then you have the genie who, in this case, is a female and has been treated so badly by other masters that she has fondness for Aladdin, who treats her kindly, and in the end, releases her. … That adds a little bit more emotion and connection to the characters, because you feel for the genie. … Everybody can relate to human emotion, and that's the whole point of art — drawing you into these relationships and the emotion and then the joy and the happiness and all the struggles that people go through.

AL: How did you choose the music?

EY: For me, the music is always first. So, I have to put that score together and have to find the different pieces to put the different scenes together, stitch together the narrative, see it all in my mind and then get all of it in musical form, from Spotify, YouTube, various … CDs, everything. I search the entire world for music that encapsulates and has that Arabian feeling, but it's classical music. There's no words to it, so it's all beats and orchestral sounds. Then I fashion the choreography when I'm there. … You have to have inspiration from the cast itself. And then you create the movement to the music, to the counts of the music, so that they understand it. And then you add that, why are you doing this? Why are you dancing this dance? Who are you in this ballet? Are you an evil character? Are you a happy character? What's going on? And then they have to portray the story through their dancing.

AL: How do you convey the plot without speaking?

EY: We talk with our bodies and our hands. … There is an entire silent language of movement that ballets use to convey certain ideas like beauty and love. You can tell you can have some exposition through these movements — there's no words — it's all movements. … We have movements in our own language that don't have words or vocalization, and that's what is also used so that the audience can easily understand, Oh, this is what's happening, and they should have no trouble following the story.

AL: What has been rewarding about working on this production?

EY: I like storytelling to be able to, again, give an opportunity for these dancers to literally express a story, be somebody, be a different character. Get out of your comfort zone.

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