Ballet set for world premier in Kerrville

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By Sean Batura:

Locals are being invited to experience the world premier of a ballet performed by area youth and created by two women with Hill Country roots.

“TIDES,” slated for four Kerrville performances in early June, will be the second collaboration of composer Kä Neunhoffer and choreographer Libbie Horton, who met in the fifth grade at Nimitz Elementary School. Horton graduated from Tivy High School, and Neunhoffer graduated from Our Lady of the Hills Regional Catholic High School.

“She's one of my best friends. It’s awesome working with her,” Neunhoffer said of Horton. “She's not only a great performer and choreographer, but she's a great business partner; she's insanely punctual, she gets her stuff done.”

Neunhoffer, who works in Los Angeles, is back in Kerrville to help with rehearsals of “TIDES,” which involve seven local, female dancers, mostly from the Peggy Anne & CeCe Jean studio in Kerrville. The ensemble consists of 16 musicians playing a range of instruments, including violins, bass trombones, flutes, clarinets and piano. There may be more players as the project progresses, she said.

Some of the techniques Neunhoffer employed in the eight-movement composition may be unfamiliar to players more used to standard repertoire of the contemporary classical variety, she said. This means the audience is likely to hear compositional techniques they haven’t encountered before.

“We're trying to give something new and fresh to the musicians, too,” Neunhoffer said.

She’s composing each part to the strengths of the individual musicians.

“This is tailor-made. There’s no doubt to me that it’s going to sound absolutely awesome, because it’s all within their abilities — but we didn’t spoon feed them,” Neunhoffer said. “I’m super excited about it.”

Rather than use only the same 12 notes employed in Western classical, folk and popular music for the last 800 years, "TIDES" will offer more, Neunhoffer indicated. But she’s made room for the familiar.

“A lot of the themes in 'TIDES' came from old hymns,” Neunhoffer said.

The local musicians involved in the project include homeschooled students, high school students, Schreiner University students and recent graduates.

“These are the kids who are really dedicated,” said Neunhoffer who’s also a professional flutist, having performed at such venues as Boston Symphony Hall. “They’re not good for young people, or good for Kerrville — they’re just good, and their resumes all prove it. All of these kids are insanely talented."

Horton also is providing something new for her dancers.

“Trying to memorize and perform this amount of choreography — and mature choreography at that — is challenging for any 11- to 18-year-old,” Horton wrote. “But every rehearsal, I am amazed at their growth and ability to solidify as an ensemble, which is the goal of this whole project: Challenge young artists to grow into professionalism.”

"TIDES" is a modern chamber ballet focused on the phases and surges of life, according to a press release from Big Seed, a local nonprofit that is sponsoring the performances.

"Like a Monet painting, I think of the tide as something sparkling, undulating, coming-and-going, which is somehow green, blue, red and purple at the same time," states the release. "Every glance reveals something new. Just like the predictable, ever-swaying tide, the phases of our life, our character and the planet change in easily anticipated ways. Yet still, every tide is unique, just like every wave in our lives is unique to us."

The ballet "explores patterns, repetitions, phasing and visual imagery to capture the phenomena,” the release states.

In keeping with that theme, one of the movements of the ballet is “Missed Currents,” which refers to the current of life and all the choices people make — even ones they don’t realize they’re making.

“At some point, you have to say no to everything else,” Neunhoffer said. “By saying yes to something, you’re inadvertently saying no to something else. You just have to deal with the cards in front of you. … Doing nothing is still a choice.”

Another movement is “Treading Water,” which explores the experience of time by people of different ages. Neunhoffer employs a musical palindrome in this movement in the atypical 5/4 meter, and the piece imparts a sense of time gradually speeding up.

Neunhoffer and Horton’s last collaboration was “HillShapes,” which played to sold-out audiences last year at the Union Church Building and the River Star Arts and Events Center.

“I am elated and grateful that the community loved HillShapes so much that they wanted to work with us for a separate production,” Horton said in an email. “Kä and I complement each other artistically very well. I have never met another artist who is in the same mindset as me, and especially in the same mindset in a different medium. It also helps that we are super good friends.”

Tickets for the Arcadia shows are $20 and available at https://bigseed.org/.

“This will be a rare opportunity to experience the new Trailhead Beer Garden facility on Schreiner University campus, at the end of the newest River Trail extension, before its public grand opening on June 12,” reads the press release.