A touring dance company from New York City will feature both classical music and rock and roll when they perform in Aspen on Saturday night.
Complexions Contemporary Ballet will dance to Bach and Beethoven first. Then, after intermission, they’ll perform to the music of Lenny Kravitz; that program, called “Love Rocks,” is a centerpiece of the Aspen program.
“Complexions is a company that is not afraid to be popular,” said Jean-Philippe Malaty, the executive director for the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet; the local nonprofit organized the Complexions show as part of their “Fall in Love with Dance” series that features visiting companies from around the world.
Malaty said contemporary dance can get “cerebral” sometimes, leaving the audience confused about the message, but that’s not the case with Complexions.
“It's not the type of performance that you're going to leave thinking, ‘Oh my god, I did not get it, I don't understand dance,’” Malaty said.
“It's really sheer entertainment,” he added. “It’s incredible bodies moving to music. … It's an hour and a half, hopefully, of escaping your daily life and your problems and being taken into a different world.”
And music isn’t the only variety in the show.
“You're going to see on stage, diversity of race, but also diversity of type of dancers, diversity of bodies on stage, diversity in ages of the performers,” Malaty said.
That’s been part of Complexions’ mission “since day one,” Malaty said.
“It's the quintessential celebration of diversity, … and I feel that's maybe something that our community is lacking of, and needs a little bit of influx from time to time,” Malaty said.
Complexions will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Aspen District Theatre. As of Friday afternoon, limited tickets were still available at aspenshowtix.com.
