Daniel Fifield and Faculty Mentor: Shayla Bott, Department of Dance
At the beginning of Fall semester 2016, I discussed the possibility of composing music
for an original ballet with Elise Meiners, an adjunct professor for the BYU Dance
Department. She agreed to choreograph the ballet and together we assembled a
production team. Daniel Schwicht, a BYU student, joined the team as the artistic
designer. Spencer Duncan, then BYU theatre student joined as the dramaturg. The
production team met weekly during that semester to develop an original story to be told
in the form of a 30 minute ballet. Shayla Bott, the Ballet Area Administer agreed to
mentor the project and assist in the process of applying for university grants. Thanks to
her help, the project received funding from both Laycock and ORCA grants.
The scope of the project extended across 3 departments: Dance, Theatre and Music.
Faculty members from each of those departments were sought out as mentors for the
project. Shayla Bott was the mentor for dance and choreography, Rodger Sorensen was
the theatre mentor and Neil Thornock was the composition mentor. Each of these
mentors played a key role in helping this project become a success. Shayla was not only
instrumental in helping to find and receive funding, but also in guiding how to produce
the show at BYU. Rodger Sorensen was heavily involved with the evolution of the story
and helped with the editing process. Neil Thornock gave invaluable guidance in
composition and orchestration for this project.
As the production team met, the emphasis of the project was changed to focus on editing
and revising instead of a fully-produced final production. In addition to feedback within
the production team to guide edits and revisions, several preview showings would allow
for more informed editing and revising according to what did and did not resonate with
audience members. The process informed revision in all aspects of the production:
overall story, music, costuming, set design, and choreography. In order to have several
preview showings, editing and revisions had to be done very quickly.
In December 2016, the full time music writing process began. This process included
writing melodies, phrases and pieces influenced by our story outline. This also included
researching music from the 1920’s in France where our story was set as well as the
contemporary composers of that era such as Stravinsky and Ravel. Demo tracks on the
piano were recorded and sent to the production team. Based on revisions of the story
and the choreographer’s input, the music was adjusted. During this time, Elise recruited
Sara Coray, a dance major, to be her assistant choreographer. On December 9th, we
held auditions for the ballet and cast nine student dancers. On January, 31st, the
dancers began rehearsals which were 2 hours long and held twice a weeks until the
performance.
On March 30th, the first studio preview of the ballet was presented to a small audience of
friends and mentors. It was a no-costume, no-set preview which was dedicated to
receiving feedback from the audience. Spencer Duncan, the dramaturg, led a talk-back
session with the audience after the preview performance and the production team took
notes so that the production team could go back to work revising the ballet, fixing some
of the problems and perfecting the production for the next preview. On April 20th, we
held the second studio preview. We added some rehearsal costumes—a few masks and
scarves and invited a small audience to observe and take notes during the preview.
Spencer conducted the talk-back session and the production team began the revision
process once again. Overall, the feedback we received was very positive with excellent
suggestions for adapting and revising.
With the help of BYU student Derek Crane from the Music Department, a ballet orchestra
was recruited. The orchestra was made up of 13 musicians (2 winds, 2 brass, 5 strings, a
piano, a guitarist, a synth player and a drummer). Orchestra rehearsals began on May
13th and we had 9 rehearsals before the performances on June 16th.
The Dance Department gave permission to hold a preview in the RB Studio Theatre on
May 25th. For this production, a few set pieces and more costumes were added. Daniel
S. spent countless hours constructing masks for each of the dancers. Elise, Spencer and
Sara also collaborated with the BYU Folk Department to borrow some of their costumes
as well as with the Hale Center Theatre in Orem to rent costumes from their archives.
We had a larger audience of about 40 individuals including a number of the dance
faculty. We held a feedback session at the conclusion of this performance allowing the
audience to ask questions of the production team and discuss final edits of the ballet.
On June 14th, 3 days before opening, we rehearsed the dancers and the orchestra
together. This was a challenge for everyone as tempos needed to be adjusted and a few
musical cuts needed to be made. The live orchestra, like the costume pieces, added an
element of life and color to the ballet. We had a successful run of dress rehearsals and
on June 16th, we performed two shows at 7:00pm and at 8:00pm. The costumes were
rented from the Hale Center Theatre in Orem as well as from the BYU Folk Dance Area.
In total, approximately 300 people attended the performances which were held free of
charge. BYU alumnus Scott Cook filmed the production which can be accessed on
YouTube.
After the final performances, the orchestra did a recording session at the Cold House
Studio in Provo. For this, a few cuttings and adjustments of the score were made to be
more appropriate for a recorded version. 20 minutes of the music were recorded on
August 2nd. The audio files are included in the documents section of this project.