Polaris

Featured in the New Works Festival at Richmond Ballet 

Lighting: Brittany Diliberto

Choreography: Kate Skarpetowska

Costumes: Emily Morgan DeAngelis

Richmond Ballet dancers in Polaris by Kate Skarpetowska. Richmond Ballet 2015. All rights reserved. Photography by Sarah Ferguson.

"Polaris, which grew from an image of stars being birthed from cosmic dust, was not just a dance but a complete alien environment... the dancers seemed to have defied gravity and given up walking in favor of hovering imperceptibly an inch or 2 above the floor." -- Richmond Times Dispatch

"The group of dancers were tremendously successful with their transformation into an inhuman plasmic force that stirred on stage. Kate’s piece exceeded all expectations and served as the perfect finale for the show." -- GayRVA

"An ambient score by Fernando Corona and performed by Murcof provided the perfect environment for Skarpetowska’s deployment of dancers as the embodiment of cosmic forces, surging along the floor in a group through pinpoints of light (designed by Brittany Diliberto) or whirling through space in pairs, a man lifting a woman in one long, slight curve, and spinning together in place. The work read as contemporary dance rather than ballet, and achieved what so many performances do not -- it left us full of wonder and wanting more." -- Style Weekly