William Starrett has never been bound by the constraints of what ballet is supposed to be.
More than 30 years into his role leading the Columbia City Ballet, serving as both artistic and executive director, Starrett has repeatedly pushed the boundaries of traditional subject matter, creating new dance works based on everything from Dracula to the music of bands such as The Beatles and Hootie & the Blowfish.
As the Ballet prepares to celebrate its 60th anniversary, Starrett is bringing back one of his most acclaimed and genre-bending works, “Off the Wall and Onto the Stage: Dancing the Art of Jonathan Green.”
Green, an award-winning South Carolina-born painter and printmaker, has been heralded for the vibrant colors used in his depictions of the daily life of Gullah culture. The Gullah are a people of African descent living in the coastal areas of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, whose language and cultural traditions include components from their African heritage, as well as more recent American influences.
A chance conversation at the ceremony for the Governor’s Awards for the Arts in 2002 led to an offer by Green to donate a painting.
“I didn’t know what to say. I was flabbergasted,” Starrett recalled.
He off-handedly replied that he would love to bring one of Green’s paintings to life on stage. Before the evening was over, an interdisciplinary collaboration was under way.
“He showed me his body of work, and I was overwhelmed,” Starrett continued, describing how he was stuck by the spiritual nature of many of Green’s paintings,
The subsequent challenges in bringing those paintings to the stage included finding specific pieces of music to accompany the choreography, and assuring that the vigor and intensity of the original color schemes were replicated on stage.
The two-year project included a fundraising campaign led by the First Ladies of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, and the $1.2 million dollar pricetag raised a few eyebrows at the time, leading to some lean years financially for the ballet. Still, the work’s 2005 debut caught the eye of The New York Times, and in subsequent years, Starrett has toured the work to more than 30 cities, including Chicago, Miami and Washington, and Washington. The show has already been booked for 2022 in Charleston, Charlotte, and Richmond.
Apart from its unique blend of visual and performance art, the ballet’s impact on schoolchildren — who have benefitted from the group’s educational outreach programs and who can now access material virtually through the organization’s website — is particularly rewarding for Starrett.
“They can really relate, because it’s images of children and town coming to life,” he said.
In a 2018 interview with Free Times, Starrett stated, “If [“Off the Wall”] is my legacy, that’s fine.”
But keeping the material fresh is important. Over the years, Starrett has repeatedly revised and reworked his storytelling. The work now depicts a week in the life of the Gullah culture, with complementing segments involving church as bookends for narrative vignettes ranging from peaceful rural tranquility to a rollicking dance hall on Saturday night.
"Off the Wall and Onto the Stage" returns to the Koger Center this week. Provided
Starrett has scaled-down variations of the ballet in recent years, allowing for presentation in smaller venues with projected images or in excerpts. This weekend’s return to the Koger Center marks the first time in at least eight years that the full technical splendor of the set and lighting has been on display.
“Much like a traditional two-dimensional painting, every time you see it, you see more,” Starrett offered.
Popular songs from multiple musical eras have been selected as accompaniment. These include “At Last,” “Amazing Grace,” “Let the Good Times Roll,” “All Night Long,” plus original songs written by South Carolina entertainer Marlena Smalls. Her numbers will be performed by Columbia vocalist Regina Skeeters, with backing by the Benedict College Choir.
Significant safety measures remain in place at the Koger Center, which will limit capacity to 473 seats. Patrons are seated in pairs, socially distanced from other attendees, with only alternating rows filled. Face coverings are required at all times, and arrival times for ticket-holders are staggered.
Starrett happily reported that by strict observance of these precautions, the December presentation of “The Nutcracker” went off without incident, with no COVID-19 cases reported from within the company or among the audiences.
“We have been so lucky,” he said.
Starrett added that with pandemic-related fears beginning to subside, this performance can be an opportunity for people who have been isolated to reconnect with their community.
“It’s so exciting for those who may have been out of circulation,” he posited. “It’s celebrating unity as a people, as a human race.”
“Off the Wall and Onto the Stage: Dancing the Art of Jonathan Green”
March 5-6. Koger Center. 1051 Greene St. $25-$52. columbiacityballet.com
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