Sat 3/28 @ 7PM

Contemporary Ballet — formerly Verb Ballets — will return to Playhouse Square’s Mimi Ohio Theatre this weekend program called Ballet Unbound that showcases the range of this company’s skills. The four works on the program include two by choreography legends and two newer works including a newly commissioned one.

Paul Taylor is one of the greats of modern dance. Although he passed away in 2018, his New York City-based company, founded in 1954, is one of the pre-eminent dance ensembles. OCB will be performing his 1978 piece, Airs, performed to music by George Frideric Handel.

They’ll also be doing a work by one of the most influential figures in northeast Ohio dance, Heinz Poll, who founded the Ohio Ballet and ran it from 1968 until his 1999 retirement. He passed away in 2006 at the age of 80, leaving behind a legacy of dances such as Adagio for Two, which OCB will perform.

They’ll also be performing the dark, mysterious Opaque by Nycole Ray, the former artistic director of Dallas Black Dance Theatre II for whom she initially choreographed the work. She came to town to help the company work on its restaging as it makes its debut with OCB.

And finally, OCB will present the premiere of its newly commissioned work 1.X 1905 by Gordon Peirce Schmidt with music by Leoš Janáček, which will be performed lie by pianist Jiayan Sun.

Get tickets to the performance here.