FreeFall – Memphis Flyer

There are two notable ballet events this weekend: New Ballet Ensemble’s (NBE) annual FreeFall concert featuring a new contemporary ballet by NBE alum Maxx Reed and Ballet Memphis’ production of The Little Prince.

Reed was 13 years old when NBE founder Katie Smythe first saw him performing on a street corner in Cooper-Young with other dancers from Graffiti Playground, a neighborhood program offering free performing-arts training for kids. When Smythe asked Reed if he’d like to visit her studio and dance with some ballerinas, the teenager didn’t even need to think about it. “Nope,” he said. That just didn’t sound fun at all. But Smythe eventually changed his mind, and Reed’s mix of street smarts and classical training have since resulted in a number of professional dance opportunities, including a chance to perform as Spider-Man on Broadway.

Ballet Memphis’ The Little Prince

NBE’s FreeFall also features a German-inspired dance created by Elizabeth Corbett, and a French and Spanish piece with choreography by NBE flamenco instructor, Noelia Garcia Carmona. Tickets are free, but proceeds from donations support scholarships for NBE students.

Ballet Memphis launches its 2015 season in the Memphis Botanic Garden with an adaptation of The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s classic children’s book for adults. And where better than under the moon and stars to take in the bittersweet story of a little boy from another planet who has met many peculiar grown-ups on his way to Earth. The Little Prince will be followed by a special New York tour preview Water of the Slippery Flower Mill.

Dance fans — both street and classical — have a special opportunity this week to explore both the origins and the future of Memphis-style bucking and jookin’. The “Old School vs. New School 3” dance competition at Minglewood Hall pits Memphis’ first generation Gangsta Walkers against younger dancers looking to see if their bucking and chopping measures up against the original masters.

“This is the first time in a long time that people will have an opportunity to see the original Gangsta Walkers,” says instructor, artist, and event organizer Jaquency Ford, who has hand-picked the dance partners who’ll be squaring off against one another at Minglewood. Gangsta Walking is the direct antecedent of jookin’, the Memphis-born dance style that New York Times dance writer Alastair Macaulay recently described as, “the single most exciting young dance genre of our day, featuring, in particular, the most sensationally diverse use of footwork.”

Pretty Tony will be in the house to perform his seminal club hit “Get Buck.” Original Gangsta Walkers include Wolf and Romeo, two-thirds of the G-Style, the ’80s-era rap and dance team that first began to mix breakdancing moves with “buck jumps.”

A stone’s throw to the east, at the new Hattiloo Theatre in Overton Square, FreeFall finds New Ballet Ensemble (NBE) presenting a concert showcasing the company’s critically acclaimed hybrid of ballet, Memphis jookin’, and world dance styles. NBE’s program includes a revival of Noelia Garcia Carmona’s Dos, a vibrant mashup of jookin’ and flamenco set to original music by Roy Brewer and showcasing the talents of Shamar Rooks. The New Ballet Youth Company presents Doin’ It Right choreographed by NBE alum and Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark dancer Maxx Reed.

NBE is also premiering “Three Dream Portraits” based on poetry by Langston Hughes with music by Margaret Bonds and choreography by General McArthur Hambrick.