The North Fork Arts Center is housed in a historic movie theater on Front Street in Greenport. While the community members who worked to preserve it have a deep background in film, when they opened their doors for the first time last year, it was to welcome the Brooklyn Ballet for a series of workshops and performances.
“We opened our doors for the first time, and instead of just showing a movie, we had a ballet performance,” said NFAC Executive Director Tony Spiridakis in a late April interview with The Beacon. “That spoke so perfectly to letting the public know that a movie theater is wonderful, and we’re going to have that, but we will also have performance at a whole new level.”
Just over a dozen performers and choreographers from the Brooklyn Ballet have now returned to Greenport for a three-week-long residency leading up to three performances the weekend of May 17.
They’ll be staying at the Townsend Manor Inn in downtown Greenport, which “has been so welcoming,” said Mr. Spiridakis.
“If you see dancers with their dance bag walking downtown to the theater, wave,” he said.
The performance is expected to include world premiers the innovative ballet company is preparing for its spring season, “Night/Life,” which features world premieres by Shannon Harkins and William Ervin; a work-in-process by Brooklyn Ballet Artistic Director Lynn Parkerson blending ballet and krump; and Chopin Dances, weaving together Isadora Duncan’s earthy lyricism with Michel Fokine’s classical elegance.
As they did last year, the dancers will also be conducting workshops with kids in the Greenport School, and they’ll be branching out this year to the Peconic Community School in Cutchogue.
Mr. Spiridakis got to see the workshops up close last year.
“I was just off in a corner, beaming, watching the kids — some had interest in ballet, and some had no interest, but it hit both groups in the same way — “I can’t believe they can do that.”
“Watching a kid, who doesn’t have any experience, seeing the dancers live — they take three steps and then they’re in the air, in the cafeteria, where they had just cleared the lunch table,” he said.
The dance company will be working intensively this month with some of the local students who had expressed a serious interest.
“I know those kids’ lives are going to be changed by the experience,” he said.
This program isn’t the only one NFAC is building for local students this year. Their summer programming includes classes for youth on everything from comedy improv to acting, comic book illustration, puppet-making and performance.
This partnership is a big part of NFAC’s goal of building an inclusive place where creativity is celebrated.
“We’re going to focus on the things we’re doing that are inherently beautiful,” said Mr. Spiridakis. “Art is what it is to be human, and that’s what I know we’re all about. Leave everything outside that’s negative, and explore what a good part of your life the arts can play.”
The Brooklyn Ballet will be holding a Community Matinee performance on Saturday, May 17 at 2 p.m., with $15 tickets.
Its prime time performance will be at 7 p.m. on May 17, and a second matinee will be held on Sunday, May 18, also at 2 p.m. Tickets to those performances are $50.
“What we need from the community is so easy,” said Mr. Spiridakis. “Come and enjoy our programming, and bring your friends.”
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