Ballet Celebrates Sandy Recovery Through Dance at LBI Foundation

The Atlantic City Ballet’s “In the Eye of The Storm,” a ballet inspired by the devastating events of Superstorm Sandy will be presented Saturday November 9 at 7.p.m. at the Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences, 120 Long Beach Blvd. in Loveladies.

Admission is free on a first come first serve basis

Choreographed by AC Ballet’s ballet master, Kristaps Kikulis, this ballet incorporates movements by actual survivors created during workshops held over the summer months. It was created to: "Celebrate recovery and healing through the power of dance," according the Company's statement.  "It explores the impact of nature on mankind and the resilience of spirit that enables people to overcome and transcend even the most devastating circumstances," the statement added.

I attended the premier last week at Dante Hall in Atlantic City with my girlfriend, Angela Bartolone, who still studies and performs ballet and holds an advanced degree in dance and choreography.

The ballet's interpretation of what I and so many lived through last year was astounding. How they captured the bucolic wonder of the Jersey Shore that summer and segued into the tragic horror that was Sandy in the fall I don’t fully understand, but we truly both felt. All of it was accomplished with music and movement without a word being spoken.

During the dance I could see Angela appreciate not only the dancers' skills and technique, but feel the emotions being imparted on stage.

She had never been to our LBI prior to Sandy, having come here for the first time last New Year’s Eve once I settled in to my temporary evacuation lodgings. Since then she has been here almost every weekend from Manhattan and has witnessed some of the initial devastation and shock to how we all have come back, both physically and emotionally. She understood what was happening on stage from both a professional and personal perspective.

Later Angela taught me about the “vocabulary” of dance after the performance and how movement is a language all it own. Dramatic, cathartic, exuberant and resilient actions all being expressed without a syllable was quite a revelation for a writer like myself.

Spoiler: If you found yourself relying on flashlights for days and mostly nights last fall, then you should be prepared for a tearful déjà vu.

The production transcends the tragedy to bring us full circle with dancers appearing to saw and hammer and persevere until the shore was once again ours to relish and enjoy.

All we can both say, “Is do not miss this ballet.”       

Funding for “In the Eye of The Storm” came primarily from the New Jersey Recovery Fund at the Community Foundation of New Jersey through grants to "art, media and environmental organizations working on collaborative projects to help New Jersey restore, recover and heal from the devastation of Sandy."

The AC Ballet was one of six arts organizations chosen to receive a grant with other “community partners” including the Foundation also contributing to this project.