Central West swings with the Rat Pack again

Central West Ballet again is trading tutus for tuxedos.

The professional ballet company presents its popular dance show “Rat Pack in Revue” Friday-Saturday, March 18-19, at Gallo Center for the Arts. The show, which originated in 2010, is a celebration of the music and dance inspired by Frank Sinatra and his famous friends.

The revue, which the company also brought back in 2012, will feature new dances and new choreography. But expect that same magic from Old Blue Eyes and pals on stage. Central West artistic director René Daveluy said the high-energy show is a favorite of audiences and dancers.

“It’s popular because it’s something that reaches to the core of the population. These are timeless songs; they are timeless themes. Sinatra was such a huge part of our collective consciousness,” he said. “It is part of an era that still resonates and has been very successful in our community. People love romance and good old-fashioned entertainment.”

Unlike in its traditional ballet performances, most of the dancing in “Rat Pack in Revue” will be done in hard shoes – high heels and the like. Daveluy said that helps to make the show more challenging to the dancers as well.

“We wouldn’t revive it if we didn’t think it was beneficial to our dancers. There are very difficult parts. It’s a form of American dancing not done that much anymore. Done in hard shoes and dancing in high heels – for a ballet company, that is not often done,” he said. “This is one of the most important art forms of the 20th and 21st centuries. It takes an enormous amount of brain work and hard, hard sweat to dance like that.”

The show will include jazz and tap dancing. The performance will still have some pieces done en pointe; this is a ballet company, after all. But the goal is to honor what Daveluy called truly American dance forms.

“When you look at the golden age of American musicals and American movies, it was a mixture of tap, jazz and ballet, mostly. When you talk about mixing not just jazz and ballet but tap, then you come into a specific dance form that only happened in the United States. That was a genuine American art form,” he said.

Daveluy directs the production and has choreographed most of the numbers. For the first time, principal dancer Nicole Firpo has choreographed two numbers as well for the show. In the last two Rat Pack revues, she choreographed one piece on her own.

“We’re making it a little more edgy. This gives her the opportunity to do what she loves; Nicole loves that type of style,” he said.

The show will feature 26 dancers from the company. Expect a Vegas-heavy theme with dancers – male and female – in tuxedos and fedoras. The dancers will be put through their paces in some 30 dance numbers. Along with high-energy songs, expect some introspective pieces to be peppered into the program.

For those who miss the March Gallo Center performances, Central West will take the show to Tracy’s Grand Theatre on Saturday, April 2, for one encore show.

“It’s just a great, fabulous, high-energy party. It swings, and for us there’s no better way to finish our season than with this kind of show,” Daveluy said.

This story was originally published March 8, 2016 at 2:51 PM with the headline "Central West swings with the Rat Pack again."