By TRACEY D'ASTOLFO

By TRACEY D'ASTOLFO
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
T'S BALLET FOR BOYS.
Ballet Western Reserve's production of "Zorro" will include bullfighting, dancing se & ntilde;oritas -- and sword fighting.
Anita Lin, artistic director at BWR, said boys typically like ballets with male leads, such as "Peter Pan" and "Aladdin," but the real draw with "Zorro" will be the swordplay.
Lin enlisted the help of Rob Greaves, a theater major at YSU, as fencing choreographer for the production, which will be presented at 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Powers Auditorium. Greaves is certified with the Society of American Fight Directors as an actor combatant, and he also trained with the United Stuntmen Association.
Greaves said combining fencing and dancing is not as difficult as one might think.
"You wouldn't normally think of combining an art form with a fighting style, but actually when I'm choreographing fights, it's much closer related to dance than it is actual fighting. That's because of all the partnering and practice and the physical conditioning you have to be in to be able to do it. It was actually a very natural transition," said Greaves.
Fencing lessons
Greaves and six others who are experienced in stage combat will perform the sword fighting in the production, along with six BWR dancers, but Lin said she insisted the BWR's entire performing company learn traditional fencing.
"Our goal is to teach [BWR students] as many styles of movement as possible. So the entire company on the first day had a three-hour rehearsal, and everyone had to learn how to fence, had to pick up a sword and go through the movements," said Lin.
Greaves said he took a ballet class to help broaden his experience and understanding of the art form.
Lin said another challenge was choreographing the fight scenes to fit the music, second by second. She said it's difficult to work in reverse, fitting the fight scenes to canned music instead of having music composed to fit the choreography of the scenes.
"It's a lot harder. It teaches them that they have to listen to the music while they're fighting, which is difficult," said Lin. "We were actually working on a fight scene and there was too much fighting before the time where someone was supposed to be stabbed, so we had to cut some of the fighting."
10 composers
Lin said the ballet will use music from about 10 composers, mostly Spanish and Mexican. Gary Sexton of WYSU helped Lin find music for the production, and she used music from her extensive private collection of Spanish music.
Dancing styles
The ballet will feature several styles of dancing besides classical ballet. Area ballroom dance instructor George Hawn taught eight of the dancers a highly stylized tango for the show. The ballet will also include flamenco dancing and a fast-paced Cuban Maypole-style dance. The finale will incorporate Colombian dance movements learned from Patricia Lutz, former artistic director of Washington's Hispanic dance company and a lead dancer for the Ballet Folklorico of Colombia.
"I just want to keep them learning," Lin said. "Ballet is the oldest, I would say, classical dance form, but there are so many different styles of movement out there that they need to learn, and [the troupe] learned it from this ballet."
Lin said she incorporated bits and pieces of several Zorro legends to create the story line for the ballet. For those who may be concerned about violence in the ballet, Lin said the story ends with a resolution where Zorro lays down his sword, saying peace will prevail.
Many parts
There are 90 dancers performing in the production. Lin said she created several smaller parts to allow the younger ballet students to participate also.
Jennifer Hayden Pirtz serves as children's choreographer. Brendan Trewella, Irish step dance instructor at the school, will play the lead role of Zorro.
"The reason why we do the ballets with the title role being a hero and a man, is so we can get the guys," Lin said. "We got letters from boys after the school performances of 'Peter Pan' and 'Aladdin,' saying they never realized how great the ballet was, so that's a wonderful response. We'll have a great response from the boys with the sword fighting," Lin predicted.