Cleveland’s Verb Ballets to perform in Warren

Verb Ballets, Cleveland’s national repertory dance company, returns to the Warren Community Amphitheatre at 7 p.m. Friday. Admission is free. The program will consist of three pieces that have been choreographed by Hernando Cortez, the troupe’s artistic director; and one by the late founder of the now-defunct Ohio Ballet, Heinz Poll.

Included on the program will be The Yellow River, which serves as a tribute to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. This work was choreographed by Cortez and is set to a Chinese piano concerto. Andante Sostenuto is a pas de deux by Heinz Poll that was originally performed in Warren in 1988 by the Ohio Ballet as part of Celebration on the Square. During that original performance, the piece was the middle portion of a work titled Triptych. The work is set to a movement of Piano Concerto No. 2, D minor by Felix Mendelssohn.

The evening will also include two new pieces of choreography by Cortez. The first is Ski-du, which will remind VERB fans of Speed Racer, except for the addition of skis. The dancers will be outfitted with skis and ski boots that will allow them many synchronized and gravity-defying moves. The final work on the program will be Mondo Jumbo, performed to the live sounds of the University of Akron Steel Drum Ensemble directed by Matthew Dudack.