Richard Dickinson, Verb Ballets Associate Artistic Director and former Ohio Ballet dancer, restaged Rococo Variations in September on Verb Ballets. He was in the original cast and is the regisseur for the ballet. This will be the first time the piece has been performed since last by Ohio Ballet in 1997. Rococo Variations is set to Tschaikovsky’s score titled Variations on a Rococo Theme. Choreographed by the late Heinz Poll the ballet features two principle female dancers and their partners with a corps de ballet of four female dancers. Costumed in English-style tutus this ballet highlights the technical virtuosity of the dancers and the beauty of the score on cello and piano.
The company premiere will feature live accompaniment by the musicians of the Chamber Music Society of Ohio. The Akron premiere will take place at Tuesday Musical’s Fuze Series on October 10, 2019 at EJ Thomas Performing Arts Hall.
Don't miss the company premiere!
Tuesday Musical Fuze Series: Akron Legends of Jazz and Dance
Thursday, October 10, 2019 EJ Thomas Hall
Heinz Poll
Heinz Poll was born in Oberhausen, Germany, in 1926. Poll was a champion ice skater before he became a dancer. His experience on the rinks imbued him with a love of speed that he expressed in his athletic baroque ballet, Cascade (1985). After World War II, he studied dance at Joss’s Folkwang School in Essen, began his professional career at the Municipal Theatre in Goettingen and became a principal dancer with the Berlin State Opera Ballet. In 1951, he joined the National Ballet of Chile as a dancer, ballet master, and teacher. The company’s tradition of bringing serious programs to indigenous people in remote mountain villages served as the model for Ohio Ballet’s Summer Festival of free outdoor performances. In 1962, Poll joined Ballet de Jeunesse Musicales de France as ballet master. Two years later, he came to the United States as a guest artist with the Chilean company. He performed in the American Dance Festival the following summer and stayed in New York to teach at Thalia Mara’s National Academy of Ballet. In Akron, he developed Ohio Ballet into one of America’s most polished, respected, and widely traveled chamber dance troupes. Poll was awarded the Association of Ohio Dance Companies Award in 1983, the Cleveland Arts Prize in 1995, and the Ohio Arts Council’s Governor’s Award in 1999. After his retirement, he wrote his memoir and has conferred a number of his ballets to former Ohio Ballet dancers. Poll passed away in 2006.
