Play Date

Ballerinas as broccoli? Dancers as dessert? Ib Andersen isn’t talking about victuals when he describes his new ballet, Play, as “a seven-course meal.” The courses in question showcase not leafy green vegetables, but emotions — happy, sensual, morose. The performance, a new work by Andersen, who is Ballet Arizona’s artistic director, uses innovative choreography, costuming, and lighting techniques to reshape traditional dance sets to familiar music. If there’s a theme here, it’s diversity: Act One commences with Mozart variations on “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and moves on into Arvo Pärt’s Cantus in Memory of Britten, an homage to Benjamin Britten that has critics raving.
Fri., May 14, 8 p.m.; Sat., May 15, 2 & 8 p.m.; Sun., May 16, 2 p.m., 2010