Amy Howton, The Backstage Beat

April 12, 2014

This weekend, Atlanta Ballet will be presenting “Hamlet” at the Cobb Energy Center, and, once again, Shakespeare leaves us a stage filled with dead bodies.  “Hamlet” is a difficult play to present as a ballet, as it is extremely cerebral and dependent on the language to express abstract ideas (such as Hamlet’s decisions, which are explained in the “to be or not to be” soliloquy from Act III of the play). Choreographer Steven Mills has done a masterful job in making the conversion, but at times it helps to refer to the libretto!

The music is by Philip Glass and is a participant in the action rather than supporting it from the background. Throughout the ballet, the lovely Atlanta Ballet Orchestra seems to engage in conversations with the dancers, a relationship that is rare and a treasure for both the dancers and the audience. […continued]

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