• Dancentre South Company

The Piccolo Spoleto Dance at Noon Series closed out the festival with shows from a variety of companies from throughout Georgia and South Carolina.

The series opened last Monday with the Sumter Civic Dance Company. Two modern dance pieces, “Say” and “Crayola,” were exceptional, featuring expressive movements and fluid, beautiful choreography from some of the company’s strongest dancers. The club kid-inspired dance, “Wobble Baby,” featured their youngest dancers bursting with sass. We were left with some “Riverdance” and “Dancing on the Ceiling” tap numbers, which seemed puzzling, especially to the tweens performing. Only a few dancers in the front seemed to remember the steps, while the rest just watched.

Tuesday brought Kennesaw’s Great Gig Dance Ensemble to the Footlight Players Theatre. The teen dancers had dreamy big-budget costumes and a program they seemed to love performing. They channeled their inner Grace Potters in “Paris (Ooh La La)” as they each seductively bit one of their gloves off to end the dance. The choreography was fresh and fun in “Glitter in the Air.” And who doesn’t love a good glitter shower in a dance piece to a Pink song? The gorgeous duet to “Falling Slowy” left at least this audience member teary and moved. 

Sideways Contemporary Dance presented a sophisticated, hour-long, cohesive piece of modern dance called “Breaking Bounds.” This strong, Atlanta-based professional company of dancers seemed evenly matched in their talent and they moved together like silent kindred spirits. The first three dances seemed to loosely interpret themes from the book Cold Mountain, as “Down to the River to Pray” led into Jack White’s old-time version of “Sittin on Top of the World” and then “My Ain’ True Love.” Themes jumped to ’60s counterculture in the surprising hippie dosing dance to Timothy Leary’s “Trip: The Turn On.”

• Kinsey Gidick
• Ted & Sue Soderlund

I could hear the music walking down Tradd. The sounds of a rocking three-piece band signaled that The Gospel at Colonus cast party must not be far away. Though I knew this fete would be in a beautiful South of Broad setting, it was even more stunning than I had expected.

At the gate, a caterer welcomed guests with cooling blackberry vodka lemonade. With cocktail in hand, guests entered a wonderland of hanging candelabras, bouquet-covered high-top tables, and a spread of spanakopita big enough to make the gods jealous. Keeping with the theme, the hosts had prepared lamb with tzatziki, hummus and pita, and of course mini baklava for dessert. The huge piazza overlooking the grand garden was laid with hurricane lanterns adding mystery to the property inside. Suffice it to say, it was gorgeous and I, but a peon in the grand social swirl, felt like I had no business being there.

• Kinsey Gidick
• Guests dance to Electric Slide

But then I happened upon another out of place looking chap, Adam Larsen, the Gospel at Colonus projectionist. “I love working with this show because Lee (Breuer), our director, is so flexible,” Larsen told me. A freelancer, Larsen joined the cast this spring and had to develop an entire projection scheme in just a few days. Now he tours with the show and said Australia might be the next stop.

Just as I was beginning to ask Larsen about the cast, the band’s singer interrupted, “Okay, I’m going to need everyone out here on the dance floor for the Electric Slide!” Nothing says sophisticated fete quite like line dancing, and with those words I was transported to the deck of Carnival Cruise Ship welcome party. Two Post & Courier reporters dashed to the dance floor, followed by a very small handful of eager “sliders.”

Luckily there’s only so many times one can repeat, “Boogie woogie, woogie!,” before a singer exhausts herself. At that point the Gospel cast arrived. Encouraged by her small dance crew, however, the singer attempted to get the Gospel cast up for a singalong. That idea didn’t materialize. Instead she segued into some doo wop.

• Kinsey
• Nicole Hunter, Brindel Grissett, & Bernard Thornton.

“I’m almost militant about amplification now,” said my friend from the Cripple of Inishmaan party, Sue Soderlund, rolling her eyes at the noise of the band. “I had to leave Trombone Shorty, even though I loved the music, because it was so over-amped,” she added. Soderland and husband Ted went to an impressive 22 shows in 15 days at this year’s Spoleto. A busy social schedule by anyone’s standards, the couple started supporting Spoleto in ‘88 by helping sell programs. “Back then if you sold enough programs pre-show they’d give you a free ticket,” said Ted. Not a bad way to encourage new Spoletians.

At the strike of midnight the band began packing up, leaving guests to chat. I took a last pull on my drink soaking in the final few moments I could call myself an SOB party attendee. I sat down my drink knowing that Spoleto 2011 was over. Time to turn back into a pumpkin and electric slide my way home.

“Today we’re having a big party,” shouted Geoff Nuttall as he strode onstage to get the Chamber series’ final program going. And quite a fun party it turned out to be (though it ended too soon), with three pieces of blithe and celebratory spirit — and even an interactive sing-along session.

First up was Niccolò Paganini’s amazing “Moses Phantasy” Variations on a Theme by Rossini, a frisky confection originally written for violin and piano and intended for the composer’s own use (he was the rock-star fiddler of his day).

The legend — no doubt fabricated — behind the piece was that Paganini (who was also alleged to have sold his soul to the devil) composed the piece while imprisoned, and all of his violin strings but one broke, forcing him to write the piece to be played on a single string. Here we heard it in a transcription for cello and piano, and performed by cello goddess Alisa Weilerstein and piano prince Inon Barnatan. Even in its cello version, Weilerstein played the entire number on just one string. Quite a challenge, given its fearsomely virtuosic nature. After introducing the lovely and songful theme, she totally blew us away with speedy runs, treacherous arpeggios, sparkling trills, etc. as she took us through the variations. This one was all about the cello. Barnatan’s piano part was quite plain and simple by comparison, but he still played it well.

• Alex Waterhouse-Hayward
• Tyler Duncan performed

Uh-oh. You know the festival is winding down when you start seeing a few rows of empty seats at the Dock Street Chamber Series. As I took my seat for Friday morning’s concert, I felt a sharp pang of impending loss, since — after this one — there’s only a single program to go.

“Today we’re celebrating girl power,” said host Geoff Nuttall as he appeared to introduce the morning’s first music, the Piano Quintet No. 1 in A Minor, by 19th-century French female composer Louise Farrenc, probably the most successful lady tunesmith of her male-dominated era. By dint of sheer talent and achievement, she enjoyed a distinguished performing career and became a respected professor of piano (for 30 years) at the Paris Conservatory. Her remarkable music has fallen into comparative obscurity — undeservedly so, considering its rare craftsmanship and immediate musical appeal, qualities that were in ample evidence here.

• Louise Farrenc

Modeled loosely after Schubert’s famous Trout Quintet (we’ll hear it in the final program), she used the same unusual instrumentation (a double bass instead of a second violin), but that’s where the similarity ends.

"Oh wow, I'm back at prom." That was my first thought upon entering the Trombone Shorty after-party at the Gaillard Exhibition Hall Friday night. The scene was complete with disco balls and a sprinkling of eager folks on the dance floor.

The band, Stan Gray and the Stingrays, kept the masses happy, especially Sarah Mae, Maggie David, Gervais Hagerty, and Kaleigh Monahan, who, moving and shaking it from the get-go, proved that all girls really want to do is have fun.

• Kinsey Gidick
• Sarah Mae, Maggie David, Gervais Hagerty and Kaleigh Monahan dance it out.

Circling the dance floor, who else should I find but the band geeks. (And I do mean that in the nicest way!) Just like I remember from high school, orchestra players Colin Asher Sugliff (french horn), Erin Banholzer (oboe), Leah Kovach (viola), and David Barford (oboe) were dancing off in their own area, having the time of their lives. The foursome, whos spent Spoleto playing for the Magic Flute and various other shows, were sneaking a few sips of the hard stuff before calling it a night to prep for their Saturday performances. Trombone Shorty was really inspiring, said Colin. "You can't compare what they do with what we do. It's like apples to oranges, but it was great."

• Kinsey Gidick
• Colin Asher Sugliff, Erin Banholzer, Leah Kovach and David Bradfor talk Shorty inspiration.

As the band yelled, "Last call for alcohol," people crowded onto the dance floor as if it was Bourbon Street. No tops were lifted nor beads thrown (disappointing as it was a room full of damn fine people), but the spirit of New Orleans carried on as folks shimmied to one last song.

To the Spoleto Class of 2011, I hope you enjoyed your prom: A Midsummer Night's Jazzy New Orleans Moonlit Night Under the Stars to Remember.

I know I'll never forget it.