So Manley’s music — which he created specifically for A Gothic Folktale — and Phelyx’s illusions provide some of the context for Ammon’s creative choreography. “The whole thing is like a dusty vaudevillian sideshow circus from some past era, where illusion and magic were a part of life,” Ammon says. And the performance’s subtitle should give some hints as to where this folktale leads: into realms of self-realization and enlightenment. “If people walk away at the end of the performance wanting to have a conversation and engage with each other about it, then we have done our job,” he adds. “Each performance that you see is part of a longer journey and a longer conversation.” In other words, discard the notions you might connect to the words “dance,” and especially “ballet,” because Wonderbound is going to shatter them, anyway.
A Gothic Folktale runs tonight and tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Performing Arts Complex at Pinnacle Charter School, 1001 West 84th Avenue in Federal Heights; performances next weekend will be at the Parker Arts, Culture and Events Center, 20000 Pikes Peak Avenue in Parker. Tickets, $22 to $47, can be purchased at wonderbound.com or by calling 303-292-4700.
Oct. 18-19, 7:30 p.m.; Sun., Oct. 27, 2 p.m., 2013
