EDITOR’S NOTE: Sarah Dorn has been dancing for 17 years and teaches at the Classical Ballet Academy. This is her review of the performance.

This weekend, the Oklahoma Festival Ballet presented its spring performance, a combination tribute to the Ballets Russes and performance of a Balanchine ballet.

The show was a stunning combination of four distinct pieces: “Divertimento No. 15”, “L’Apres Midi D’un Faune”, “Balletudes” and “The Firebird.”

The performance opened with “Divertimento No. 15,” a piece originally choreographed by George Balanchine to music by Mozart of the same name.

This ballet was a stunning combination of highly demanding soloist variations and nearly flawless coordinated “corps de ballet” work.

One of the first highlights was a variation by ballet performance sophomore Kristen Young. Although she started with slight hesitation, the rest of the piece – her jumping ron de jambes en l'aire in particular – were beautiful.

The most impressive part of this ballet, though, was the coordination of the corps. There was one portion in which a collision between a group doing chaînés turns and a group running seemed imminent, but was avoided. Other than that, the synchronization of the corps’ dancers was a thrill to watch.

In addition, the costumes, designed by Lloyd Cracknell, were perfectly suited to the piece. The female soloists wore soft yellow classical tutus accented by blue bows, a blue matched in the tunics of the men. The corps wore complementary white tutus with yellow trim and the same blue bows. All flattered the dancers and the ballet.

The next piece performed was the short ballet “L’Apres Midi D’un Faune”, or “The Afternoon of the Faun”, the first ballet choreographed by Vaslav Ninjinsky.

As the curtain opened on this piece, a delightfully colorful and abstract scenic design greeted the audience. Then the faun, danced by Jammie Walker, presented himself.

Soon, several nymphs dressed in flowing white gowns come onstage to play.

What is most fascinating about this piece is the two-dimensional format of the dancing. The performers are all dancing in silhouette, as one might see figures on an ancient urn or frieze.

The ballet in no way feels stiff, however. The admonitions of the attendant nymphs to the faun’s advances are humorous, while the faun provides a character who is comic and loving and pressingly sexual all at once.

The third ballet was a piece of original choreography by Mary Margaret Hold, Director of the School of Dance and OFB. “Balletudes” presented the audience with a look into the workings of a ballet class.

The piece began with two long ballet barres angled toward each other on the stage. Female dancers in all black, save pink pointe shoes, filled either side of the two barres and executed a series of combinations one would do at the opening of a ballet class: pliés, tendus, échappés and grand battements.

The men then removed the barres from stage and 16 dancers spread out across the stage for exercises in center.

Additionally, there were several petit allégro variations that were fascinating to watch, particularly as they were always my favorite type of variation to perform. One in “Balletudes,” done as a trio, was an especially enjoyable to watch as it was executed with such precision and speed.

The piece also involved some interesting and well-performed partnering work, done near the end of the piece as would be done in a class.

While the “corps de ballet” work was not as coordinated as it was in “Divertimento,” the piece was still a pleasing study of the trappings of an advanced ballet class. Holt conceived a ballet class on stage for audience members who might never get a chance to be in a studio to watch such a class, much less take one, and she captured the feel of such a class phenomenally well.

The final ballet of the evening was “L’Oiseau de Feu”, or “The Firebird.” Choreography was by Miguel Terekhov, co-founder of the OU School of Dance.

“The Firebird,” a mythical creature based on Russian folklore, was played by Carmen DeVora Felder (alternately, by Anna Doss) to great effect. She captured the frenzied movements of the trapped bird, while performing a convincingly powerful mythical being.

The costume she wore, newly made and designed by Lloyd Cracknell, was stunning with its saturated-red fabric and striking gold embellishment. The extensive feather headdress must have been difficult to dance in, but it was stunning.

The set design on this piece was both whimsical and foreboding, perfect for the story of the piece.

The ballet was well-danced and convincingly acted, especially by the dancers playing lead characters Tsarevitch Ivan, Elena the fair, and Koshchey the Immortal. The monsters were properly menacing, especially in their winged, hooded costume creations.

The final scene of the piece proved what a fantastic spectacle this ballet is, as the dancers happily enter in wedding day finery in front of a glowing (literally) set built to look like a domed Russian palace.

All in all, this year’s Oklahoma Festival Ballet was beautifully performed by each dancer, choreographer and designer involved, and is worth anyone’s time to see.