A Picasso collaboration

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Picasso-fired ballets run gamut of moods, styles

At Duke University's Nasher Museum of Art, the exhibition "Picasso and the Allure of Language" demonstrates the artist's wide-ranging styles and subjects. In collaboration with the museum, Carolina Ballet has its own exhibition -- four ballets inspired by Picasso images, aptly reflecting the artist's variety.

The program opens with "Salome," based on Picasso's delicate print depicting Salome's dance before Herod and his wife. Picasso's Salome has an innocence and naïveté that Robert Weiss' choreography captures well, evocatively danced by Randi Osetek to music from Richard Strauss' opera. Attila Bongar as a younger, more aggressive Herod, and Eugene Barnes as Salome's adoring slave, interact sensuously with Osetek, to the consternation of Rossana Nesta Gahagan's Herodias.

David Heuval's exotic costumes and Ross Kolman's burnished lighting add visual splendor to this provocative piece.

Reimagined and rearranged

This weekend, emissaries from a foreign kingdom will bestow a major gift on Duke University: the American premiere of a new ballet. Coming straight from Monaco, it's part of a global celebration of the 20th century's most influential ballet company.

To understand just how significant the premiere is, a quick course in dance history is in order.

One hundred years ago, a young Russian impresario had the grand idea to cherry-pick star dancers from prominent theaters and whisk them to Paris to perform a season of new ballets. He hired up-and-coming painters as designers and commissioned music from fledgling composers.

Keating relishes role in ballet/play hybrid

When Charles Keating steps onto the Memorial Auditorium stage Thursday night to portray the jealous husband in Carolina Ballet's "The Kreutzer Sonata," he'll be in another world -- far from the TV soap operas, Broadway shows and movies that have made him famous.

The Emmy winner and Tony nominee -- known for his periodic roles on "Another World," "As the Word Turns," "All My Children," and major parts in "Brideshead Revisited" and "Edward and Mrs. Simpson" -- is returning to a character he first played here in 2001.

In Tolstoy's controversial 1889 novella, the embittered Pozdnischeff narrates the tale of how his paranoid suspicions of his wife's infidelity drivehim to murder after finding her alone with her violinist friend.

Ballet takes on 'the Beast'

We know the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast" in many forms -- movies, TV series, stage musicals -- but not ballet. There have been more than a dozen little-remembered dance versions, but Carolina Ballet artist director Robert Weiss hopes his take will make a lasting impression. To whet the appetite for this week's premiere run, here's background on the story, choreography and newly composed music.

'Beauty and the Beast' origins

The first published version came out in 1740, written in French by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve. An abridgement appeared in 1756 by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont (translated into English in 1757), which became the most familiar version. A number of variations followed, but the main points vary little: A man unwittingly takes Beast's prize rose. Beast demands the man's daughter, Belle, in exchange for the man's freedom. Beast woos the reluctant Belle, allows her to return home temporarily, then nearly dies when she does not return as promised. Her last-minute tears

'Beauty and the Beast,' short and sweet

Appreciation of the arts is best achieved by early exposure, but finding appropriate entry points can be difficult. At the ballet, full evenings such as "Sleeping Beauty" can be too long for the youngest of children, while short plotless works, such as those by Balanchine, can be too cerebral.

Carolina Ballet's delightful 2006 "Cinderella" might have seemed ideal, but its 90 minutes and two acts can still be too much for the youngest attendees. Now, company artistic director Robert Weiss and Cary-based composer Karl Moraski have collaborated on a 70-minute one-act "Beauty and the Beast." The reaction of Thursday's audience, although predominantly adults, strongly suggested the piece works for its purpose.

This "Beauty and the Beast" emphasizes production values, with beautifully elaborate castle rooms and gardens (courtesy of BalletMet Columbus), richly detailed costumes (David Heuvel) and dramatic lighting (Ross Kolman). The story moves quickly from scene to scene, focusing on characterization and movement