- Organization Name:
- Columbia City Ballet
- Describe your creative piece – what is it and what has it been used for, and why is it innovative?
- This is a poster to promote Columbia City Ballet's production of Off The Wall & Onto the Stage: Dancing the Art of Jonathan Green. The poster had to incorporate a dancer from the Columbia City Ballet who appeared to be "coming to life" out of the background painting by artist Jonathan Green. (Note the original artwork by Green in the left corner of the girl in the yellow dress)
- What issue or problem were you working to address with this piece?
- Jonathan Green's paintings depict the Gullah heritage, rapidly disappearing way of life in the barrier islands of the Atlantic. The ballet was created to bring the music, beliefs and ways of the African American culture to stage. The poster had to portray the elements of the production and the connection between the paintings and the performance.
Green’s vibrantly colorful art is the quintessential rendering of Gullah life in South Carolina’s coastal Lowcountry. CCB's Executive & Artistic Director William Starrett created Off the Wall & Onto the Stage to bring the story of the Gullah Heritage to life as dancers perform to the music of the times as they appear to step out of the paintings (scrims) and onto the stage in this production.
- How has your submission successfully impacted your organization’s ability to solve this issue/problem?
- Off the Wall & Onto the Stage has been performed throughout the Southeast and most recently in Chicago, Ill., at the Harris Theatre as part of the South Side Community Arts Center's 70th anniversary. The ballet has introduced thousands in our audiences, including young school children through Columbia City's Ballet Educational Outreach program, to South Carolina's Gullah heritage and the community's unique creole language and slow-paced life that has been all but lost in time.
