WHAT HAPPENS AT BALLIBAY DURING THE OFF-SEASON?

April 11, 2022By sarah galante
WHAT HAPPENS AT BALLIBAY DURING THE OFF-SEASON?

What happens at Ballibay during the off-season? Well, for one thing, we make movies!

We’re delighted to announce that the new feature film Person Woman Man Camera TV is available to watch now through April 17 at the CINEQUEST Film and Creativity Festival online.

Strange, funny, and a little sad, it’s a quick romp at just 77 minutes - we hope you can watch it. Although produced by a summer camp,  it is personal artistic work and is not necessarily a film for kids - it has adult themes and strong language. Please watch the trailer before deciding to view as a family.

This is the second feature executive produced by the camp, shot and directed by Ballibay’s head of media: award-winning filmmaker Niav Conty. Ballibay director John Jannone produced the film and composed the score.

Person Woman Man Camera TV is a tragicomedy about romance, race, and remembering shot at camp in quarantine in the Fall of 2020. The wonderful Jay Ward and amazing Estelle Bajou enact the first and last days of a couple’s 7-year relationship: meeting during Ebola and Obama, breaking up during Covid and Trump.

Camp dad Mish Hassidim did the color grade, and camp mom Emily Zeitlyn is featured in the soundtrack on several songs with her band Arc Divers. The great bands Operators, Handsome Furs, and Divine Fits are also featured in the soundtrack alongside John’s original score.

Our previous film, Small Time, is available on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and Google Play. Winner of numerous awards internationally, including five awards for Best Feature, Small Time is a dark tale of rural poverty and addiction as seen through the eyes of a young girl  played by Audrey Grace Marshall (The Flight Attendant, The Fairly OddParents).

Small Time is also not necessarily a film for kids - it deals with harsh realities of growing up in the shadow of the opioid crisis. Please watch the trailer before deciding to view as a family.

Small Time was written, shot, and directed by Ballibay’s head of media Niav Conty, produced and with an an original score by camp director John Jannone. Executive producers were Camp Ballibay and Academy Award nominee Oren Moverman. David Edelstein, long time film critic for New York magazine and CBS Sunday Morning, says of Small Time, "every frame carries wonder and dread… [a film] worthy of our finest humanist directors."

RIGHT HERE. RIGHT NOW.

December 21, 2021By sarah galante
RIGHT HERE. RIGHT NOW.

Almost 15 years ago, our managing director Kristin Alexander established an annual residency at Ballibay with Annex Dance Company, her professional modern dance company located in Charleston, South Carolina. Each summer she brings a company member(s) to teach in our dance department and perform alongside the campers in the dance concert. This summer, Ballibay was fortunate enough to have Taylor Bennett, an Annex Dance Company apprentice and College of Charleston student all summer long. Taylor taught modern, jazz and hip-hop, and brought so much creativity, joy, and collaboration to our dance department. We hope we will be fortunate enough to continue to work with her for many summers to come.

Taylor Bennett and Rhianna Lewis, Camp Ballibay Dance Concert 2021. PC: Cydney Blitzer. 

During the second dance intensive, Kristin choreographed a new piece entitled Right Here. Right Now. Kristin, Taylor and the campers performed the piece to a score composed by camp director John Jannone, making it a succinct and lovely Ballibay collaboration for our final dance concert of the 2021 season. About five months after the Ballibay debut, Annex Dance Company premiered Right Here. Right Now. in Charleston. I spoke with Taylor and Kristin to discuss the differences and similarities between the two performances, and how it felt growing alongside a new and expanding piece of choreography.

Sofia Puccio and Kristin Alexander. Camp Ballibay Dance Concert, 2021. PC: Cydney Blitzer. 

How does a piece like Right Here. Right Now. become a part of the Annex Dance Company season?
Kristin: Every summer while the company is in-residence, I either set company repertory or create new work for us to perform with the campers in the dance concert.  When I create new choreography, I bring it back to Charleston to workshop with my company.  This season we had a performance planned in December that I knew would be the perfect concert to premiere Right Here. Right Now. in Charleston. 

Can you tell me what it was like to begin the process of Right Here. Right Now. at Camp Ballibay this summer?
Kristin: I really wanted to collaborate with John, so I was excited he wanted to work on a composition for the piece.  The music definitely influenced the creative direction, especially the movement vocabulary.  

Taylor: Kristin created choreography phrases for us to work with in rehearsal. We tried them as a group, in duets, and even transformed them into moments of connection and partnering.  She had a vision for the piece, but as she always does, allowed the creative process to be authentic and open to new ideas.  

What was it like performing this piece for the second time, this time without camper involvement, but with Annex Dance Company?
Kristin: It is always incredible to me how much we are able to accomplish at camp. Creating a new work and performing it with the campers in less than two weeks is challenging…and very rewarding.  Once back in Charleston we spent over a month working with the choreography, exploring the partnering, and finding new ways to be connected to one another and the music.

Taylor: The biggest difference was the playfulness we found as a company, which may have made it even more inviting for the audience. I love this piece, so I was all smiling the whole time while performing it this time around.

Taylor Bennett and Sydni Shaffer. Right Here. Right Now. The Pearlstine Theatre, Charleston, SC 2021. PC: DJ Connor. 

Was there anything from camp that you took with you into your most recent performance?
Kristin: Even with all the changes, I still felt very connected to the campers as I workshopped the piece and performed it with the company. 

Taylor: I took the joy from camp and used it in the most recent performance. At Camp Ballibay the campers were always having fun and enjoying their craft. I was doing the same while I performed this piece. 

We are so looking forward to the work Annex Dance Company will bring to Camp Ballibay in 2022! If you have a project you started at Ballibay that has continued and transformed during the off-season, please reach out to us! We would love to feature you on our next Balli-blog.
Taylor: The biggest difference was the playfulness we found as a company, which may have made it even more inviting for the audience. I love this piece, so I was all smiling the whole time while performing it this time around.

Tara Rooks and Bethany Willis. Right Here. Right Now. The Pearlstine Theatre, Charleston, SC 2021. PC: DJ Connor.