One of my favorite recent commissions was for Ballet Montana,
a professional company that attracts dancers from around the US and the
world to work and perform each summer with ballet master Sallyann
Mulcahy.
I was asked to create an enormous book that formed the background for the original ballet, The Inquisition of Don Muguel.
This is a new version of the Don Quiote story by Michael Russell,
zoomed out one layer to reveal Cervantes's relationship with Don
Quixote, who, despite Cervantes's attempts to ridicule him, becomes the
greater inspiration.
The
book's 12 pages are each 16 x 10 feet. (The "world's largest book" is 5
x 7 feet). As the story unfolds the pages are flipped like the giant
arms of a windmill, the open book taking up
nearly the whole back of the stage, forming both the setting and
becoming a character in its own right.
Death scene
Sallyann Mulcahy and some members of Ballet Montana
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