Premiered Boston Ballet Grand Studio;  November 12, 1999

Music: Erik Satie (Gnossiennes No. 4 and No. 1),6 minutes

Dancer: Jennifer Gelfand (Principal, Boston Ballet)

"Blue Ivory" is a solo work created to express the contrasts of melancholy and simple grandeur in Erik Satie's two piano works , Gnossienne No. 4 and Gnossienne No. 1. The light romanticism of the first gives way to the restlessness and strong energy in the second; always deceptive from the onset. As a choreographer I was attempting to extract and exaggerate the moods created from these beautiful Satie's works, using the gifted performance of Boston Ballet Principal Jennifer Gelfand to sensitively portray the work's subtle phrasing and vibrant contrasts. On another level this impressionistic piece expresses the deep, often troubling, stirring of energy that exists today under a seemingly calm exterior- symbolic of the times. The music, created in 1891 at the turn of the 19th century was labeled "surreal". Today it is impressionistic, representative of the many contrasts and qualities that exist in our world today.