Culture: Dancing Ancient Egypt

Free Times, Columbia (Ron Aiken)

With priceless artifacts from ancient Egypt on display at the Columbia Museum of Art as part of the museum’s 10th anniversary celebration, it only made sense to Columbia City Ballet artistic director William Starrett to capitalize on the timing of its Main Street neighbor with an Egyptian-themed production of his own, Cleopatra.

The brand-new ballet is scheduled for three performances — this Friday, Feb. 1 at 7:30 and Saturday, Feb. 2 at 3 and 7:30 p.m. — and takes place both in Alexandria and Rome, no small feat for technical director Barry Sparks.

“We originally considered renting a huge set co-owned by companies in Houston, Boston and Pittsburgh, but that would have cost us $40,000 for a one-time rental and what’s more, after seeing it, William and I really didn’t like it,” Sparks says. “We thought we could do something ourselves more colorful, tell our own story and make budget.”

That decision led the pair to hit both the history books and the silver screen for ideas.

“We looked at all the resources, the historical accounts, and came up with a storyline that we could create scenes for,” Sparks says.

The State, South Carolina (Natasha Derrick)

“This is the first three-animal show I’ve done,” said technical director Barry Sparks. “The snake will not be an asp, of course, but a similar small snake.” Abraham, Columbia’s resident camel, will appear in Act I. A white cat will be used in the bedroom scene.

The “Cleopatra” sets are some of the largest Sparks has worked on in his 20 years with the ballet. The showpiece is Cleopatra’s bedroom, which features four 13-foot columns painted Egyptian Nile blue with gold and white accents, a massive canopy bed, 8-by-12-foot archways and a detailed sculpture of the goddess Isis.

Made by local artist Brandon McIver, the sculpture took nearly a week to complete and is made entirely of a durable packing material called ethafoam. The sculpture will be painted gold and flanked by smoking urns.