{"id":16862,"date":"2025-08-14T16:47:42","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T22:47:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ksje-celebrates-35-year-anniversary-by-offering-ballets-with-a-twist\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:38:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:38:28","slug":"ksje-celebrates-35-year-anniversary-by-offering-ballets-with-a-twist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ksje-celebrates-35-year-anniversary-by-offering-ballets-with-a-twist\/","title":{"rendered":"KSJE celebrates 35-year anniversary by offering Ballets with a Twist"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Catherine
Catherine Zehr is the artistic force behind the company\u2019s costume design. Having honed her skills while working at major American fashion houses, her creations evoke the origins and essence of each dance with brilliant colors and ornamentation. Shown: \u201cHot Toddy,\u201d from \u201cCocktail Hour: the Show.\u201d (Nico Malvaldi\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For some people, it\u2019s customary to observe a special occasion with a cocktail. San Juan College is celebrating with 14.<\/p>\n

No hangovers to be feared, as these cocktails are part of a presentation entitled \u201cCocktail Hour: The Show\u201d presented by coast-to-coast ballet company Ballets with a Twist. The college\u2019s radio station, KSJE, is celebrating 35 years on the air by sponsoring the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cCocktail Hour\u201d will be presented at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 12, at the Henderson Fine Arts Center. While tickets are normally in the $25-$35 price range, this presentation is free, said KSJE\u2019s Scott Michlin, general manager at 90.9 FM.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur actual anniversary is not until November, but Margaret Clair, director of public arts events with San Juan College and the Henderson Fine Arts Center, had booked Ballets with a Twist, so we thought we\u2019ll just celebrate a few months early,\u201d Michlin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis seemed like a great event that kind of represents a lot of what KSJE does with our supporting of the arts, classical music, jazz, and all the things that we do here at the radio station,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got some money set aside for a celebration, so we\u2019re covering the cost of tickets so everybody can come and enjoy the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ballets With a Twist: The Menu<\/div>\n

\u201cCocktail Hour: The Show,\u201d is the brainchild of Marilyn Klaus, whose choreography has been seen internationally. She formed the program in association with Grammy-nominated composer Stephen Gaboury and costume designer Catherine Zehr.<\/p>\n

Growing up in Hollywood, Klaus was strongly influenced by her father and mother\u2019s social dance club background, as well as the cocktail parties and restaurants that were all the rage at that time.<\/p>\n

Under this influence, in her 20s she was invited to choreograph for a group show and decided to create a \u201cMai Tai,\u201d which she remembered her parents drinking at Trader Vic\u2019s in California. In designing the dance, she combined some of the folkloric elements of the hula with classical ballet and a leopard print tutu. \u201cPeople seemed to really enjoy that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people used to go out in the evening, they would order these cocktails because they have so much exotic flair,\u201d she said. The seed idea of mixing dance with drink titles fell on the fertile ground of her imagination. The next step was The Martini, featuring a costume in the shape of an upside-down martini glass.<\/p>\n

She married her composer partner, and together with costumer designer Zehr they have done a full menu of 40 drink-inspired short ballets. She explained that the fast-paced ballet performances feature pop style music, with each piece being between five and 14 minutes long.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of our dancers are classical ballet dancers, but I think they enjoy a chance to kind of let their hair down and use their technique for more theatrical purposes. There are modern influences, but it is a ballet company,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

On the menu for the family-friendly Farmington performance are: Brandy Alexander, Pink Lady, Lemon Drop, Swimming Pool, Manhattan, Cin Cin, Roy Rogers, Scotch on the Rachmaninoff, Grappa, Bloody Mary, Boilermaker, Martini, Gimlet, Sputnik, Hot Toddy, Beer, and the world premiere of Bombay, a tribute to Bombay gin with a Bollywood flair.<\/p>\n

If all these references make you thirsty, Michlin explained that the college is whipping up a special mocktail to be sold at intermission. \u201cThe Beacon\u201d will be a fundraiser for KSJE.<\/p>\n

While tickets for this \u201cnight on the town\u201d are free, they must be reserved in advance online at www.sanjuancollege.edu, by phone, 505-566-3430, or in person at the Henderson Fine Arts Center Box Office, 4601 College Blvd., Farmington.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Catherine Zehr is the artistic force behind the company\u2019s costume design. Having honed her skills while working at major American fashion houses, her creations evoke the origins and essence of each dance with brilliant colors and ornamentation. Shown: \u201cHot Toddy,\u201d from \u201cCocktail Hour: the Show.\u201d (Nico Malvaldi\/Courtesy photo) For some people, it\u2019s customary to observe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16862"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20435,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16862\/revisions\/20435"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16862"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}