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The Toledo Ballet opens its 85th season with an American gothic classic, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow on Oct. 25 and Oct. 26 at the Valentine. The ballet is based on the short story written in 1820 by Washington Irving.
Set in 1790s Tarry Town New York, protagonist Ichabod Crane, a spindly, superstitious schoolmaster, intends to woo Katrina Van Tassel, the beautiful daughter of a wealthy farmer but must compete with Abraham “Brom Bones” Van Brunt, a more handsome candidate. One October evening Ichabod is invited to a party at the Van Tassel home where he tells a ghost story about the Headless Horseman, a Hessian soldier decapitated by a cannon ball, who haunts the cemetery of Sleepy Hollow. After having his proposal of marriage turned down by Katrina, he leaves the party where he must travel through the very same haunted cemetery.
Enter Eric Otto, a native of upstate New York not far from where Irving’s Sleepy Hollow story takes place. Otto took over as artistic director of the Toledo Ballet in 2022 and has brought an impressive resume of dance experience with him. He’s danced professionally with New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theater and Metropolitan Opera Ballet as well as touring with Twyla Tharp and starring on Broadway in Movin’ Out and Phantom of the Opera.
A new twist on a gothic favorite
While Otto admits there have been versions of this story as a ballet before, most notably performed by The Washington Ballet, his vision is different and was inspired by a childhood spent in East Chester New York. Says Otto, “I grew up a 20-minute drive from Sleepy Hollow where the story is set, so it’s always held a fascination for me, and it’s been a dream to create a ballet around it. What’s interesting about what I’m bringing to this ballet is that, while it’s based on Irving’s story, it’s also very much a story and concept I came up with and adapted to the stage — even collaborating with Jonathan Heck, the composer we commissioned. It was a very mutual and intimate relationship creatively. We talked about each pas de deux, each dance with the kids and the six professional dancers performing in the ballet.” Together they talked in detail about how the music should sound, when it should be more romantic or more staccato, to really bring the story to life.
Elaborating further on some of the story differences, he says, “This is a story inspired by The Legend of Sleepy Hollow with the same location and characters, but my version is more of a love story between the three main characters, Crane, Von Tassel and Brom Bones, with the Headless Horseman and the fun, spooky aspect, but it’s not an exact telling of his story, it’s an ‘inspired by.’”
A storybook ballet from page to stage
Storybook Ballet is an actual term for stories and fairy tales translated to ballets, but it’s a challenge to create them. What parts of the story can become a piece of dance, what cannot, and how do you make it all work? During the early days of the pandemic, which Otto spent in Saratoga New York, he revisited the story and started to carefully write each scene of the ballet. In total it’s taken 4-5 years and he’s very excited to finally see it fully realized. Otto describes the score as contemporary classical and says he loved composer Jonathan Heck’s strong cinematic style. “I love that it has an epic quality for those scenes with the Headless Horseman and the dramatic pas de deux with Crane and Von Tassel.”
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“We are using all our students who range in age from 9 to 18. There are a lot of fun dances with the kids including in Cranes’ schoolhouse,” continues Otto. “In addition, there are four dancers coming in from the Berkshires in New York and two male guest artists from the Cleveland Ballet.”
Otto has been doing workshops with the New York dancers since July and returned at the end of the summer to work with the Toledo students. For the past four weeks he’s worked full days with the professional dancers. It’s a lot of work, but a labor of love.
New traditions
The Toledo Symphony will be performing the music which allows both companies to combine their outreach to the public. “I want this to be a long-standing tradition in Toledo,” Otto says, “starting in the fall with Sleepy Hollow through The Nutcracker at Christmas. We’re encouraging parents and kids to come to the Saturday show in costume.”
There are pre-show activities for kids to learn about music and dance with the show starting at 2 pm. The goal is to grow and cultivate a ballet audience here in Toledo. With his passion, dedication and impressive resume, Otto is just the man to do that.
