Getting Jerked Around

As you go about your everyday, banal existence, selling your soul at the office for an overpriced concrete box you call a home, do you ever get the creepy feeling you aren’t the one pulling the strings in your life? That maybe you’re just a dancing marionette manipulated by some greater power you can’t quite put your finger on — the government, corporations, an ominous master of the matrix? Maybe that’s the subconscious allure of Petrouchka, a ballet about puppets inflicted with human emotions. Their overlord, a sinister puppeteer called the charlatan, amuses himself by watching a sad clown, a ballerina, and a Moor battle for each other’s affections — just like those miserable human beings. Witness art mimic life as Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida, under the artistic direction of Vladimir Issaev, opens its season with a modernized version of the Stravinsky-scored Russian ballet. The program also includes Issaev’s “Four Seasons,” with music of Verdi and a piece by choreographer Yanis Pikieris. Performances are Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. at Aventura Arts and Cultural Center.
Oct. 2-3, 2010