Perfect for young children & family members of all ages with 8 matinee performances!
Donde van las Mariposas / A Fable from México
Part II of Ballet Austin’s “Fables of the World” Series
Donde van las Mariposas / A Fable from México is commissioned by The Bancroft Initiative and supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Donde van las Mariposas / A Fable from México, translating to “Where the Butterflies Go,” from Mexican-American choreographer Jimmy Orrante is based in Mexican culture and will explore environmental and cultural themes related to the migration of monarch butterflies as well as Día de los Muertos traditions. The production is designed to grow young audiences’ understanding of diverse cultures and perspectives while providing an engaging introduction to the performing arts.
FEATURING: Ballet Austin TWO
CONCEPT & CHOREOGRAPHY: Jimmy Orrante
MUSIC: Pond5
This performance is recommended for families with children ages 3 – 10. All tickets are $20 and seating is reserved.
Runtime: 45 minutes
Location: Ballet Austin’s AustinVentures StudioTheater (250 seats), located inside Ballet Austin’s Butler Dance Education Center at 501 W. 3rd Street.
8 Performances over 2 Weekends:
- Saturday, October 12 at 2:00 p.m.
- Saturday, October 12 at 4:30 p.m.
- Sunday, October 13 at 2:00 p.m.
- Sunday, October 13 at 4:30 p.m.
- Saturday, October 19 at 2:00 p.m.
- Saturday, October 19 at 4:30 p.m.
- Sunday, October 20 at 2:00 p.m.
- Sunday, October 20 at 4:30 p.m.
BEHIND THE SCENES
Explore the music, drawings, and background information that inspired Donde van las Mariposas in the tabs below!
A young woman, Helena, goes on a cultural journey of self-discovery starting with the annual celebration of Día de los Muertos and the long-awaited butterfly migration. The celebration takes a turn when Helena is visited by a surprise guest who gifts her magical seeds and warns her of future events. She shares this gift with her grandmother, Emilia, who then places the seeds in a box for safe keeping. Helena forms a new friendship with a boy in the village, Santos, and together, they discover the transformative and life-affirming power of the seeds.
Click below to play some of the music from the eclectic soundtrack of Donde van las Mariposas.
These are some of the instruments you may hear in Donde van las Mariposas.
Maracas
Maracas are rattles that appear in many genres of Caribbean and Latin music. Usually played as a pair, they are shaken to make music.
Guitarrón Mexicano
The guitarrón mexicano or Mexican guitarrón is a very large, deep-bodied Mexican six-string acoustic bass guitar played traditionally in Mariachi groups. Although similar to the guitar, it is not a derivative of that instrument, but was independently developed from the sixteenth-century Spanish bajo de uña. The guitarrón is used in Mexican Mariachi groups, which usually consist of violins, trumpets, guitar, vihuela (a high-pitched, five-string guitar-type instrument), and the guitarrón.
Spanish Guitar
The Spanish guitar, also known as the classical guitar, is an acoustic wooden string instrument with strings made of gut or nylon, it is a precursor of the modern steel-string acoustic and electric guitars, both of which use metal strings.
Trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument, and the newest and most recent musical instrument introduced to the modern-day mariachi ensemble.
Original hand-drawn instrument sketches by Alexa Capareda
Costumes in Donde van las Mariposas are adapted from traditional Folklorico dresses of Mexico.
Original hand-drawn costume sketches by Alexa Capareda
Set Designs from Donde van las Mariposas by Indigo Rael.
In Mexico, monarch butterflies are culturally significant and sacred to indigenous groups. The butterflies’ annual migration coincides with the Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos), a traditional Mexican holiday that honors deceased loved ones. Indigenous peoples, including the Aztecs and the Purepecha, believe that the butterflies are the souls of their ancestors returning to Earth for the celebration. The butterflies are thought to bring the spirits of relatives to the living world for one night.
The butterflies’ arrival is often noted on November 2, which is also known as the Day of the Dead. During the two-day holiday, families gather to create altars, prepare traditional foods, and perform other rituals. The bright orange color of the monarch’s wings is said to match the orange of the cempasuchil flower, which is used to guide the ancestors to the altars with its strong fragrance.
Butterflies also symbolize transformation and renewal in Mexican culture and are sometimes seen as messengers between the living and the dead. The butterflies’ symbolic resonance has helped to motivate local and international communities to take action to protect the insect and nature in general.
Original artwork by Alexa Capareda
Texas is an important state in monarch migration because it is between the principal breeding grounds in the north and the overwintering areas in Mexico. Monarchs funnel through Texas both in the fall and the spring. During the fall, monarchs fly through Texas in a 300-mile-wide path stretching from Wichita Falls to Eagle Pass. By early November, most have passed through into Mexico. The second flyway is situated along the Texas coast and lasts roughly from the third week of October to the middle of November. Early each March, monarchs begin arriving from their winter grounds in Mexico. Seeking emerging milkweeds, they move through Texas laying eggs. Their offspring continue heading north, leaving most of Texas behind, the first of several new generations of monarchs that re-populate the eastern half of the United States and southern Canada.
INDIGO RAEL
Set/Projection Designer
GRICELDA SILVA
Creative Consultant/Audio Narration
MIRIAM JURGENSEN
Costume Design
PATRICK & HOLLY CROWLEY
Set Builders
STEVEN MYERS
Lighting Design
VIDEO GALLERY
MEET THE ARTISTS
JIMMY ORRANTE
Choreography
Jimmy Orrante, choreographer and recipient of multiple Princess Grace awards and grants, as well as the National Choreographic Recognition Award from Regional Dance America (2011), is a former professional dancer with BalletMet, where he also had the opportunity to create over 15 premieres for the company. Jimmy’s choreography has been performed by Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami, Tulsa Ballet2, Atlanta Ballet, Motion Dance Theatre, and as part of UC Irvine’s National Choreographers Initiative and Joffrey Ballet’s Winning Works Choreography Series. He currently resides in Ohio where he teaches at New Albany Ballet Company and Ohio State University’s Department of Dance. He was one of three finalists in Ballet Austin’s New American Talent Choreographic Competition in 2014, and creator of the delightful The Ugly Duckling which Ballet Austin TWO premiered to sold-out audiences in Austin in 2018.
For Donde van las Mariposas / A Fable from México, he worked closely with his sister Johanna Orrante, drawing upon their Mexican heritage and culture, to share a story that touches on themes of ancestry, heritage, and the beauty of nature and how it inspires us.
JOHANNA ORRANTE
Writer/Collaborator
Johanna Orrante is a native of Los Angeles. Raised in East Los Angeles, she was exposed to a community rich in culture, music, and art. To further explore her Mexican American roots; she professionally danced folklorico for 5 years.
Creativity and the use of imagination were important to Johanna as a child. “Being the youngest of eight, I would venture outside to observe and connect with nature, specifically butterflies. I always knew there was something special and mystical about them—In Mexican culture, it has been said monarch butterflies carry the spirits of our loved ones to the afterlife and symbolize the souls of visiting ancestors. I was inspired to write this story to share our culture, community, values, and traditions.”
INDIGO RAEL
Set/Projection Designer
Indigo Rael (she/her) is a Tejana designer now residing in the Pacific Northwest. She has collaborated with many Austin theatre companies (Glass Half Full Theatre / “Yamel Cucuy”, Shrewd Productions / “Las Madres” , Capital T Theatre / “Marie Antoinette”) as a designer. She kept Austin weird for a while as her alter ego, “Polly Mermaid,” a siren from the garbage gyre who inspired people to “make trash attractive.” Indigo is thrilled to visualize the world of las mariposas with Ballet Austin.
GRICELDA SILVA
Creative Consultant/Audio Narration
Gricelda Silva is a native Spanish-speaking Mexican-American originally from Laredo, Texas. She has two BAs in Psychology and Philosophy from St. Edward’s University. She is a Co-Artistic Director of Glass Half Full Theatre and the Education Project Manager at Austin PBS. She has been immersed in the theatre world for almost 15 years now, and is thrilled to have finally dipped her toe in at Ballet Austin!
PATRICK & HOLLY CROWLEY
Set Design
Patrick and Holly Crowley are delighted to once again be a part of Ballet Austin’s wonderful collection of artists on this production. This duo has been quietly building and designing sets for Austin Theatre companies for decades. Some of their favorite design/build projects for Ballet Austin were Grimm Tales, Exit Wounds, Cinderella, and Maria and the Mouse Deer. Patrick is currently a Production Supervisor for The Long Center, and Holly is the owner of DDP Services, a scenic fabrication and design studio that caters to the TV/Film, Opera, Ballet, museums, and tour shows. Patrick and Holly are also local IATSE TTF Trainers that assist local technicians in MEWP Certification, OSHA-10, and Forklift Certification. This duo thanks Ballet Austin, Bill, Steven, Brad, and Jimmy for letting us be a part of such a wonderful show!
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
Commissioned by
This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Ballet Austin TWO is endowed by Sarah & Ernest Butler through the Ballet Austin Foundation.
EDUCATION SPONSORS
POWELL FOUNDATION
Education Underwriter
