A Preview of the Nashville Ballet's 'Sherlock'
Practical Artistry: A Three-Lens View into Nashville Ballet Magic
Recently, MCR Journalist Y. Kendall was able to attend one of the Nashville Ballet’s glamourous Relevé Society events ahead of their exciting spring performance of the Attitude Series which includes Penny Saunders Sherlock, Maria A. Konrad’s Lumina, and Donald Byrd’s Wake the Neighbors. The event provided a revealing and intimate glimpse behind the scenes and into the creative machinations at the Ballet. This is her report.
The Executive Director: Nick Mulliken took on a task that, as one might say, angels fear to tread. NB’s new director clearly carries on the valued legacy of former director Paul Vasterling’s international reputation as leader and innovator. Simultaneously, Mulliken works to expand this reach with his own multifaceted approach fusing an expansive vision of stylistic diversity, with respectful growth in the Nashville audience, and a CEO-style focus on the bottom line.
His style vision draws from influences like the career trajectory of Ben Stevenson, former dancer in England’s Royal Ballet before becoming director of the famed Houston Ballet. In order to create works “unique to our community” yet “specific to our company’ Mulliken welcomes new choreographers, both local and international, as he retains standard works preserving mindfulness of classical ballet technique and its value.
To grow the Nashville audience, initiatives like community dance classes teach hundreds of Nashvillians from elementary-school age through senior citizens. Programs for public schools and homeschoolers introduce tomorrow’s audiences to this magical art, as the Relevé Society provides an outlet for ballet patrons to promote this Nashville treasure. And after a recent success at TPAC bringing in an audience of over 37,000, Mulliken aims to move beyond seven weekend TPAC performance annually to at least twelve.
Sensitive social issues like certain body types, once excluded from classical dance, and details like the color of tights and pointe shoes have his attention. Backlash following a recent comment by young actor Timothée Chalomet implying the cultural irrelevance of arts like opera and ballet also has Mulliken’s concern. However insulting such criticism may be, Mulliken does not dismiss it. He remains engaged in ideas that promote broader engagement, but also ask for well-deserved support from the Nashville community. Sensible stewardship through financial management, broader education, and artistic excellence seem to be doing exactly what is needed in Music City.
But meanwhile—
The Producer: As if the job of choreographing a fifty-minute piece were not enough, Penny Saunders added more weights to her olympic class barbells. She not only took on Sherlock Holmes, an international icon of fiction completely unrelated to dance, but produced this major production in coordination with three dance companies, distant in both structure and geography.
Working with Grand Rapids Ballet, Ballet Idaho, and Nashville Ballet, she coordinated large sets and transport logistics for a 3000-mile round trip, all the while creating an innovative dance production. Sherlock, the misanthropic genius whose skills at detection and amateur violin remain legendary, met Irene Adler in just one of sixty Sherlock stories, “A Scandal in Bohemia.” But his admiration for Irene, a professional musician and his equal (if not superior) in intelligence, outlived that story, joining Sherlock lore for all eternity.
To tell this unique story, Saunders has chosen a unique vehicle. In a setting of Victorian-era London, with its dark alleys and suffragette marches, she centers Adler, using vintage radio broadcasts. The dancers must not only perform the challenging ballet, but must lip sync to the broadcasts. Concurrently, the carefully chosen music joins the threads of Irene as independent woman, borrowing from Daniel Pemberton’s soundtrack of Enola Holmes, a film about Sherlock’s purported younger sister, with dramatic Felix Mendelssohn violin music for Sherlock, and lively period music for the humor surrounding brother Mycroft. There is order; there is chaos. Representing the broad range of Sherlock’s talents, several dancers serve as avatars of the great detective as Saunders carries the weight of presenting an icon in a new environment with ease and charm.
But meanwhile—
The Designer: Like Saunders, in Lumina, Maria Konrad centers an independent woman, Adele Bloch Bauer. Bauer was one of very few subjects of Viennese artist Gustav Klimt painted more than once. Each is named for the subject, and yet another, “The Kiss” is thought to be a portrait of Bauer with Klimt himself. The most famous of the three “Adele Bloch-Bauer I” borrows a Medieval-era technique of illuminated manuscripts, by enveloping the subject in gold leaf, lending a glow to this painting that has recently been in the news 100 years after its inception. It was stolen by the Nazis, but reclaimed by Los Angeles-based family members as a result of a 2005 court order.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire in the early 20th-century housed dueling artistic perspectives. The major art museums, run by the government, limited their exhibits to more conservative art. Works by modernist painters like Gustav Klimt, were only seen in glamorous private salons, like those hosted by Bauer and her husband, a prominent banker. In those salons, presented in Konrad’s “Lumina,” the great minds of the era, like composer Gustav Mahler, writer Stefan Zweig, and journalist Berta Zuckerkandl mixed, mingled, and mused.
To reproduce a shimmering image of Bauer’s salons, Konrad rehearses the dancers to a playlist of popular artists like Stevie Nicks and Stevie Wonder before transfering the movements to Brahms’ Hungarian Dances. In Konrad’s view, this transference removes the intimidation classical music might have for the dancers, preserving the relaxed attitude popular music creates. In addition, she collaborates with the dancers on the
choreography. When asked how that works, she thoughtfully explains, “it’s like a coloring book [where] I put in the framework… When I’m with the dancers I fill in…” Much like Saunders’ avatars of Sherlock, Konrad includes a pas de deux between two Adeles—one representing the living luminary, one the luminous image.
Adding to the uniqueness of this program, Tony-nominated choreographer Donald Byrd will also be featured. Byrd has choreographed for renowned modern dance companies like Alvin Ailey, The Joffrey Ballet, and Dance Theatre of Harlem. For his virtuoso solo piece “Wake the Neighbors,” he uses music by Kris Bowers who has collaborated with artists as diverse as film maker Ava du Vernay, rapper Jay-Z. He has performed at various jazz festivals, including the London Jazz Fest.
Sherlock, paired with “Lumina” and “Wake the Neighbors” is scheduled for performances May 1–3, 2026 at TPAC’s Polk Theatre.
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Y Kendall is a Stanford-educated musicologist, specializing in dance history who recently earned an MFA in Creative Nonfiction at Columbia University, studying nonfiction writing with Ben Ratliff and Margo Jefferson. Kendall’s diverse works have been published in Alchemy: Journal of Translation, Columbia Journal, Mitos Magazín, The Hunger Mountain Review, and The Salt Collective, among others. Born and raised in Tennessee, Kendall now lives near Nashville, freelancing as a flutist and writer, while caregiving for relatives.
