Atlanta Ballet in Helen Pickett’s “Camino Real.” Photograph by Kim Kenney, courtesy of Atlanta Ballet.
It is the Spring Equinox, and Atlanta is exploding with color and scent. The Earth Goddess must have had a plan for me: Wednesday morning I ended up leaving late for work because I had to spend a few minutes inhaling the breath of the Japanese Magnolias, the daffodils, and the cherry blossoms in my yard. Well, maybe more than a few. And the delay meant that I accidentally got to listen to an interview of choreographer Helen Pickett by WABE’s Lois Reitzes as they talked about “Camino Real,” the culmination of Helen Pickett’s residency with the Atlanta Ballet.
I could be a Helen Pickett groupie. I loved “Prayer of Touch,” adored “Petal,” and was moved and fascinated by “The Exiled.” She entraps my mind within the intricacies of the movement she designs; then, like the Pied Piper, she leads me on a vision quest to find myself within the stories she tells. In “Camino Real” she has again layered spoken word on top of the movement and the entrancing, newly- commissioned score by British composer Peter Salem. I was already hooked by the bits of music I heard in the interview, but the experience in the theatre was as overwhelming as the King of Beasts himself.
