August 12's Axis Mundi: A Global Multi-Cultural Celebration of Ballet is particularly fitting for our 2011 Season. Like the Ford, the Media City Ballet Company weaves together traditions and cultures from around the world. Last week I spoke with Cindy Pease, the Executive Director. She explained to me that "Axis Mundi," the mythological phrase for the origin of the universe, provided the inspiration for the performance. (In Latin the term means "pivot point, or line, connecting the earth and the sky/heavens.")

Artistic Director and Choreographer Natasha Middleton and the Company researched the origins of ballet, from all the corners of the globe. I was stunned to learn how many countries they will be representing in this show: from the folk dances that influenced the development of technique, such as the Mazurka from Poland, to the Spanish Pandéros and Czardas from Hungary to ballet's first precursors performed in 15^th Century Italian Renaissance courts. The evening will include everything from Italian swordplay, French Baroque ball dancing, Armenian folk dances to the legendary Russian ballets - Khachaturian's Lezginka and Saber Dance, Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade and Borodin's Polovtsian Dances. Watch the company's enchanting footage to Scheherazade, the dazzling symphonic suite based on the popular collection of Middle Eastern stories, One Thousand and One Nights. Want to see more? You don't have to go far.

The Ford's eclectic and enthralling line-up is what stands out the most to me this summer.  So far, we've hosted Bollywood dance, traditional Korean music and our first night devoted to spoken word, to give you an idea. And, we still have more than half the season to go. Our artists seem to transform the stage every weekend, taking the audience and Ford staff with them.