Embark on a tragic tale about a young girl’s innocent love for a nobleman secretly disguised as a commoner. The classic tale then changes course, becoming one of heartbreak, tears, and retribution… that ultimately leads to forgiveness. Don’t miss your opportunity to enjoy ballet’s first romantic classic.

October 14, 2022 7:30 PM

October 15, 2022 7:30 PM

October 16, 2022 2:00 PM

October 21, 2022 7:30 PM

October 22, 2022 7:30 PM

October 23, 2022 2:00 PM

Choreography: Devon Carney after Marius Petipa, Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot

Music: Adolphe Adam

Music performed live by Kansas City Symphony

Single tickets will go on sale Aug. 15. https://kcballet.org/events/giselle/ To purchase a subscription, visit http://www.kcballet.org/performances-tickets/subscribe/

Kelby Reck is a commercial and editorial photographer based in Kansas City, Missouri. He first discovered he had an eye for imagery years ago. It wasn’t until 2017 while working part time as a bar tender he decided to pursue this passion. Since then his work has been featured in magazines and online publications such as Vanity Fair, Vogue Italia, and IN Kansas City Magazine.

Kelby’s unique style combines modern colors with a wave of nostalgia. His attention to detail and keen sense for symmetry has helped him on sets when acting as a Creative Director. From various projects like “Is This it” by The Greeting Committee, UFO Club for Cheatin Snakes, and TruKolors by Travis Kelce.

Currently, Kelby’s focus is on period pieces with visuals inspired from the 1980s and 1990s era. He continues to explore new techniques and styles to create unique and captivating images. 

Exhibition Statement

The body of work before you is an exploration of a primordial theme: encountering the new and unknown. By creating an eerie landscape woven together with sound design, we draw the viewer in as they are totally enveloped by the ever-evolving soundscape. The strange pinpricks of light that dot the various works guide the viewers along their journey.

Not everything the viewer encounters is completely alien: nature blends with outdated technology in a relationship that cannot clearly be defined as symbiotic or parasitic. A coyote snarls, hair raised at an encounter with some new creature. A tree, wrapped in old wires, bears odd black fruit. An abandoned tent stands as a remnant of human life. But even in these glimpses of the familiar, the unknown lurks behind every corner, changing just a little bit every time you look away.

This work speaks to our fear of losing control. Our rapidly changing technology and constant consumerism continue unabated, altering our environment in ways both obvious and unfathomable. What will happen to us when we no longer recognize the ecosystem from which we came?

Artist Bios

Cameron DuPratte

Cameron DuPratte is a visual artist and sound engineer based in Lawrence, KS. His fascination with the discarded and forgotten often leads him to fill his garage with far too many useless objects. This practice informs his artistic work, which explores the layers of detritus in our lives, both physical and spiritual.

Cameron graduated from The University of Kansas in 2016 with a Bachelors in Visual Art. Since then, he has shown at multiple galleries across the Kansas City and Lawrence areas, including showings at the KU Union Gallery in Lawrence and the Four Chapters gallery in Kansas City. Since graduating, he has developed his passion for sound and music into a career as an audio engineer, working on musical projects for himself and other artists.

You can follow Cameron’s visual work on his Instagram page @camerondupratte and his sound explorations on @brotherspaceber.

Chesney Buck

Lawrence-based artist and taxidermist Chesney Buck began her practice in 2015 as an intern with VanGo Arts. There, she was introduced to her teachers and mentors: the Kansas taxidermy master, Marvin Schweda, and the University of Kansas Natural History Museum.

While working with the K.U. Natural History Museum, Chesney worked on a team of researchers who developed new and improved techniques for photographing wet mounted vertebrate specimens. Their findings were published in 2018 in the peer-reviewed journal, Copeia, and featured in National Geographic in March of 2021.

Chesney continues to utilize both experimental and traditional taxidermy techniques to breathe life into creatures of her imagination. Drawing heavily from the momento mori tradition, she strives to transform what would otherwise be wasted remains into treasured relics.

To watch works in progress, view works for sale, and to keep updated on future events, please follow Chesney on Instagram @chez_babba

Exhibition Statement

Line, the ultimate human invention, lets us describe our environment, express our inner landscape, and allows us to preserve knowledge for the generations beyond.

Crucial part of my practice is touch, handling materials with my own hands, therefore I chose tactile yarn, rope, and cord as line. My creative practice is a continuously evolving conversation with material. The manifestations of these collaborations are presented to the viewers with an invitation to read them as suited by their own vision, but also perhaps to contemplate how interpretation can alter meaning and intent.

In our times it is critical to think about how our eager twisting and turning of lines eventually leads to the loss of understanding and knowledge.

Artist Bio

Dora Agbas was educated as a biologist at her birthplace, Hungary. After landing in Kansas City, she worked for decades as a research scientist. She recently earned her MFA in Visual arts from the University of Kansas.

Exhibition Statement

Echoes is an exhibition of fiber art by artist Rena Wood. Employing vintage textiles and hand embroidery, Wood creates artwork that honors textile histories and past makers. Over the last 8 years, each piece has been made, added to, and re-made (in some instances) to investigate the essential role that memory plays in life. ‘Echoes’ relates to the textiles and patterns, reminding us of people and places that we may have forgotten. It refers to the reimagining of the handwork process, over and over again, to try and find meaning through obsessive making.

Artist Statement

My work gives physical form to the ephemeral sense of memory. The time I spend working is marked by each stitch, each knot, and each repetitive act of my hands. The result of my slow and repetitious handwork connects my process to the biological phenomena occurring all the time, gradually growing, multiplying, or deteriorating. I use stitching to create drawings on the surface of cloth to show a suspension between formation and falling apart, tangling and unraveling, the acts of remembering and forgetting, and to represent time passing and time stopped. I am intrigued by ideas about the visual aspects of how memories might appear in our brain and the changes that occur as memories are lost.

Artist Bio

Fiber artist Rena Wood received her BFA in Fibers from the Kansas City Art Institute and MFA from the Department of Craft/Material Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. She is an Assistant Professor of Fiber Art at Tennessee Tech University’s Appalachian Center for Craft. As a Fiber Arts educator, she has taught workshops on embroidery and fiber processes at art centers and craft schools throughout the country. Previously, she was a Visiting Instructor at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania and a Visiting Assistant Professor at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY. Rena has been an Artist in Residence at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft in Houston, TX, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN, and at the Craft Alliance in St. Louis, MO. Her work has been shown nationally in solo and group exhibitions. She was awarded a Tennessee Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship in Craft for 2023.