Repetory troupe reinvents itself with a fresh vision, a new name

By STEVE SUCATO
Special to The Cleveland Plain Dealer

For more than a decade, Cleveland's Repertory Project has billed itself as "a different dance company." That phrase took on new meaning a year ago, when newly appointed artistic director Hernando Cortez took over the company and literally made it different.

Cortez reinvented the Repertory Project, bringing in a radically different yet popular movement style, hiring a new corps of highly skilled dancers and acquiring several modern-dance masterworks.

New name gives dancers energy, but show offers uneven results

By STEVE SUCATO
Special to The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Thursday night's performance began with the announcement that Cleveland Repertory Project had changed its name to Verb Ballets.

The company chose the name because the word "verb" is an expres sion of "action," said managing director Margaret Carlson.

DANCE

The Cleveland Plain Dealer

What's in a name?

Not much, when it comes to Verb Ballets, the company formerly known as the Repertory Project.

The ensemble's trustees were on the right track when they decided a new name was needed to affirm the dramatic changes made over the last year by artistic director Hernando Cortez. No longer a women's collective performing postmodern choreography, the company had hired a new contingent of accomplished male and female dancers and had begun to build an attractive collection of modern-dance classics and contemporary ballets.