Ballet
Dance As a Metre of the Times
By Philip Szporer "Amjad" Édouard LockÉdouard Lock’s new revisionist ballet, Amjad, has a way of messing with our heads. Those who mistakenly expect that Lock’s current choreography draws on the signature barrel turns and the sexual ambiguity of his work in the 1980s will be sorely disappointed. And for those interested to see how he has continued his exploration of the classics of the ballet repertoire, there will be expectation.
Posted May 19, 2007
Dancing to Save Paradise
By Kaija Pepper Dancing Joni & Other Works Alberta BalletThe press interest in “The Fiddle and the Drum” by Alberta Ballet’s artistic director, Jean Grand-Maître, and legendary singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell, surprised everyone – but probably not Mitchell, the cause of it all. Though apparently reclusive, she must be used to attention after four successful decades in the music business and, in order to publicize the ballet, was willing to hold court.
Posted March 3, 2007
Working Toward World Class
By Kathleen Smith ProArteDanza ProArteDanzaA ProArteDanza opening always has a buzz-y kind of glamour – people dress up, they talk about the work, clearly excited to be there. Some of the city’s finest classical and contemporary dancers grace the stage; the rest can be found in the audience along with students and hip dance fans of all stripes.
Posted October 22, 2006
Driven by Plot not Desire
By Kaija Pepper “A Streetcar Named Desire” John Alleyne, Ballet BCIt looks good and sounds great. “A Streetcar Named Desire”, by Ballet British Columbia’s artistic director, John Alleyne, is full of eye-catching, interlacing duets and the fifteen members of Ballet BC perform with confidence and style.
Posted April 22, 2006
Finding Entertainment in an Artist’s Obsessions
By Suzanne Jaeger "bODY_rEMIX/gOLDBERG_vARIATIONS" Marie Chouinard, Compagnie Marie ChouinardIt is not that Chouinard has run out of ideas. “bODY rEMIX” is a rich, wildly entertaining compilation of playful associations, sensual and erotic imagery and stunning virtuosic dancing enhanced by a cleverly woven mesh of percussive sounds, music, recorded speech, breathy sighs, grunts, orgasmic gasps and squeals.
Posted November 20, 2005
A Ballet with Teeth
By Garth Von Buchholz “Dracula” Mark Godden, Canada's Royal Winnipeg BalletMark Godden’s Dracula is a twentieth-century Goth guy (the dance premiered in 1999) tricked out in nineteenth-century vampire garb. He’s been clever enough to get himself a film deal (Guy Maddin’s “Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary”) that garnered rave reviews around the world.
Posted November 15, 2005An Act of the Heart
By Philip Szporer "Liberamae" Louis-Martin CharestThe night I arrived in the lobby of the Monument National for the performance of Louis-Martin Charest’s new work, “Liberamae”, I was taken aback by the crowd that had assembled for the performance. Montréal establishment types, in pearls and fitted suits, were shoulder to shoulder with folks from both the ranks of the ballet and contemporary dance communities. Everyone seemed to take great delight in being there for the show.
Posted July 6, 2005
The Birthday Edition
By Kaija Pepper Twelve Minutes Max XXX Twelve Minutes MaxTwelve Minutes Max has had a long haul as a dance series goes. The inaugural 12 MM took place in December 1994 but its roots go back a few years further. Anne Cooper remembers the mixed bill’s precursor, an informal community event held at Main Dance Place in the Arcadian Hall at Main Street and 6th Avenue. It was called Shoeless Saturday because everyone had to take their shoes off before entering the studio. In the early nineties, Cooper danced in one of those shows and, during a telephone conversation, told me she always meant to do another. But it was only now that she had the right project at the right time.
Posted March 9, 2005
DNA: Radical, Shmadical
By Kathleen Smith "I Know and Feel That Fate is Harsh But I am So Loathe to Accept This" Hillar Liitoja, DNA TheatreIf the world of contemporary dance is a bit of a closed community, not always so welcoming to outsiders who come from other than the conventional channels, the world of classical ballet is more so – a family compact. You’d better be bringing something pretty special as an offering to the patriarchs if you hope to sit down at the dinner table and be listened to.
Posted July 19, 2004
Shoes, Pumpkins and a Paparazzo
By Kathleen Smith "Cinderella" James Kudelka, The National Ballet of CanadaThe story of Cinderella and her glass slipper is as old as the hills. Although versions of the story are a cultural phenomenon around the world, we in the West are most familiar with Charles Perrault’s 1697 fairy tale, Cendrillon, ou la petite pantoufle de verre. That or Disney.
Posted May 30, 2004
Pages from a Storybook Ballet
By Pamela Anthony "Cinderella" Jean Grand-Maître, Alberta BalletIn his new full-length “Cinderella” for Alberta Ballet, choreographer and artistic director Jean Grand-Maître’s vision is of a young woman more concerned with the daunting task of survival than with snaring a prince.
Posted April 17, 2004
Chamber Ballet
Coppélia Bengt Jörgen, Ballet Jörgen CanadaOn February 28th, Toronto’s Ballet Jörgen Canada made a stop in Coquitlam, British Columbia, a suburb thirty minutes east of Vancouver, with its production of “Coppélia”. The second-to-last stop in a tour of smaller communities around BC, this performance of “Coppélia” was a rare dance event for the Evergreen Cultural Centre (typically home to theatre and music), an intimate, 250-seat theatre opened in 1996.
Posted March 13, 2004
Ballet in the Vernacular
By Kaija Pepper The Magic Flute Mark Godden, Canada's Royal Winnipeg BalletMark Godden’s “The Magic Flute”, with its mix of classical ballet and contemporary cultural references, is great fun. Not just for the work itself, but also because of the reactions of the audience. To hear so many chuckles and gales of laughter at the ballet was a pleasure.
Posted March 12, 2004
Expressive Geometry
By Philip Szporer Adela, Mi Amor José Navas, Compagnie FLAKInspired by the writing of Spanish playwright Federico Garcia Lorca, and in particular his most political dramatic work “La casa de Bernarda Alba”, José Navas finds common ground with the playwright in that he wanted to respond to what he calls the “non-dance” that he sees produced in the Québec milieu.
Posted February 28, 2004
LOVE ME: Cinderella, Astroturf, red sequins and dancing men
By Marie Claire Forté Celle qui, dit-on, aurait perdu sa chaussure (Cendrillon) Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, Stijn CelisHow much can you renew a traditional fairy tale? Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal and Belgian choreographer Stijn Celis answer with “Celle qui, dit-on, aurait perdu sa chaussure (Cendrillon)”.
Posted November 6, 2003Alchemy of a Dance Festival: FIND-Lab Part 2
By Kathleen Smith Festival international de nouvelle danse Festival international de nouvelle danseThe second part of this year’s edition of FIND was characterized by unusually fine weather outdoors, uneven programming indoors and an absolute obsession with technology everywhere you looked. Could these three elements possibly be related?
Posted October 28, 2003Humour, Words and Some All-Out Dance
By Kaija Pepper Dancing on the Edge Festival 2003 Dancing on the Edge FestivalThe fifteenth annual Dancing on the Edge, presented by the Firehall Arts Centre in Vancouver from July 3rd through 13th, was a remarkably mature edition.
Posted July 27, 2003
Blurred Bodies, Bionic Bodies
By Philip Szporer Amelia Édouard Lock, La La La Human Steps“Amelia” is one of the most anticipated dance productions of the season. After a much-ballyhoued European tour, and a stop in Ottawa at the National Arts Centre for the Canadian premiere, Édouard Lock’s La La La Human Steps opened the Festival Montréal En Lumière.
Posted March 3, 2003
A Cerebral Take on a Swirling Tale
By Kaija Pepper Scheherazade John Alleyne, Ballet BCVancouverites had to wait until mid-November for the ballet season to open this year, when Ballet British Columbia premiered artistic director John Alleyne’s “Scheherazade”.
Posted November 30, 2002
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