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N A T I O N A L B A L L E T O F C A N A D A
Nijinsky His passion, legendary
physicality, daring and virtuosity – not to mention the adoration he received from audiences – created the model for male dancing throughout the early 20th century, even if few performers ever matched his greatness. His
highly theatrical, outsized life is the perfect subject for John Neumeier, whose works always foreground the intensely theatrical nature of ballet, its inherent sense of drama and emotion.
Part memory-ballet and
part biographical narrative, Nijinsky uses a vast array of characters to probe both the complexities of its subject's mind and spirit and the world that shaped him and against which he continually struggled in his
efforts to assert the art for which he became so revered. A moving and unforgettable evocation of the borderland between genius and madness, Nijinsky is a brilliant homage to the man once known as "Le Dieu de la Danse,"
and a masterwork by one of today's greatest ballet artists.
Mar. 2 - Mar. 8
Four Seasons Centre For The Performing Arts, 145 Queen St. W. | Tickets: $25 - $180 Phone: 416 345 9595 To order online please click here Romeo & Juliet The ballet has been an audience favourite ever since it came to the National Ballet in 1964, and the company's new version, by the exciting Russian choreographer Alexei Ratmansky,
which premiered in 2011 to ecstatic acclaim, only enhances its position in the repertoire. Ratmansky's work is known for its mastery of the classical vocabulary, yet he is equally adept at employing that vocabulary for
fresh, modern effects.
Set to Prokofiev's famously rich and magisterial score, Ratmansky's Romeo and Juliet plumbs the layered and affecting depths of the story's title characters in all of their tragic
power, illuminating Shakespeare's vision and creating an inimitable work of dance theatre that ballet-lovers will long treasure.
Mar. 12 - Mar. 17
Four Seasons Centre For The Performing Arts, 145 Queen St. W. | Tickets: $25 - $180 Phone: 416 345 9595 To order online please click here The Four Seasons & Emergence An undisputed classic and an audience
favourite from its first performance in 1997, James Kudelka's ravishing, witty and always surprising The Four Seasons is set to Vivaldi's renowned sequence of baroque concerti of the same name.
A work of
inspired levity, intense emotion and always exquisite dancing, Kudelka's ballet, which integrates brilliant ensemble work with virtuosic solos and breathtaking pas de deux, explores nothing less than the seasons of a
man's life, from the youthful brio of Spring and Summer to the melancholy acceptance of Autumn and Winter.
The collectivity of ballet as an art form, the mysterious alchemy by which a group of individuals
interact through the complexities and nuances of a choreographed plan to express an ultimate goal, is the large and bracing metaphor at the heart of Crystal Pite's startling Emergence. A thematically ambitious work that
explores the notion of dance as an evocation of the broader, inherent human tendency to socialization, Emergence is a striking work by a gifted young choreographer.
Mar. 20 - Mar. 24
Four Seasons Centre For The Performing Arts, 145 Queen St. W. | Tickets: $25 - $180 Phone: 416 345 9595 To order online please click here ______________________________________________
H A R B O U R F R O N T C E N T R E Danceworks: La Otra Orilla Montreal's La Otra Orilla take flamenco into the 21st
century with a dynamic collaboration between dancer/choreographer Myriam Allard and the soulful live singing of Hedi Graja. Their DanceWorks debut received a Dora Mavor Moore Award nomination for Outstanding Dance
Production in 2010.
Feb. 15 & 16 @ 8:00 PM Enwave Theatre, 231 Queens Quay W. | Tickets: $20 - $30 Phone: 416 973-4000 or order online by clicking here Danceworks: Wen Wei Dance Choreographed by Wen Wei Wang to original music by
Giorgio Magnanensi and lit by James Proudfoot, six dancers display uninhibited abandon and controlled precision as they explore control versus autonomy and dominance versus obedience through our relationship to animals.
The full-length work about the seldom achieved unconditional love is a much-anticipated follow-up to his stunning Cock-Pit
Mar. 1 & 2
Fleck Dance Theatre, 207 Queens Quay W. | Tickets: $20 - $30 Phone: 416 973-4000 or order online by clicking here ____________________________________________
T H E C I T A D E L
Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie presents From the House of Mirth
Opening on Valentine's Day, exactly one year to the day Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie (CLC) re-opened The Citadel, its Regent Park home, CLC proudly presents a remount of its acclaimed
From the House of Mirth, directed and choreographed by James Kudelka.
Inspired by Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, the novel tells of Lily Bart's tragic descent from the glittering social
circle of 1890s New York to poverty and a solitary death; her dreams of marriage - whether for wealth or love - shattered by convention and by her own conflicted desires. Kudelka has created a vocabulary of movement,
music and theatre that can evoke the story's moral issues, while illustrating the heroine's inner life and her relationships to the men who help her, make demands on her and would save her.
Telling the story
"not as a ballet," says Kudelka, "not as an opera, and not as a sung play," each of the art forms picks up the thread in turn. When the dance can no longer support the complexity of the drama, other
devices take over the storytelling. When images need to be captured in a moment or themes presented in all their subtlety, Kudelka's refined yet passionate choreography takes the focus.
Feb. 14 - Feb. 24
The Citadel, 304 Parliament Street | Tickets: $50 except Wed. February 20 at 3pm is PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN Phone: 416 364-8011 or order online by clicking here
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B E T T Y O L I P H A N T T H E A T R E
Peggy Baker: Stereophonic A mixed bill of five
multi-dimensional contemporary dance works choreographed by legendary dance artist Peggy Baker, including three world premieres and performance debuts in two landmark solos. Featuring a company of exquisite dancers -
Peggy Baker, Sarah Fregeau, Benjamin Kamino, Sean Ling, Sahara Morimoto, Andrea Nann - as well as award-winning pianist John Kameel Farah, 2013 Electronic-Composer-in-Residence for Soundstreams Canada.
The centrepiece of Stereophonic is the world premiere of Split Screen Stereophonic
wherein Baker stretches her already highly-acknowledged artistry. With a spectacular 40-year career that includes two decades of creating and performing solos, this piece is a major step in Baker's evolution as a choreographer as she tackles a timeless theme in collaboration with her ensemble. For the first time in her career, she choreographs duets that explore intimate male-female relationships, investigating the chemistry of the personal and private worlds between men and women. In
Split Screen Stereophonic,
she examines these worlds from the women's perspectives; but she turns it up a notch by placing two couples simultaneously on a stage cut into right and left halves. The duets juxtapose striking variations and parallels as both women, caught up in a constant negotiation with their partners, veer unstably from intense connection to breakdown and collapse.
Also premiering is Aleatoric Solo No. 1. This work for dancer Sahara Morimoto is a spin-off of Baker's 12 dancer/12 hour event created for Nuit Blanche 2010, Aleatoria. The word 'aleatoric'
means 'randomly' and describes the chance procedure employed for this collaboration between Baker and Morimoto. Drawing from the ten works from Baker's repertoire that Morimoto has danced, brief sequences of movement
were sampled to create an original distillation that embodies Morimoto's history in Baker's choroegraphy. Each performance pairs Morimoto with improvising musician John Kameel Farah.
The final premiere on the program is a new solo, epilogue
, choreographed and performed by Baker herself - an examination of the ironies, frustrations, and emptiness of absence and loss.
Feb. 27 - Mar. 3 Betty Oliphant Theatre, 404 Jarvis
St. | Tickets: $25 - $30, $75 available for Sunday March 3 (includes show and Meet-the-Artists Reception after) Phone: 1 888 838-3006, or order online by clicking here
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D A N C E M A K E R S C E N T R E F O R C R E A T I O N
MOonhORsE Dance: Older & Reckless MOonhORsE Dance Theatre's celebrated series curated by Artistic Director Claudia Moore, continues its 2012/13 season with 2 SOLOS | A DUET | AN ENSEMBLE featuring ten
dance artists from around the globe in works by Canadian choreographers Peter Bingham, Denise Fujiwara, Peter Chin and Nancy Latoszewski (Greyeyes).
Vancouver contact improvisation master Peter Bingham presents Romantic Old Horses, a stunning duet for Daelik (Vancouver) and Kostas Gerardos (Greece). An intimate and powerful encounter between two men,
the duet draws upon the extensive history of Contact Dance and Improvisation that underlies the careers of both Daelik and Kostas. The dance shifts between playful and highly physical to thoughtful and imagistic. Danced
to the music of Robert Schumann, the duet reflects a long, deep friendship between two men.
Additionally, at 10am on Saturday March 9, Daelik and Kostas will conduct a workshop/master class entitled
Back to the Future (exploring the back space). It is a contact improvisation class with specific focus on the "back space" as an area for discovery and motivation, aimed at professional dancers and dance
students in their final year of training.
Choreographer Denise Fujiwara brings an excerpt of Eunoia
to the stage. This compelling dance work is based on the 2002 Griffin Prize-winning work of the same name by poet Christian Bök. In the poem, the author imposed upon himself the severe constraint of working with only one vowel in each chapter. In the dance, Fujiwara uses the poem as text (spoken live and in multi-media projections) as a basis for the musical score, multimedia expressions and the movement invention. Like the poem, the dance work is rigorous, witty, unpredictable and frequently droll.
Eunoia
features six acclaimed dance artists: Sylvie Bouchard, Claudia Moore, Lucy Rupert, Miko Sobreira, Rebecca Hope Terry and Gerry Trentham, with a stellar creation team that includes composer Phil Strong and media designer Justin Stephenson.
Rounding out the program is the incomparable Peter Chin, artistic director of Tribal Crackling Wind, in a brand new solo work, con/Tempo/rare; and Nancy Latoszewski (Greyeyes), co-artistic director of
Signal Theatre, performing her solo, Carriage
Mar. 8 - Mar. 10
Dancemakers Centre for Creation in the Distillery Historic District, 9 Trinity Street, Studio 313 | Tickets: $25 Phone: 416-504-6429 ext. 30 or to order online, please click here
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