Ballet Notes one hundred words for snow the Inuit have one hundred words for snow… I heard that once

Gazebo Dances — EXCERPTS

The End — EXCERPT there, below Monument Together we’re celebrating the achievements of The National Ballet of Canada.

At TD Bank Financial Group, we’re proud to support The National Ballet of Canada. It’s just part of our commitment to making our communities better. . Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann . Photo by Cylla . Photo by Andrew Oxenham one hundred words for snow one hundred words for snow Greta Hodgkinson with Artist of the Ballet in Greta Hodgkinson and Christopher Body in one hundred words for snow the Inuit have one hundred words for snow…I heard that once choreography: Dominique Dumais music: Alexina Louie, O Magnum Mysterium: In Memoriam Glenn Gould tape music and sound collage: Eric Cadesky, Blender design:Vandal Costumes lighting design: Bonnie Beecher This adaptation from the original score was made possible by MusicCanadaMusique 2000, with leading support from the Canada Millennium Partnership Programme. one hundred words for snow is funded in part by Walter Carsen O.C.

Gazebo Dances company premiere — excerpts choreography: James Kudelka music:John Corigliano, Gazebo Dances, Third Movement Gazebo Dances is performed courtesy of BalletMet Columbus, who premiered the work, March 2003.

The End — excerpt choreography: James Kudelka music: Johannes Brahms, Symphony No. 4, Third Movement

there, below company premiere choreography: James Kudelka music: Ralph Vaughan Williams, Fantasia On A Theme By Thomas Tallis costume design: Claudia Lynch lighting design: Howell Binkley there, below was made possible by a generous gift from The Harbinger Foundation.

Monument world premiere choreography: Matjash Mrozewski music: Jean Sibelius, Fifth Symphony, Opus 82 In E Flat Major costume design: Christopher Read SET DESIGN: Yannik Larivée lighting design: Christopher Dennis Monument is a gift from the volunteer committee, the national ballet of canada one hundred words for snow . Photo Cylla von Tiedemann . Photo Cylla one hundred words for snow Artists of the Ballet in

DOMINIQUE DUMAIS IS RAPIDLY CONSOLIDATING HER POSITION AS ONE OF one hundred words for snow, a work originally conceived as part of the the most exciting choreographic talents at work anywhere today. Her National Ballet’s 1999 Inspired by Gould project, encapsulates many of dances are marked by a wonderful gestural intricacy and suppleness the strengths and concerns of Dumais’ choreography — a fascination that suggests a level of creative assurance normally found in a much with the ambiguities of human desire and communication, the search more mature artist. Her grasp of ballet convention, and her ability for connectedness, and emotion expressed through an art of exactitude. to turn those conventions to a distinctively modern vision, gives her The work premiered on November 20, 1999 and was an innovative work a bracing freshness, one that stays in the mind’s eye long after dance tribute celebrating the genius of pianist Glenn Gould. Dumais’ a performance is finished. ballet is a personal appreciation for Gould as an artist, “my focus is not on who Gould was, but how his creativity inspired my own,” “Other companies will kill to have this she says. The ballet is divided into three sections representing mind, body gorgeous piece in their repertoire. and spirit respectively. The first section, set to Eric Cadesky’s sound collage, explores the idea of counterpoint, a concept that obsessed Dumais’ Gouldian departure is creative Gould all his life. For the second, set to Alexina Louie’s 1982 composition O Magnum Mysterium: In Memoriam Glenn Gould, Dumais has created genius.” a series of emotional duets, a commentary on the complex relationships in Gould’s life. The final section, again to Cadesky’s sound collage, is an homage to the creative force of Gould. From her earliest works, created for the National Ballet’s Following the premiere of one hundred words for snow The Globe Choreographic Workshops, she displayed an unerring feel for and Mail wrote “Other companies will kill to have this gorgeous piece the nuances of choreographic composition. Her first piece for in their repertoire. Dumais’ Gouldian departure is creative genius. The National Ballet of Canada, Tides of Mind, was commissioned She begins with one simple, cerebral concept — in this case, the idea by Karen Kain and entered the company’s repertoire in 1997. of counterpoint that dominated Gould’s life — and then lets it ride on the wings of imagination to become an ecstatic experience, a grand creation that is greater than the sum of its parts.” Dominique Dumais is currently Artistic Associate of the Mannheim Ballet in Germany. there, below, Gazebo Dances, and The End James Kudelka and Rebekah Rimsay in rehearsal. Photo by Bruce Zinger

THE NATIONAL BALLET OF CANADA’S ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, JAMES KUDELKA HAS THE Kudelka has also staged there, below for the , Ballet reputation as one of contemporary ballet’s modern masters. And while British Columbia and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens (Montreal). much of his standing rests on the works he has choreographed for the The Vancouver Courier wrote “there, below, James Kudelka’s 1989 gem National Ballet—seminal works such as Pastorale, The Actress, The Four of a piece… is another wrenchingly beautiful example of spirit Seasons, Swan Lake, The Firebird and The Contract — his many works for made flesh... It flows along on an unstoppable wave of mighty sound, other companies contain choreographic riches to match these. complementing the intense intimacy of the choreography.” there, below was created for BalletMet in Columbus, Ohio in 1989 Gazebo Dances was also created for BalletMet, premiering in 2003 as and was enthusiastically received. Barbara Zuck of the Columbus and part of a programme entitled Ballet in Scarlet and Gray. The excerpt Dispatch wrote of the premiere, “Kudelka has deftly crafted a choreographic presented by The National Ballet of Canada is a pas de deux from understatement that speaks volumes… The couples, each with their own the work. The ballet is set to the music of John Corigliano’s Gazebo movement motifs, move effortlessly and silently, as though removed Dances, composed in 1970, as a reference to the gazebos and band by some great distance from the weight of worldly concerns. Each pair stands found in town squares across rural America, where town bands engages in remarkable pas de deux sometimes expressing in detail played every summer. According to Corigliano: “The sense of summer the phrasing of the music, sometimes barely moving as the music pulses.” joy and exuberance is the basis of this suite”. The Columbus Dispatch praised the ballet as “…filled with exuberance and youthful innocence…” “The Canadian choreographer’s latest Set to the third movement of Johannes Brahms’ Fourth Symphony, The End was created for in 1992. The solo opus dominates… daring… eloquent… presented was first presented by The National Ballet of Canada in 1999 at the Fifth International Competition for the Erik Bruhn Prize. Kudelka’s vision has never seemed It was performed by Jhe Russell, who won the Prize. The San Francisco Examiner noted “James Kudelka has given San Francisco Ballet a remarkably satisfying and completely enveloping work in which the more assured…” spaces, silences and still points between the steps speak with as much eloquence as the movement. Daring in its choice of music, Set to Ralph Vaughan Williams’ haunting Fantasia on a Theme by enigmatic in its details, challenging in its demands on its dancers, Thomas Tallis, there, below is a series of elegantly and sparely constructed voluptuously confident in its sweep, the Canadian choreographer’s pas de deux, whose severity and simplicity serve as a counterpoint to latest opus dominates… daring… eloquent… Kudelka’s vision has the lushness and romantic yearning of the score. The tension between never seemed more assured…” the rigorous abstraction of the choreography and the sumptuousness of the music creates an unsettling and unearthly feeling of dislocation. Monument Matjash Mrozewski in rehearsal. Photo by Neil Hodge

A FORMER SECOND SOLOIST WITH THE NATIONAL BALLET OF CANADA, But Mrozewski is also very much on the fast track, and he’s taken many Matjash Mrozewski is one of Canada’s most promising choreographers. more risks than most ballet choreographers his age (27). Having made Mrozewski’s work incorporates a broad range of dance idioms, from several promising ballets while still a student at the National Ballet School — shifting modes of classicism to the brisk angularities of the modern, public exposure that in itself took a lot of courage — he joined The National to create a highly individual choreographic style. His first major work for Ballet of Canada in 1993, leaving in 1997 to spread his wings and gain The National Ballet, A Delicate Battle, made a stunning debut in May 2001, experience in . Two years later he was back with the National Ballet, replete with references to the history of ballet, but never lapsing into and in May 2001 his first commissioned main stage work for the company, academicism. Its balance of form and theme felt so natural as to seem A Delicate Battle, opened to general acclaim. almost foreordained, and the ballet was praised in all corners for its poise Then came the really big gamble: leaving the comparative safety of the and ambition. In October 2003 A Delicate Battle entered the repertoire of National Ballet again to enter the ranks of independent choreographers, the West Australian Ballet. living from one grant or gig to another. “When I quit the ballet I had Mrozewski’s new ballet, Monument, is set to Jean Sibelius’ famous Fifth nothing else lined up,” he recalls, “but I realized that the fee I got from A Symphony and shows the choreographer working with a greatly expanded Delicate Battle was probably the most security I’d have for some time. For cast of dancers and an elaborate set design, but also with a fresh sense of a few months I was in no-man’s land, either exhilarated or totally petrified, choreographic possibilities. Like its predecessor, the work is stylistically but before I knew it my whole year was booked. I can panic a little less allusive, moving through three distinct choreographic periods, and is now, but for a freelancer in any field, you never know.” concerned with the creative process. But it is more celebratory in nature, Mrozewski’s breadth of experience, gained from all the travels and risks, turning on the paradox of creation being born from destruction, of new underlies the versatility of his creative output — everything from rock ballets traditions being constructed on the ruins of the old. The work explores (Lost and Found, to Sting’s music, for Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre) to an both the relevance of the past to the present and the notion of ensemble work involving eight different dance styles for Dancers for Life impermanence within the context of the human project. It bears out fully in Toronto, from People Are Scary and The Virgin Queen for Toronto Dance the earlier appraisals of Mrozewski’s talent and reinforces his standing as Theatre to a classically inspired tutu ballet for the National Ballet School, a choreographer of major importance. from a creation for the Copenhagen International Ballet to Mrozewski’s first major narrative work, the choreography for Moze Mossanen’s matjash mrozewski: making a dramatic CBC dance film The Year of the Lion. The mix is more than monument to dance a little reminiscent of James Kudelka’s early years, By Penelope Reed Doob When Mrozewski and I spoke in the summer, A Delicate Battle was being When I asked choreographer Matjash Mrozewski to reflect on his mounted for the West Australian Ballet and he was doing background strengths as a choreographer, the first quality that came to my mind was reading for a commission from London’s Royal Ballet in celebration the last to come to his–a willingness to take risks and a seemingly of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the death of the great impresario instinctive ability to make them pay off. “I sometimes think I need to take Sergei Diaghilev. Simultaneously Mrozewski was working on three other more risks,” he says. “I’m paying a lot of attention to the past, to tradition, dances–a piece for Toronto’s “Dusk Dances” in July, a Canada Council for but I feel I have to master that before I take more radical leaps.” the Arts/National Arts Centre commission for a work aimed specifically at teenagers and young adults and Monument for the National Ballet. Mrozewski His instinct may be right: studies of eminent creators in virtually all fields finds that having four or five works on the boil at once is not unusual for him. indicate that most of them, whatever their field, spend about ten years That demand for his work is so high marks Mrozewski’s standing as one of learning the basics and another ten years of practice and experimentation the hottest young choreographers around, seen internationally as one of the before they achieve major creative breakthroughs. It fits the pattern that most versatile and talented young dance-makers anywhere. Mrozewski is still working consciously on his craftsmanship, his “métier.” If risk-taking and versatility are two of his strong-points, another is surely fallen into decay” as well as images of the rebuilding of Paris in the 1860's. the quality of thought that goes into his work. Mrozewski is very They agreed that ambiguity, nostalgia, and potential for the future had to consciously a problem-solver in all his pieces, finding the setting of be part of the feeling that the dance and set would jointly evoke. Larivée detailed challenges–a certain time frame, specific numbers of dancers, a designed a huge abstract space with building blocks, buttresses, walls, and particular composer’s work–a great stimulus to his creativity. “One part diagonals, all suggesting “a place that isn’t sterile, that has ghosts, that of creativity is feeling the muse, but another aspect is knowing how many alludes both to what has passed and what is in the process of being built.” hours you have to work, or how much money there is in the bank. I’m Mrozewski plans to have his dancers use the set in unexpected ways. pretty resourceful,” he says. For someone with Mrozewski’s passion for “Usually in classical ballet you’re dancing on a stage that’s full of scenery problem-solving, inventiveness in one area stimulates inventiveness but you don’t touch it. In Monument, I decided we’d really use the set, so in another. we’re touching it, moving the blocks around in different patterns, and we’ll Certainly a good deal of inventiveness, problem-solving, and craft- have dancing and duets up against the walls, maybe even on the walls. It’ll consciousness has gone into Mrozewski’s latest creation for the be a nice challenge.” National Ballet, Monument. One of the threads running through many of In another felicitous collaboration, Mrozewski worked with the National Mrozewski’s otherwise diverse ballets is his awareness of the history of Ballet’s Music Director, Ormsby Wilkins. Mrozewski had the concept and dance and the relationship of an individual dancer or choreographer to structure for the ballet, and he had an image of the ending: a woman that history, a kind of fascination with the tensions between the grand walking slowly up a hastily improvised staircase as the building seems (and sometimes not so grand) traditions and the contributions of once again to be abandoned. But he also had a major problem: he had the individual artist. If A Delicate Battle dealt in part with the need to no idea what music to use. Wilkins suggested Jean Sibelius’ Symphony #5, preserve the art of dance from external threats, Monument assumes and with its mysterious opening of horns and timpani; its wispy, fragmentary celebrates the survival of dance as the tradition continually transforms melodies, sometimes dance-like, sometimes dissonant and ominous; itself through cycles of decay and creative renewal. In this sense, the its nobility of spirit; and (in its revised version) its three movements, new ballet is a monument to the longevity and adaptability of the art corresponding to the three sections Mrozewski had in mind. Moreover form, both as engaging entertainment and as a more profound aesthetic the famous six staccato chords at the end would work perfectly with his and philosophical statement. thoughts for a mysterious conclusion. “When I quit the ballet I had nothing else lined up, but I realized that the fee I got from A Delicate Battle was probably the most security I’d have for some time. For a few months I was in no-man’s land, either exhilarated or totally petrified, but before I knew it my whole year was booked. I can panic a little less now, but for a freelancer in any field, you never know.”

Mrozewski is well aware that quality of the performance and the Mrozewski’s interest in surprising an audience, arousing its curiosity, is choreography are more important than any philosophical underpinnings — clear when the curtain rises and the first monument the audience sees you can put the greatest ideas in the world into a ballet, but if the dancers in the new ballet itself is not, in Mrozewski’s words, “something heroic and movement aren’t exciting, the work will probably fail. But, since and shiny, a grand war monument, but something shabby.” Mrozewski’s Mrozewski usually creates not only interesting movement but also creative process often starts with mental images. In this case those compelling characters, even in non-narrative works, audiences who don’t images were empty buildings, deserted spaces, with blocks of detect Mrozewski’s allusions to the ebb and flow of the life of an art form construction material around. He wants to create a visual ambiguity: is in Monument will surely sense how tightly this monument is constructed, this building, this “monument,” under construction or falling apart? He how its music, set, and dance complement each other. also had a rough concept of how the ballet would develop stylistically: from traditional pointe work to a barefoot section paying homage When that happens, Mrozewski, that resourceful and creative problem- to the foundations of modern dance to a more contemporary section solver on the rise, will be delighted. “I’m building something here–making in “socks,” relaxed in style, convoluted and complex in structure, a statement. People are actually paying me to make a statement! I have a synthesizing all the movement themes in a huge layered construction. voice people seem to want to hear, and that gives me a kind of agency and ability I take very seriously.” Early in his choreographic career, the multi-talented Mrozewski did his own designs, but for Monument Artistic Director James Kudelka thought it would be a challenge to work with a set-designer as well as with a large cast (about thirty). Designer Yannik Larivée was chosen, and Mrozewski was “amazed at how much he brought to the table.” The two men pored over photographs of abandoned spaces–old Cuban theatres, for instance, “places that had once been grand and majestic and magical but had now The National Ballet of Canada The Walter Carsen Centre for The National Ballet of Canada 470 Queens Quay West, Toronto, Ontario M5V 3K4 Phone: 416-345-9686 Fax: 416-345-8323 Email: [email protected] www.national.ballet.ca

Cover: Christopher Body and Tanya Howard rehearsing Monument. Photo by Bruce Zinger Ballet Notes one hundred words for snow the Inuit have one hundred words for snow… I heard that once

Gazebo Dances — EXCERPTS

The End — EXCERPT there, below Monument Ballet Notes one hundred words for snow the Inuit have one hundred words for snow… I heard that once

Gazebo Dances — EXCERPTS

The End — EXCERPT there, below Monument