2014 // 15 SEASON Northrop Presents LES BALLETS JAZZ DE MONTRÉAL Fri, Oct 24, 8:00 pm Carlson Family Stage Closer Night Box Harry Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal in Kosmos. Photo © Leda & St.Jacques. Dear Northrop Dance Lovers, Northrop at the University of Minnesota Ahhh…Montréal, a city of old-world charm and contemporary Presents urban energy. A city that’s as romantically traditional as it is cutting-edge innovative. It’s cosmopolitan and sophisticated, yet warm, unassuming, and almost small-town friendly. LES BALLETS JAZZ If you visit Montréal, you notice at once what an international city it is. That dynamic mix of flavors—ethnicity, culture, language, ideas, and cuisine—is just what we have on Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal’s (BJM) program tonight. It’s a DE MONTRÉAL program that is a true international mix, reminding us of just how universal the art form of dance is, and how many different cultural elements contribute to what we see on stage. Artistic Director LOUIS ROBItaILLE The company, BJM, is a lot like the city it’s named for. There’s that tradition of fine ballet technique steeped in their bones. Founder Emeritus Yet, what flair and swagger they bring to their performances! GENEVIÈVE SalbaING Christine Tschida. Photo by Patrick O'Leary, And such personality and joie de vivre that you want to invite University of Minnesota. them all over for a beer after the show. Cofounders EVA VON GENCSY We open with Closer, choreographed by Benjamin Millepied, who was born in Bordeaux, raised in Dakar, EDDY TOUSSAINT Senegal, danced with New York City Ballet for more than 10 years and is now the Director of Dance at the Paris Opera Ballet. We’ll have the pleasure of seeing the work performed tonight by the dancer Millepied Ballet Master created it for in 2006: Céline Cassone. CYRILLE DE LA BARRE Night Box gives us a glimpse of high-voltage Montréal nightlife, evoking the city through sounds, rhythms, music, and flashing lights. Choreographer Wen Wei Wang was born and raised in China, and now makes Artists his home in Canada. For this piece, he collaborated on the design with the famous Montréal design duo, UNTTLD. DanIEL ALWELL CHRISTIAN DENICE NICholaS KorkoS CHRISTINA BODIE KIera HILL Morgane LE TIEC Harry, the final piece of our program, was created by Israeli-American choreographer Barak Marshall, who CÉLINE CaSSONE AlexanDER HILLE GUIllaume MIChauD spent years with Batsheva Dance Company in Tel Aviv. Teeming with energy, hope, and humor, and set to a score combining jazz, Israeli folksongs, and traditional music, it’s an extravaganza of dance that is a MARK FranCIS CaSerta Graham Kaplan SaSKYA PauZÉ-BéGIN perfect match for the talents of Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal. YourI DE WILDE ASHLEY WERHUN Thank you for joining us tonight for Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal's first Minneapolis appearance. I hope you leave feeling like they are all friends you’re going to want to invite back again! Technical and Tour Director Sound and Video Technician DanIEL RANGER MANON MEUNIER Sincerely, Carpenter MartIN JANNARD Christine Tschida Director of Northrop NEXT UP AT NORTHROP: THE HONG KONG BALLET in Turandot, a gorgeous full-length ballet based on the Puccini opera, November 6 and 7 at Northrop. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund, and a grant from the Wells Fargo Foundation Minnesota. 2 3 LES BALLETS JAZZ DE MONTRÉAL (BJM) CLOSER An internationally renowned contemporary dance BJM is one of Canada’s most popular dance Choreography by Benjamin Millepied company, BJM—Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal—is a companies. It has presented more than 2,000 Music by Philip Glass (“Mad Rush”) repertory company that presents a hybrid form performances in 66 countries to more than two Lighting by Daniel Ranger after Roderick Stewart Murray of dance that combines the aesthetics of classical million spectators, and is a veritable ambassador Costumes by UNTTLD (Simon Bélanger and José Manuel St-Jacques) ballet and embraces many other different styles of Quebec and Canadian culture worldwide. of dance. Founded in 1972 by Geneviève Salbaing, Length: 17 minutes Eva von Gencsy, and Eddy Toussaint, the company In its 43rd season, BJM has achieved a level of has pursued its own unique path over the decades. maturity and organizational stability while DANCERS Very contemporary in its current approach, BJM remaining open to the ever-evolving form that Céline Cassone, Alexander Hille performances are sexy, explosive, original, and is contemporary dance. Its pieces are marked accessible, and its superb dancers are widely by dynamic physicality, virtuosity, and the strong acclaimed. The term “jazz” in the name refers personalities of its performers, all of which Set to composer Philip Glass’s “Mad Rush,” the duet Closer was created in 2006 for Céline Cassone more to a “jazzing up” of classical ballet rather contribute to the company’s unique signature. and Sébastien Marcovici (principal dancer with the New York City Ballet) and presented at the Maison than a musical or dance style. BJM has the remarkable ability to speak clearly de la Danse in Lyon, France. For BJM, the duet will be performed by the magnetic Céline Cassone and to audiences through energetic presentations of Alexander Hille. Performed and acclaimed on several world stages, Closer is a voluptuous and vibrant Since 1998, BJM has been under the masterly strong, expressive, and demanding dance. exchange, imbued with an intense yet simple sensuality, that of the tension between two bodies. command of Artistic Director Louis Robitaille. His unerring flair for attracting talented choreog- Through its performances and educational activi- Over the course of twenty minutes, Cassone is carried, pulled, and lifted with movements raphers and presenting high caliber dance pieces ties, BJM reaches out to spectators in Canada and of crystalline beauty and delicacy, rousing the sentiments of the audience, who are keeps raising the bar for his team of performers and abroad, encouraging discovery, stimulating the transported into the couple’s passionate relationship. stage professionals. Robitaille has presented works imagination, making dance accessible, and sharing by internationally acclaimed choreographers such its passion for the art form. The success of BJM is This ballet benefits from the precious support of M. Uriel G. Luft. as Mia Michaels, Trey McIntyre, Patrick Delcroix, due to the particular alchemy that allows each Rodrigo Pederneiras, Mauro Bigonzetti, Annabelle new work to become the fruit of a memorable Lopez Ochoa, Cayetano Soto, Barak Marshall, and encounter between the choreography, the dancers, Andonis Foniadakis. He is particularly interested and the audience. PAUSE in supporting and encouraging Canadian chore- ographers, composers, and designers. The work of celebrated Canadian choreographers such as Dominic Dumais, Crystal Pite, Aszure Barton, Wen Wei Wang, and more recently of Kristen Céré have enriched the BJM repertoire. Harry Photo © Leda & St.Jacques. © Leda Photo Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal in Jazz de Montréal Ballets Les 4 5 NIGHT BOX HARRY Choreography by Wen Wei Wang Artistic Direction by Louis Robitaille Music by Amute, Olaf Bender, The Steals & Grafiti, Choreography by Barak Marshall Giorgio Magnanensi, Max Richter, Paul Rogers, Victoria R. Senking Choreography Assistants: Inbar Nemirovsky, Osnat Kelner Lighting Design by James Proudfoot Music by Tommy Dorsey, Taraf Ionel Budisteanu, Balkan Beat Box, The Andrews Sisters, Costume Design by UNTTLD (Simon Bélanger and José Manuel St-Jacques) Anatol Stefanet, Dejan Petrovic, Sidney Bechet, Warsaw Village Band, Projections Production by Catherine Faucher The Hungarian Quartet, Goran Bregovic, Maria Callas, Wayne Newton Projections Creation by Denis Dulude and Christian Lalumière Lighting by Daniel Ranger Projections Collaboration by Christian Mouzard Costumes by Anne-Marie Veevaete Length: 35 minutes Length: 40 minutes DANCERS DANCERS Full Cast Full Cast The World Premiere of this piece was in April 2012 in Erie (PA), United States. The World Premiere of this piece was in July 2012 in Montauban, France. In creating this new piece for Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, Wen Wei Wang was inspired by urban life, For this new creation, made-to-measure for the BJM dancers, the Israeli-American choreographer Barak especially as it unfolds at night. Evoking the city through sounds, rhythms, music, and an incessant Marshall was inspired by the inner battles we all wage. “Life is a constant struggle,” he says, “in which we blinking of lights, Night Box is a high-voltage work in which love, loss, sexuality, and joy are intertwined. are continually faced with conflicts with regard to culture, gender, species.” Between men and women, in particular, compromises must be made to achieve a balance. This piece revolves around the character In a state of perpetual movement, it combines contemporary ballet with street dance in alternating of Harry, who struggles to overcome forces both physical and existential. sequences for group, trio, duet, and solo. Adopting an approach in which lighting plays a central role, Wen Wei Wang recreates the full spectrum of the city at night: its private spaces, clubs, and streets. Teeming with energy, the work underscores a recurrent theme in human interactions: conflicts Against a backdrop of darkness, these diverse spaces become bathed in light. The choreographer worked and our ability to overcome them. Set to a score combining jazz, Israeli folksongs, and traditional with the Montréal design duo UNTTLD to create a new and refreshing style inspired by urban street life. music, this new opus is imbued with hope and humour, alternating group sequences, trios, and duets in a fabulous extravaganza of dance. “This work is about people and everyday life through body language, energy, relationships, and emotions, reflecting the world in which we are living.