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 Houston Ballet, 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 San Francisco Ballet 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 Europe. 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.