Ballet Kelowna has again come up with a real winner of a show to launch this, their 20th Anniversary Season.
This small but enterprising company tackles pieces which rank with the most complex in (mostly) modern dance, and the artists continually draw the audiences into their world by the skill and energy of their dancing.
Energy, as it turned out, was an essential component of this programme. All three choreographers made large demands on the physical stamina and breath control of the dancers, requiring long stretches of high-stakes, high-speed dancing -- nowhere more so than in the final work```.
The evening opened with a fascinating dance creation from Artist-in-Residence, Cameron Fraser-Monroe. In a completely common situation in the contemporary world, Fraser-Monroe's name suggests a strongly Scottish heritage -- and while that is a part of his family's history, it's as a member of the Tla'amin Nation that he most strongly identifies.
This 2021 work, taqǝš (pronounced "TawKESH"), draws from the traditional story in which Raven returns the world's water that has been stolen by Frog and his friends. The dance made allusive reference to the story by using simple vignettes of key events in the story, but more so worked from a premise of incorporating the traditional dance of the Pacific Coast nations in partnership with the classical ballet tradition -- a challenging goal if ever there was one.
Fraser-Monroe's work had two memorable, not to say eye-catching moments. One came when Raven (McKeely Borger) took to wing to search for the missing water. His choreographic conception here evoked some gasps and expressions of awe from members of the audience. The other, soon after, was the moment when Frog (Seiji Suzuki) and his friends appeared, dancing and partying up a storm in celebration of their success in stealing all the water. Here, the brilliant green lighting and the angular, almost rock-music inspired movements of the company served to underline the fun-loving, jazzy quality in that section of Jeremy Dutcher's purpose-composed score.
Definitely, Cameron Fraser-Monroe pointed the way for more diverse and exciting fusions of classical European dance and the indigenous dance traditions of this land.
The second work was Guillaume Coté's 2012 work, Boléro, set (no surprise) to Ravel's endlessly fascinating showpiece for orchestra. Set for a quartet of dancers (three men, one woman), the dance in Boléro exactly parallels the structure of the music by growing progressively more daring and more breathtaking as the piece progresses. Coté uses lifts as the central feature of the work, and the lifts get more and more complex and risky as the music evolves. In the final moment, the woman is launched forwards towards the extended arms of two of the men, the lights vanishing in a snap blackout before she actually lands -- a theatrical extension of a classic competition cheer team move.
Kelsey Hanna has used Boléro as her swan song, retiring from active dance after this memorable last performance. I know her colleagues and audiences alike will miss her artistry -- but what a fabulous moment to end a career, as all will remember her forever airborne and soaring in space.
After the intermission, the programme wrapped up with a significant world premiere, In the Light of the Waking Sun by Robert Stephen.
Conflict of Interest Alert: Robert Stephen is my nephew.
This half-hour work uses three of the four movements of Schubert's Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major, D.485 (omitting the third-movement Minuet and Trio which is really a scherzo in all but name). What remains is a three-movement triptych, noted among musicians for its sunny good nature. Now, notice the title again.
Stephen's subtext was the gradual emergence of the world from the bleak two years of the pandemic, and the slow return of normal life in many ways.
The first movement sees the dancers moving in lively fashion about the stage, but avoiding direct interaction -- indeed, acting awkward and hesitant when such interaction almost occurs. At the end of the movement, the dancers suddenly surrender to the urge to hug each other. The slow second movement then becomes a series of pas de deux, with the slow reawakening of love and intimacy the subject matter. The vigorous finale brings us into a joyful, exuberant festival, hurtling bodies and flying feet going in all directions as once (and abetted by the uncommonly fast recorded performance of Schubert's music).
Four-fifths of the lightness and joy of the piece lies in the choregraphy. The remaining and significant one-fifth comes from the costumes created by Krista Dowson. Light, sheer, easily airborne fabrics are wedded to a gentle palette of pastel colours which seems the very essence of spring and summer.
While Stephen's dance language here is predominantly classical, with modern highlights, the great success of this piece is the way in which he uses old traditional dance steps and processes to create a thing of beauty which is at the same time not new, yet entirely new. Point of reference or comparison quickly fall aside as you realize that In the Light of the Waking Sun bears only superficial resemblance to such distinguished forerunners as Balanchine's Symphony in C or Kudelka's the Four Seasons. The energy may resemble those works, but the net results are unique, and uniquely exhilarating for the audience.
Really, the same could and should be said of all three works on this fascinating programme. In each case, the audience was swept up in the strength of the choreographer's vision and the company's dancing, and the prolonged and energetic applause clearly testified to what a winning programme Ballet Kelowna has mounted to open this anniversary year.
