The global pandemic caused a previously planned London visit by The National Ballet of Canada to be postponed and so this long-awaited return to the UK – the first visit since 2013 – was all the more welcome. Bringing Frontiers: Choreographers of Canada – Pite/Kudelka/Portner, it was also a first introduction of the company to British audiences under the artistic leadership of Hope Muir (familiar to us as a superb dancer at English National Ballet and Rambert and later as assistant artistic director at Scottish Ballet). This was as much Muir’s return to Sadler’s Wells as it was that of her company.
The choice of repertoire showcased the three Canadian choreographers at varying places in their career trajectory, each with a work that was new to the UK including two whose choreography is rarely, if ever, seen here. James Kudelka (69) was the company’s artistic director for almost a decade at the turn of the century; while Emma Portner is yet to turn 30 and the work featured here was her first foray into ballet. A subliminal theme to the Frontiers tag was the exporting of Canadian talent since Kudelka’s Passion was originally made for Houston Ballet (2013) and Portner’s islands (deliberately lower case) was made for Norwegian National Ballet, in 2020.
The third featured choreographer is unquestionably Canada’s greatest dance export of recent times since Crystal Pite’s work is now ubiquitous both as direct commissions for ballet companies (such as Flight Pattern for The Royal Ballet) or as work for her own itinerant company, Kidd Pivot. And so, the opportunity to experience a UK premiere of another major work by Pite was – with no disrespect to the other choreographers – the major draw of the evening.
Once again, Pite and her creative team did not disappoint. Angel’s Atlas is visually spectacular, arising from an extraordinary cocktail of set and lighting design, enhancing Pite’s special skill in organising organic group movement, especially at scale. The impetus for her inspiration came from the work of her life partner, Jay Gower Taylor, and that of lighting designer, Tom Visser, in developing a system that works on the manipulation of reflected light to create patterns on the backdrop, which were indubitably ethereal (very much in keeping with the liturgical music of Tchaikovsky that adorned the original score by Owen Belton) but also conjured up a myriad of images (icicles, lightning, even the sparkle of indoor fireworks).
These designs created a solemn backdrop for Pite to exploit with lofty choreography that conveyed some sense of human impermanence within a cosmic vastness. Pite routinely brings such big themes to her pure dance work, and they may at times, seem repetitive, but dig deeper into the language and flow of her choreography and nothing is ever the same. This work was simply magnificent in every way and one of those rare pieces that I wanted to see again, immediately!
It has been said that Beethoven’s music is unsuited to dance but Kudelka’s Passion – made on the first movement of Beethoven’s Concerto for Piano (the solo beautifully played by Zhenya Vitort) – puts such snobbery back in the box. Passion is a work of contrasts, primarily through two dancers (guest artist, McGee Maddox and long-serving principal, Heather Ogden) in everyday clothing appearing as (apparently unseen) interlopers amongst an ensemble of classical dancers, led by another principal pair (Larkin Miller and Genevieve Penn Nabity).
The longing love-at-first sight looks between Maddox and Ogden suggested the moment when Romeo and Juliet first set eyes on each other. Their duets were strikingly in contrast to the classical pairing: Kudelka employed a leitmotif of the girl running towards her partner and jumping with a half-turn to be caught and held facing away from the man. A further dimension came in the form of a mini corps of five dancers (in long romantic tutus) who weave in and out of the action, apparently oblivious to the presence of the other dancers. The choreography – and the contrasts between classical and contemporary movement – suits the music well although I found that the overall impact faded as the ballet progressed. Nonetheless, it left me wanting to experience more of Kudelka’s work.
And this thought was also true after seeing Portner’s same-sex female duet, islands, sensitively performed by Ogden and Penn Nabity (making a quick return after the interval). Accurately described as a ‘sculptural duet’, the work’s innovative trope was to create an inseparable bond between the dancers, not exactly joined at the hip but through sharing a bonded set of long, baggy pants. When these were eventually discarded, the dancers mostly remained conjoined through touching foreheads and/or hands. It’s a sensual duet, performed to an eclectic musical mix (mostly but not exclusively electronic) and a significant calling card for Canada’s newest choreographic export.
Overall, Frontiers was an outstanding mixed programme of Canadian choreography, which now moves on to the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris (12-15 October), and I sincerely hope that it is not another eleven years before they return to the UK.
Sobre nuestra calificación