National Ballet of Canada runs the gamut from sci-fi to suspendu in new triple bill

National Ballet of Canada’s early spring season ushered three new works into its repertoire. The world premiere of William Yong’s UtopiVerse, the North American premiere of Emma Portner’s islands and the Canadian premiere of Serge Lifar’s Suite en Blanc. Stylistically wide-ranging, the program showcased the company’s ability to more than handle both cutting-edge and uber-classical creations.

Hong Kong-born, Toronto-based Yong has noted his UtopiVerse was inspired in part by John Milton’s 1667 epic, Paradise Lost and investigates how one person's utopia can be a dystopia to another. The stage is set with a large, hanging neon ellipsis encasing abstract metalwork by Elijah Secrest, which along with elaborate video projections designed by Thomas Payette/Mirari, lend a futuristic flavour.

Given its literary underpinnings, and with character names such as Lotus, Leo, The Daemon and The Undermined, UtopiVerse is clearly meant to convey a narrative which unfortunately wasn’t always clear. Yong has choreographed some genuinely inventive, challenging movement but the piece lacks a binding dramaturgy to pull it all together.

As The Daemon, Noah Parets masterfully handles his frenzied solo which is well-matched to the virtuosity of Benjamin Britten’s Violin Concerto played by accomplished soloist Alexi Kenney from the pit (most of the ballet’s score is derived from works by the twentieth-century British composer). Following Parets we get a lyrical pas de deux for Tirion Law as Lotus and Siphesihle November as Leo. They are mirrored in video by a similar couple played by two different dancers which feels unnecessarily confusing. At one point, another woman emerges from the corps, Emma Ouellet as The Undermined, but her short appearance isn’t enough to establish her significance to the drama.

The corps, dressed in unisex, flesh toned body suits, sprint onstage for their entrances and are given a signature gut punch move causing their bodies to fold. Towards the end of the 40 minute piece, a group of six corps dancers enter wearing ponytail headdresses, are bathed in red light and dance more tortured movements. Lotus makes a later appearance dressed in a tulle ball gown carrying a glowing light. While individually striking, these disparate elements failed to coalesce stylistically or narratively.

Canadian Emma Portner has garnered an enviable reputation outside the realm of ballet in the pop culture world of Netflix, Justin Bieber and Vogue. islands premiered at Norwegian Opera & Ballet in 2020 and is a fascinating subversion of the traditional male/female pas de deux. Originally made for two women, Portner agreed to rework it for a man and woman for the National Ballet and on March 21 we saw first soloist Alexandra MacDonald and corps member Alexander Skinner (it will also be danced by two women at other performances).

MacDonald and Skinner were almost glued together throughout, legs intertwined to the point where it was difficult to tell whose were whose! Intriguingly intricate weaving and knitting of limbs and subtle positioning of the man in front, sometimes lifted by his partner, made for a moving, amusing and truly original creation. Movement and music (various electronic/vocal/pop-styled songs) were beautifully married. There was something innocent and nostalgic that arose from the dancers’ physical closeness. The lighting scheme, consisting of little more than a lit frame or size-shifting block of white light projected onto the stage floor, perfectly suited the work’s simple eloquence.

Suite en Blanc is Serge Lifar’s love letter to classical technical purity created for Paris Opéra Ballet in 1943. There was an audible gasp as the curtain opened on the full company, women in stiff white tutus, men in billowy shirts and black tights, all striking their best classical ballet poses against a stark black background. What followed was 40 minutes of stunning virtuosity set to 19th-century French composer Édouard Lalo’s Suite from Namouna (1882), its brass and bass drum-heavy overture thrillingly played by the National Ballet Orchestra under its Music Director, David Briskin. Despite being based in age-old traditional ballet choreography, the work possesses a verging-on-modernist aesthetic that can only place it in the 20th-century. This must also include its darker underpinnings as a product of World War II French/German collaboration.

Lifar retained the section titles of Lalo’s existing ballet score to create a series of virtuosic solos, trios, quartets and corps numbers. Among the highlights were Siphesihle November’s jaw-dropping continuous attitude jumps and Ayano Haneishi’s quick turns en diagonale in the finale. Svetlana Lunkina danced the La Cigarette variation with a knowing smile, though she seemed a little shaky in its suspended turns. The star of the evening though was principal dancer Heather Ogden who was cheered for her multiple single and double fouttées, her elegant, high suspended attitude (sensitively partnered by Ben Rudisin) and a seemingly endless circular series of coupé turns. A very welcome, if late, addition to the company’s repertoire.