Ballet BC and Turning Point Ensemble -Grace Symmetry

There is something truly special about “live” dance and “live” music performed together. Tonight’s evening of Ballet BC and Turning Point Ensemble went even further, composing pieces together as a lyricist and melody writer might work; the resulting accomplishment a thing of complexity and beauty beyond imaginable.  So strange yet familiar.
This was truly avante garde. I lost track of where I was geographically. At times the work and dancers seemed even alien. It was as if I was watching and listening to a culture somehow different and distant from my own. Then there would be the recognition. The music and dance would  seem vaguely New York,  Chicago, LA, Paris, Singapore, Hong Kong or London. But then a rift and a special motion of bodies  would definitely  anchor the work spiritually  here on the west coast.
Some phrase of Turning Point Ensemble music and of course the exquisite dancers of the Ballet BC would bring me back from the ethereal to the familiar space of the elegant Queen Elizabeth.
At intermission the awestruck audience funnelled out into the foyer.  Ballet goers are the most fashionable of folk. People watching is always platinum.  Tonight the Turning Point Ensemble following added a studied, perhaps cerebral,  look  to the normal relaxed sensual sophistication of ballet goers.
We returned to our seats and the performance continued with all the familiar faces of Ballet BC. The  I know them. I enjoyed them, individual interpretations of the highly different but similar bodies, amidst the rifts and crescendos of Turning Point Ensemble music.  For moments an individual dancer would flails about in  chaotic impossible patterns of neurological disconnection then suddenly be joined by the synchronistic pattern of the whole troupe flocking as if one, like human birds connected subliminally.   The constant theme of separation and togetherness over and over repeating like an old time preacher’s, I was lost and  I was found.  The Grace of symmetry, the discordant becoming harmonious.  Individuals finding each other, groups forming and parting, all to  the celebration of Turning Point Ensembles chamber orchestral music..
What a wonderful night. I felt my mind stretched and my senses broadened.  In Motion was composed by Wen Wei Wang, music by Owen Underhil, with stunning duet by Rachel Meyer and Alexander Burton.  Alexia Fletcher’s solo was a piece de resistance. The later duet by Gilbert Small and Peter Smida was so revealingly sensitive.  I loved the dance of these two powerful men.  The troupe together were fabulous.
Prelude was choreographed by Medhi Walerski with music by Lera Auerbach with a special duet by Rachel Meyer and Daren Devaney.  Rachel Meyer is so utterly versatile. Each time I see her I love her dance that much more. Again the troupe was fabulous.  Medhi Wallerski said, “Prelude is an echo of what the idea of time provokes in my imagination."
Here on End, a world premiere by Kevin O’Day, music, “time vectors/still points’” by John King, was perhaps my favourite. It needs to be experienced to be understood. The dancers were amazing.
It was all great. The dancers and musicians deserved the standing ovation. The collaboration with Turning Point Ensemble was truly inspired. Thank you Emily Molnar for another magnificent evening.