Valentines Day Snowstorm, BC Ballet, A&W meal, Terrorists for dinner and Sealy Posturpedic

Vancouver 20 cm plus snow storm hit on Friday. I had tickets for the Ballet and Pacific Theatre that night.  Laura was out in Point Grey where the steep hills had cars sliding and lanes blocked with snow. I was driving my Ford F350 4x4 truck around Surrey and Burnaby.
I didn’t want to go into town because of Vancouver drivers.  All of them are aging hippies with cataracts, stoned on BC Bud, drinking BC wine by the case since Alberta boycotted it when BC refused their flatulence. Everywhere cyclists are defending bike lanes and seeking ICBC claims.  The rich Asian immigrants, criminals from Communist countries ,where their profits are based on who they know and knowing where the bodies are buried, well, they just buy their driver’s licenses here.  The kids high on crack and crystal meth speed their Lamboghinis.  No one knows how to drive in snow.
I might catastrophize a tad about BC drivers faced with white stuff. At least we’re not in Ontario or Quebec where the Climate Change Dicaprio Cult is at their fiercest.  Climate Bartie groupies with Offended Ken see any change in weather is proof of their religion.  They’re worse that the Cargo Cults.   Meanwhile the middle class is sacrificed en mass to the latest fashionable get rich quick taxation scheme.  Which citizens can we demonize this week.
“Can you move the tickets to Saturday night, “ I asked her.  She’s good about dealing with tickets. She was already switching my friend Dr. John’s tickets to Saturday so his son could go in his stead.  I told John his wheel chair tires need studs. They slide to much on the ice.  But the city complains studs hurt the roads.  All the Gaia folk don’t want you to walk on the planet and the city doesn’t want you to hurt the roads.
Laura wasn’t even sure she could get home in the snow. “I didn’t bring my tall boots with me. Only the ankle boots. They’re going to fill up with snow.”  She was house sitting caring for a dog out in the Point Grey boonies.
Saturday the snow had stopped and the big thaw had begun.  Fabulous day.  Sunshine and warmth.  All one could hope for in a spring day. I’m sure the blue crocus and yellow tulips that had poked their heads out of the soil were pleased too.  They’d committed with hope and faith to the coming of spring. Now this had struck.  The Vancouver city plows were doing a masterful job.
Locally, Mack was working the plow in our neighbourhood.  Dave actually came by and shovelled my walk. He’d go on to shovel his daughter’s big Langley driveway.  I wasn’t dressed yet and had to assemble the shovel I’d bought at Home Depot.  Now that the founder of Ikea is dead everyone is muscling into his turf.  Home Depot Ikea type shovels.  While I was assembling my shovel Dave had finished the walk.
I’d bought another propane tank at Meridian RV and more toilet paper the day before in case we really were socked in.  Eric had fixed my furnace the week before and I didn’t want to stop enjoying the tropics in my home just because I lacked propane fuel. If I had any say in the pipelines from Alberta I’d say run them right to my door.  Being without heat is devastating in Canada, even in a Vancouver winter.
Last week I’d been going to work and coming home to a living room with a 30 galpropane tank with indoor heater head from Canadian Tire. I was also relying on electric heat and electric blanket at night. It was all precarious.  My back still hurt despite exercise, industrial supply of ibuprofen, ASA , robaxin, voltaren and chiropractic visits. Chronic pain gets worse in cold..  I had so much work that was backing up too.  My environment was fighting me all the while the government was stabbing me in the back. At least I was not alone.
While Canadians were suffering unprecedented snow storms, terrible cold, flu season and gnarled traffic our dynastic Stoner Prime Minister was making a fool of himself in the heat of India. His trip was naturally  paid for by the carbon taxing of Canadians, old folks and veterans dressing in three and four layers of clothing in an attempt to use as little heat as possible to ’save the planet.   Carbon  dioxide is the air plants breathe as do we. so yes, the air we breathe was being taxed so our Selfie Socked Prime Minister could galavant with terrorists in India.   Others in the UN Agenda 21 hegemony were similarly redistributing wealth with pseudo science.  Meanwhile  the Sharia
Communist, feminist ,virtue signalling PM Trudeau who had hoped to dine with terrorists again so he could give them the standard Liberal $10 million dollar terrorist encouragement bonus was blocked by an aghast Indian press who thought the man daft.
CBC would never have question  holy aetheist family of Quebec.  He  was shocked that others didn’t find his boyish charms amusing. So he fell back on his winning strategy. Buy your friends with Canadian taxpayer dollars.  gave Indian billionaires $750,000 in exchange for an $250,000  claiming a major business and diplomatic coup, a billion dollar trade agreement with India. This was from the economic idiot who said ’the budget would balance itself.” .  Only it turned out that  Canada was giving his Indian Billionaire cronies $750,000 and getting only $250,000. Just like taking candy from a baby.
Behind closed doors there were no doubt lots of promises that Punjab in Canada would vote as told by their colonial and post colonial leaders.  Trudeau was dancing up a storm in his latest tax dollar wardrobe.
Then to add insult to injury, he flew in from a Canada an Indian chef, not a particularly good one either, but charming like Trudeau and no doubt a major Liberal supporter.   However to fly in an Indian chef to India is the height of cultural insult. A form of Cultural terroism.   As if India doesn’t produce it’s own Indian chefs.  Someone must have stopped Justin and Vijay slaughtering a sacred cow for the dinner because not a moo was heard. With his hourly costume changes he’s looking more and more like Gadaffi every day. At least with him out of Canada Canadians could get on with winning at the Olympics.
A three quarter of an hour drive across town on the lousy roads and still blocked traffic took me an hour and a half.  Laura was out on the street waiting for me in her ankle boots in the snow.  The streets were turning icy with the night.  Parking the F350 with crew cab and 8 foot box is it’s own trick.  I’d told Laura I’d take her for dinner.  But with traffic, snow, parking and everyone else of like mind there were long line ups at the restaurants near Queen Elizabeth.  We walked three blocks to the almost empty A & W.   Laura is a trooper. One Ballet it snowed while we were inside. She was dressed in a little black number and high heels.  I’d picked her up on the Harley and that’s how I drove her home in the snow.  This night was   Mamma burgers and fries.   We normally have fast food driving with Gilbert getting a little burger paddy.
The Ballet was tremendous. Medhi Walerski’s choreography was spectacular.  This last evening was sold out.  Some of  the Friday night folk like us appeared to have, like us, moved their tickets to Saturday night. It was a squeeze. It was also an older crowd than Friday alone.  Because it was an adult theme there weren’t the gaggles of ballet children.  Well coiffed and exceptionally well dressed adults though.  I loved that the fellow sitting beside me with his husband had an appliqué coat.  Great fashion idea.
Medhi Walerski was also in charge of costume design which in its modern minimalism was so well conceived.  I loved the simplicity of the Theun Most design using rectangular blocks as doorways and benches.  Elegant really.  The whole cast of the ballet were on stage for most of the show making it very exciting and busy. The fight scenes were gloriously rendered in high art.  C.T. Roland Cooper’s Sword Play and Joshua Reynolds Combat Instruction was all filtered through the most ingenious dance mind of Medhi Walerski. Every move was symbolic and refined.  A joy to watch.  So much happening all the time.  Montagues and Capulets everywhere literally flying about with great leaps
and bounds. I do think Shakespeare would have approved.  The dance was worthy of his genius.
Kirsten Wicklund had been Juliet and Christoph Von Riedermann Romeo on Feb. 23.  Emily Chessa was Juliet and Brandon Alley Romeo the other nights.  Their pas de deus and interpretations were
exquisite.  The whole first set was a delight.  I really did like the clever use of curtain and scenes.
In the washroom at break, a fellow commented, “the death scene went on a bit long’.  We all laughed as so one said, ”It wouldn’t be art if it didn’t.”  It really was of an era when a ‘good death’ was to be desired.  Such drama. Such poise. The last moments of a man and woman so important. Such a contrast to the proletarian present with it’s utilitarian approach to death and such efficiency euthanasia.  Death captured Shakespeare in all its historical glory.  An age of innocence. High art. BC Ballet did it well.
The shorter second act dealt mostly with the star crossed lovers.  Beautiful dance.  “It reminds me of the opera,” Laura whispered. There was alot of the acting of parts to explain the poisons and the parents.  Then the love scenes. Nothing says joy better than a man lifting a white clad girl high above his head as she arche swan like to the heavens.  Such beauty and form.  I loved the fake death and the rippled sheet so like sand on a beach. The music of the London Symphony with Andre Previn was so good that Laura looked for the actual orchestra. More deaths more drama and more remarkable dance.
For me it ended too abruptly, artistically true, but lacking the meaning that Shakespeare meant of the tragic loss of star crossed lovers that mocked the very division of Capulet and Montague rivalry. The cost of hate to community. It was there but the ending seemed to focus on the loss rather than the lesson.  But these are post modern times and morality is subsumed by beauty. The ending was so dramatic that the audience lept to it’s feet en mass in great applause.  What a wonderful night of BC Ballet. They’ve been invited to tour Europe.  Well deserved too.  The Ballet BC is a unique company of contemporary dance at its finest. We’re so fortunate to have their innovation and genius here in Vancouver.
Out in the cold the roads were icy and unplowed in Point Grey so I was thankful for the truck despite the difficulty with parking down town. A good choice.  I left Laura with the gifts I”d ordered from Amazon which had thankfully arrived in time for Valentines.  We kissed. She went off to house and dog sitting.  I drove back across the city to the warmth of my home and my blind dog, Gilbert.   Gilbert and I walked the block at midnight. He seemed miffed that the snow had covered the messages of friends.
Finally in bed, the expresso I have at shows to avoid snoring, inevitably keeps me awake later.  I was looking forward to the Canadian Sealy Posturpedic Mattress I’d ordered from the Hudson Bay. It was to arrive on Sunday.  Here I was on Valentine’s Day longing for my true love, bed, at my age.  A Sealy Posturpedic back mattress my Valentine’s Day gift to myself. Laura is excited that  she’ll be able to share the new firm King sized mattress with George, Gilbert and me next week.
 We loved Romeo and Juliet we really couldn’t related to the passion,poison, suicide and daggers. When we were younger for sure. But now the prospect of a Sealy Posturpedic mattress and a better sleep, that’s exciting. . I don’t suppose that would make a great theme for Ballet BC.  The whole idea of the new mattress is to reduce the movement in the night not increase it.
The mattress did arrive.  It was a trial for the young Pun Jab men, one of who showed me a picture of Trudeau and told me that he was going to help Khalistani separate. I supposed we were going to war with India.  Maybe  he’d teach the Khalistani how Quebec extorted billions from Canada by constant threat of separation.  I liked these guys though. Good workers.  Friendly.
I love my Indian friends here and so loved my time in Mumbai.  I certainly don’t want a war with India.  I just burned some incense I’d bought home from the Paramehansa Yogananda ashram outside San Diego. I’m so looking forward to going to the International Society of Addiction Medicine Conference in Delhi next year this time. Really I’m just envious of Justin Trudeau.  I’d like to take a week or two to go from the north to Goa and Kerala.  I’m covering in the clinic for my Indian doctor whose home is Goa. As a good son he’s dutifully visiting family.
These two fine strong gentleman had their work cut out getting the king size mattress through the smaller doors. I thanked them for their efforts before they headed off for another delivery.  I’d had to get out the screw driver and make room so finally the mattress was seated.  Kaloo Kalay! He chortled in his joy.
When it was finished I was inspired to tidy vacuum, shake rugs and wash floors on my hands and knees.  A new Sealy Posturpedic mattress deserves a good clean home.  George, the cat had bolted into deep hiding when the mattress had come. I’d put Gilbert in the back room.  He whined. Now the two were out of sorts with all the vacuuming and cleaning. Gilbert and George think everything below knee level is their domain. Gilbert was especially annoyed  that I was moving his toys. At first opportunity he got some out and spread them about the living room.
I then made the great bed.  New mattress cover. New clean King Size Sheets. Duvet.  Electric blanket. Hudson Bay Point Blanket, this year's much loved  Christmas gift from my sister in law and nephews. .  I helped Gilbert up on the bed and we both tested it. George is still suspicious of new things.  Gilbert and I loved it.
Now I’ve slept in it and though the firmness results in tingling in my fingers I’m hoping the new Water Pillow will reduce the neck flexion and eventually all will be well. I love the support on my back and waking this morning less stiff with less pain. I think I love the ballet as the mental images teach my resistant body of what it’s supposed to do. Of course I was a dancer once.  I once did such moves, I  lifted up lithe ladies over my head so they could swan on my shoulder. Ah those were the days.  Now I long for aSealy Posturpedic.

Ballet BC Program 2 Queen Elizabeth Theatre

Both Laura and I are getting over spring colds.  Vancouver is experiencing  dreariness with ugly rain holding back the coming of the sun.  If it weren’t for season’s tickets to the ballet neither of us would have got off the couch and escaped from the tv to culture.  It never seems like a good idea getting dressed but history has proven over and over again that an evening of Ballet BC is an uplifting intriguing consciousness raising event. It even puts a smile on my face. Curmudgeon that age is making me.

And true to form this ballet did.  The  Queen Elizabeth Theatre is  a bright oasis.  Tonight  the young women were truly gala in the latest fashions.  Marvellous dresses and splendid shoes. I like best the gaggles of the  early teens with their aunt or dance instructor mentor  all fluttering and vibrant. But tonight it was the 20 year olds looking truly mysterious and captivating.  The young men in jackets and fancy shirts and well scrubbed faces were there as well.  

There is always the older crowd. Fewer tonight  compared to the surge of youthful enthusiasm with it’s obvious appreciation of excellence. Us older folk are main stay.  The City set.  Very uptown.  Banyan Books meets Nordstrom crowd.  Uniquely Vancouver.  But this night seemed mostly for the young and beautiful people. My favourite place in the whole world for people watching is the Ballet.

 Queen Elizabeth really is a fine little theatre.  Not the Lincoln Centre by any means.  Neither is it shabby.   I like the seats and the view.  I like too when Emily Molnar comes on stage and briefly describes the coming show. I was miffed though she didn’t mention St. Patrick.  There was however a swath of green dresses and jackets in the audience.  I was wearing my patch vest from Dublin.  Laura looked divine in her Ivanka. 

When the lights went down, the Anthem choreographed by Lisa Gelly and Josh Martin exploded on the stage, a minimalist background, with functional costumes,  a plethora of new moves and impossible bodies reached out to meet the industrial music of Colin Stetson, Sarah Neufeld, Ginzburg and Purgus. It was something never considered possible and yet it worked all together as one, a most incredible explanation of space and sound emotionally explored by human.  I truly loved the piece.  A World Premiere and somehow especially 2017.

I love watching individual dancers. I’ve known Alexis Fletcher, Peter Smida, Rachel Prince, Rachel Meyers and Gilbert Small now for several seasons so truly appreciate their interpretations and sophistication.  Each night a dancer might capture my attention as tonight Nicole Ward and Brandon Alley stood out for me.  It’s the troop though that astonishes,, like a flock of birds moving together in ultimate unison.  

I loved Swan, choreography by Wen Wei Wang,  music from Swan Lake, Alexis Fletcher and Kirsten Wicklund sublime and Christoph von Reideman, Andrew Bartee, Gilbert Small and Peter Smida so strong and robust.  Combinations and permutations so very modern and refined. Such a tableau of exquisite form.  Robson Street and Davie.  Kate Burrows costume design rippled.

The audience loved the Lesly Telford composition, “If I were 2” , an exploration of narcissism, especially the young people. A dance duet by Emily Chessa and Brandon Alley set to the words of Barbara Adler sounding like a poem played by nightclub turntable.  It wasn’t my cup of tea, like  the other time they brought a painter on stage.  I just wish for Nutcracker at such times despite my overall joy of the contemporary.  

But then as always Ballet BC redeemed itself  with the especially intimate Solo Echo choreographed by Crystal Pite to the beautiful music of Brahms.   It actually had me crying and laughing at the same time as the dancers together reminded me of the otters holding onto each through the night at Vancouver Aquarium or at other times they became like a mob of inquisitive meerkats.  I’ve never seen the like of it in all my years of ballet attendance such an original work of humans holding to each other, letting go and finding one another, then holding together as a group or family or community. Such delicacy and love.  The tablleaus of human forms were mesmerizing.  

The audience really loved it and we all leapt to our feet to give the performers a well deserved standing ovation. Then we funnelled back out to cars and taxis and the less dreary still raining city of Vancouver.  I even had a little bounce in my step.  

 

Ballet BC Program 3, May 2016

"I and I and you” was choreographed by Jorma Elo to the music of Bach.  At first there was disorganization with dancers taking on grotesque inhuman shapes that at times reminded me of the frogs I pithed in the science lab. It was jarring and unaesthetic to my taste yet the music was divine.  Then slowly the most amazing transformation occurred as the dance became more elegant and orderly. The pas de dieux were traditional. The harsh softened into the lyrical and the piece ended with resolution of conflict and celebration of movement and dance.  A truly wonderful performance
At intermission the doors to the outdoor patio were opened so we could wander outside in the centre of Vancouver looking out at the CBC building and up at the half moon in the sky. As always the audience out did itself with studied fashion, a whole range of avant garde designer ward robes.  I can’t say it enough but "people watching" at Ballet BC is the very best fun in Vancouver. What a collection of characters and definitely some of the usual suspects.
"16 + a Room” choreographed by Emily Molnar in collaboration with artists of Ballet BC to the music composed and arranged by Dirk P. Haubrich was in stark contrast to the first piece.  “We are all being shot backwards and forwards on this plain to make a pattern” quotation of Virginia Woolf accompanied the piece.  Harsh, bleak and Kaffkaesque the dancers seemed trapped in a prison like space with an individual holding a sign, “This is the beginning”.  This seemed like a bit of hope juxtaposed with what seemed at times to be Dante’s Hell.  As the sense of a New York street, the urban anomie came through the performance, “This is the beginning” seemed more a curse. Then the lighting and sound effects took on a flavour of helicopters and war.  I thought of the UN’s Agenda 21 with the aim to round up people in camps like the Pol Pot had,  in an attempt to protect holy mother earth from human infestation.  Dancers fleed from side to side but there seemed only the tangled space of encroaching borders and a new sign as equally enigmatic, “This is not the end”. The curtain closed.
Applause and more applause.  “That’s what I like,” said a young man beside me at the coffee bar where I was buying chocolate to sweeten the experience, “Intense,” he said "I liked the intensity of that piece”.  It was definitely intense I thought contemplating suicide.
My companion laughed when I said I could use with a little Swan Lake about now.  
Emily Molnar ensured we got something more and together all of the program made an organic whole
“Bill" was a Canadian premiere but first performed by the Batsheva Dance Company. Choreography was by Sharon Eval, born in Jerusalem, and Gai Behar of Tel Aviv. The music was by Ori Lichtik.
A single male dancer in white strutted almost smaltzilly across the stage. The music was East European Middle Eastern and each move of the dancer’s body was unique display of peacock finery.  As more dancer’s came on stage there was a shifting of music to increasing drums. At one point the dancers seemed like a collection of prehistoric birds calling cries to one another as they congregated. Again they transformed to a tribal grouping.  I found myself thinking of Africa.   Amazing choreography.  So much for the eye.  A group moving in ritual here while another combination of dancers erupted off to the side as three or more interpreted the music centre stage, layers upon layers with individuals flying off to the sides only to coalesce in the amazing drum beat.  A primitive chief arose, then it was as if Basheba had graced the stage.  Ancient movements of utter sensuality contrasting with the rhythmic abrupt frenzied patterns danced in the background. It was a kaleidoscope of dance that crescendoed to the falling of the curtain.
The whole audience erupted  in applause bursting to their feet with bravos and more. .  Bows and bows and more bows were made by the appreciative dancers. Everyone loved the piece.
What a wonderful night.
Outside I found my friend waxing poetic about the incredible emotional ride the collected works had provided. He especially loved the last one and was explaining the symbolism he saw to the beautiful young dancer who accompanied him.    We joined in, excited.  Voices entwining like dance.   It was all so novel, so visual and moving. Then we were laughing, parting, waving good byes and off to our cars.
What an incredible night at the Ballet.  Ballet BC, thank you.  Emily Molnar, Thank you.  Thank you to all of the dancers.

Ballet BC Program 2, 30th Anniversary Season.

I love Ballet BC.  Emily Molnar the artistic director brings a unique perspective to Vancouver. Ballet BC is  extraordinary  modern dance.  Every show I’m lifted out of the mundane into a different dimension where sound and movement mesh in specific and peculiar ways that expand my everyday seeing. Tonight’s two pieces by French choreographer Mehdi Walerski, Prelude and Natus, again did just that.  They were so different that were it not for the program I’d not have known they were by  the same choreographer. As ever the dancers were gifted and spectacular, hard half naked glistening contortionist bodies of elegance and discipline.
I loved the Prelude duet by Rachel Meyer and Scott Fowler.  Peter Smida playing the Man in Natus was everything from hilarious to hysterical.  “Where is the party?”  This line was  repeated through the dance in an almost Kafkesque way. The dancers moved rhythmically to a mixture of drums and words. The amazing set of distorted mirrors and burlesque lighting created a truly special space.
As the curtain closed, the audience burst forth in shouts of Bravo.  The cast bowed again and again as the standing ovation crescendoed.  What a truly culturally rich evening of unforgettable performances.  

Ballet BC 30th Anniversary Season

What a joyful evening! Ballet BC has again outdone itself.  No individual performance, not a single outstanding piece de resistance tonight. Just simple grace of the whole with amazing choreography, lighting, set, music and voice. The ensemble was the thing. A fluid alive pulsating spectacular wonder of dance, bodies and minds melded with the beauty of theme, sound and silence.
Twenty eight thousand waves was whimsical yet deep, Choreographer Cayetano Soto  A touching piece of mastery.  The celebration of harmony in movement. Timing was everything. Everyone was there for each other.  On the mark.  Totally meditatively now.  An instant expanding in space with music touching soul.  A lovely moment by moment expression of form. Sufi-esque!
Awe was just that. Awe inspiring.   A world premiere.  The music and presence of world reknowned male vocal ensemble, Chor Leoni.  What a feast for eye and ear! A stupendous wedding of music, words, and dance.  Music of Janczak, Orff and Esenvalds with text of Leonard Cohen. Sheer brilliance.  A wonderful collaboration, Ballet BC and Chor Leoni.  Heavenly and Angelic.  I loved the interpretation.  Stijn Celis, Choreographer.  Erick Lichte, music director.  I feel truly blessed to have been there tonight. I could have gone home after seeing Awe and been simply fulfilled. A true dance and music extravaganza.
But then there was also Solo Echo. Choreographer, Crystal Pite.  The set design of Jay Gower Taylor and lighting by Tom Visser was the blessed backdrop to a dance of wisdom and spirituality.   The quote from Cayetano Soto in the program read, “I always find myself captivated by the thin line between life and death.”  The set and dance together spoke to this timeless space filling it with art and beauty. I was transfixed.  I simply loved this piece. The dancers were magnificent.
I love all the Ballet BC dancers individually but the corp is organic.  Tonight it was all about the troop, pas de dieu, pas de trois, men and women exploring.  The whole a thing alive.    I believe its ever increasing creativity,  cohesiveness and oneness reflects the visionary genius of artistic director,  Emily Molnar.
Of the dancers, Alexis Fletcher  is in her 11th season. I simply can’t get enough of her.  Every year I’ve watch her art grow. She is amazing.  Rachel Prince, 9 years with the company. stood out as well for me this night.  I loved too the maturity of Livonia Ellis dance interpretation. Now here 6 years,  I remember fondly her first season as if it were yesterday. Gilbert Small now in his 7th season is even more powerful today if such could be conceived.  Then Christoph von Riedman, in his second year,  shone  for me tonight. I love Rachel Meyers and Peter Smida is terrific.
The audience: intermission people watching has never been better.  Thank you young lady in the gold lame stilettos. Young man, your stylish and unique hair cut will definitely set a trend.  The model in that form fitting yellow dress  mesmerized her handsome partner.
But the best of all, this Vancouver audience collectively got it!   The volume of applause could challenge the theatres of New York and London.  There was that enthusiasm, appreciation and sophistication. The  packed  Queen Elizabeth Theatre, stood, clapping and cheering  fully appreciative of experiencing  culture in at it’s finest.  Thank you Ballet BC.  Thank you Chor Lioni.

Ballet BC No.29

Ballet BC has again out done itself in originality.   Choreographer Jacopo Godani’s A.U.R.A (Anarchist Unit Related to Art) was minimalist futuristic and almost birdlike inhuman. Movements and forms taken on by the dancers seemed nearly impossible as they flocked together then separated in pas de deux, retreat, primitive war like stances mixed with the elegant and otherworldly.  Truly explosive. The company of dancers were spectacular.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” my ballet loving friend John said during the intermission.   The music was 48nord.
White Act, a world premiere, choreographed by Fernando Hernando Magadan with music of Schubert arr. Mahler: 1st movement, Quartet #14 in d minor of Death and the Maiden, and Urmas Sisask was such a sweet work utterly different in style from the first.  Lovely white attired female dancers on point floated across the stage  while men dressed in what might have been prison grey writhed about them reaching out for the ephemeral. Sometimes they almost came together, the white clad ladies leaving the tradition for the modern.   This contrast of traditional and modern was incredible. The set design was a beautiful black and white photo of a wood land trail. A dancer  entered the art while mist poured across the stage.  It was magical. Gilbert Small, Perter Smida, Connor Gnam, Livona Ellis,Kirsten Wicklund,  Alexis Fletcher were for me, personally especially interpretative.  But the whole company was enchanting.
An Instant with choreography by Lesley Telford and music by Michael Gordon was again, so different and catching.  Rachel Meyer and Christopher von Riedeman held my eye.  Yet again the whole company was in the sync and flow of this unusually expressive surprising collective. The music and dance was hauntingly coupled with stark poetry.
I don’t know where the time went.  Emily Molnar, Artistic Director was announcing the evening’s ballets,  telling us of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet ’s Nutcracker at  Christmas , then it seemed we were all standing as the curtain rose after the final act.  The applause was resounding as the company took bow after bow and  and shouts of bravo rang out through the Queen E.
I had been a long day at the end of a very long week of clinic.  I’d feared I’d be too tired to stay awake.  Applauding, I felt alive in a way only the most finest  art can make one feel.  I was there with four friends.  We all were beaming.  Something special had transpired.  We’d been touched by the precious and magnificent. Such is the grace of dance.
outstanding and so rewarding evening.  

Ballet BC UN/A

I rode in on my Harley Electric Glyde wearing leather chaps and a red and black embroidered western shirt.  I was the only one at the ballet wearing a cowboy shirt and leathers and a Harley vest..  You have to get up pretty early to be an original dresser at the BC Ballet.  It's the best fashion venue anywhere in the city.  Very chic and elegant, with one guy in a cowboy shirt.  I got compliments, of course.
John and Chelsea arrived .  Chelsea had been in residence at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.  I told Chelsea I’d seen Baryshnikov at the Royal Winnipeg.  She was suitably impressed. I also dropped that I’d known Arnold Sporr. John’s friend is Karen Kain, former director of the National Ballet of Canada.  John’s heard me wax poetic about the Royal Winnipeg Ballet but he’s a National Ballet fan.  In Ballet circles we're kind of like a Toronto Maple Leaf fan talking to a Montreal Canadian Fan.  Following the analogy, the Ballet BC is kind of like the Canucks.  This year I was at the Canucks one great game and glad I had season’s tickets to the ballet given the Canucks showing in other games.  Ballet BC by comparison has had an extraordinary season.
I attribute Ballet BC’s amazing success to the Artistic Director, Emily Molnar.  The dancers are incredible, but I’m really really enjoying the diversity and originality that Molnar has encouraged in the choreography and dance.  It’s all so thoroughly professional as well.  Tonight’s performance was another truly spectacular evening of dance.
Three World Premiere’s. Twenty Eight Thousand Waves, by choreographer Cayetano Soto.  I simply loved it.  No individual dancer stood out for me but the troop was coordinated discords arranging and rearranging like a human kaleidoscope. I can’t recall seeing anything before  like this.
Lost and Seek choreographed by Gustavo Ramirez Sansano  was danced to the music of J.S. Bach, my favourite composer. I so appreciated this post modern dance with men in kilts, women in tight body suits and the contorted human asymmetries woven loosely into the complex mathematics of the master.  I felt the search, the lost and seek, each dancer’s individual and group expression.  Rachel Meyer danced sublimely.
Immix choreographed by Giocondo Barbuto was so individual yet combined with tableaux. The program notes described the ‘connect, integrate, meld, merge and mix …inherent …in Gabriel Prokofiev’s music’  And that’s what the dancers added  so well to.  As always I loved Alexis Fletcher’s dance.  Gilbert Small was just so powerful.
Tonight the troop amazed me, their collective angst and ability to work so thoroughly together.  The lighting was so simple but revolutionary, the costumes unique.
The standing ovations were loud.  And well deserved.  John and Chelsea and I had waxed poetic during intermission about the stupendous dance performance.  At the end we felt well sated as if we’d just been finest meal of rare art.
As I rode off into the Vancouver night I could feel my big motorcycle wanting to dance.

 

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.
 

Fumbling Towards Ecstacy - Alberta Ballet Nov. 14-16, 2013

Fumbling Towards Ecstacy, the Albert Ballet production with music by Sarah McLachlan was simply divine.  Emily Mohar, Ballet BC's executive director introduced the show.  Sarah MacLachlan, songstress extraordinare,  herself, was there.  The dancers were flawless. Talent and skills galore.  Choregrapher Jean Grand-Maitre's production was perfection.   I loved the movie background and creative costuming
I had brought my friend George. He's originally from Alberta.  A jazz musician, physician,  poet and great fan of Sarah's music.  It was his first ballet.  He loved it.  He admitted though,  he'd thought the Alberta Ballet might show hockey scores throughout the performance.  He also  made me promise I'd not tell his grandsons he'd been to the ballet.
It was another great Ballet night in Vancouver.  The Queen Elizabeth Theatre was packed.  We were all on our feet cheering when the Ballet company came back to bow. The audience clapped louder when Jean Grand Maitre was brought on stage.   When Sarah McLachlan joined,  the applause was epic.  

Ballet BC -Bliss

Laura and I enjoyed the Ballet BC performance Bliss. It was a world premiere by Montreal Choreographer Jose Navas. It was a neo classical peice with Mozart music, girls on endless point and robust men making flying leaps across the stages.  So unique in it's mixture of old and new styles it was almost baroque.  True genius in conception with the dancers performing brilliantly.
It was still light out when we arrived.  I was surprised at the spring 'skin' with ladies no longer wearing stockings, sandals and bare legs for all. We looked a pale lot rain tanned by Vancouver winter and only now breaking out in light cottons and spring frocks.  We found it hard to leave the outdoor deck chairs  this Saturday night.  The Ballet BC has a loyal following with seats packed despite no doubt drawing tonight's crowd from barbecues and beeches.
This was a grand and timely season finale. I look forward to next year's offering already having my Ballet BC season tickets.  I can't imagine how anyone survives Vancouver winters without Ballet BC.  The dancers always lighten the darkness and celebrate the body electric.

Ballet BC - Walking Mad

Another night at the Ballet BC! Three works: Walking Mad, a Canadian Premiere, by Johan Inger; Vitulaire, a World Premiere by Aszure Barton and 'between disappearing and becoming' a world premiere by Emily Molnar.  Emily Molnar, the Artistic Director of Ballet BC opened the night at Queen Elizabeth Theatre with enthusiasm and welcome.
"between disappearing and becoming'  was stark in blacks, whites and greys. The music was Hildur Gudnadottir. . The female dancers in black body suits and  ballet slippers on point moved like Swan Lake classics  in contrast to bare chested  men in suits powerfully striding.   The dance was an astonishing repetoire of unique moves, flowing and cascading across the stage.  The dance of the women captivated me most as they wove their bodies  in intricate tales of relational beauty.  The applause at curtain fall filled the theatre.
Vitulaire  show cased the music of Socalled, Stephen Hatfield, Brooklyn Rider, Dachev, Topferova and Tsvetkova. This was primal dance with folk roots and colourful gypsy costume.  What a joy to see Makailla Wallace and Alexis Fletcher dancing on stage together, two extraordinarily accomplished dancers whose every movement evokes music and rythmn! I loved the uplifting beat of this dance as the whole troop became tribal with irony. Guest artist Darren Devaney's gymnastic dance set a breakneck pace.   At intermission the audience seemed ready themselves to break out.  The applause was resounding.
Walking Mad with music from Ravel's  Bolero and Fur Alina was a thorough delight. Using a four doored folding wall as prop the dancers passed in and out of doors in party hats and bowlers careening  and carousing,  Gilbert Small,  Rachel Meyer,  Alyson Fretz and Maggie Forgerson individually danced with charm and grace amidst the departures and admissions.  So moved was the audience that the curtains fall brought the house to a standing ovation with calls of celebration as dancers bowed again and again and again.
The house was all but sold out.   Revitalized we left the theatre glad we'd braved the dark and cold rain.  Bliss,by Jose Navas,  the last Ballet BC performance of the season is May 10 to 12, when Vancouver's weather is made for a night on the town.

Ballet BC - Three Fold

Another sensational night at the ballet.  Diversion by Robert Glumbeck was original and intriguing with extraordinary modern dance.  Walter Matteini's Parole Sospese was downright weird in the best of way. Right out there.  Existential wonderland.  Simone Orlando's Doppeling was retro at it's finest.  Normally I'm simply enthralled by Maikalla Wallace, Alexis Fletcher, Dario Dinuzzi,  and Gilbert Small.  I love the wisdom of their experienced dance interpretation. Yet tonight all the members of the company stood out.  Rachel Meyer was so fresh, Andrea Pena passionate and Alyson Fretz sophisticated in a particularly European way.  Connor Gnam and Alexander Burton were particularly outstanding.  Rachel Prince, Peter Smida, Maggie Fogeron, Livona Ellis, Jed Duifhuis, Chisto Ide, Daniel Marshalsay, and Darren Devaney all were a delight. I'm sorry I can't put faces to names with some of the older and some of newer members because all their pas de deux, leaps and lifts deserved individual mention after tonights superb dance performance.  I truly think that Bach would love what Simone Orlando did for his timeless music. Kate Burrows, Linda Chow and Ina Broeckx's costume designs were genius. Artistic Director Emily Molnar continues to inspire. We are truly blessed by her and Executive Director, Jay Rankin's vision.  Tonight Fasken Martineau was celebrated as Season Sponsor.

Fusion Lunch with Mark

It was good to see Mark again.  He was young, healthy and handsome as ever.  An entertaining conversationalist, he was a delight to share a meal with and catch up on years gone by.  I'll never forget his help raising money to keep my office open at one time while he also worked tirelessly with charity foundations to rainse money for underpriviledged youth.  He was in town for the Rhinestone Phoenix Charity Foundation fund raiser pageant, the annual crowning of Mr. and Ms. Gay Vancouver.
I was sorry I missed this as it's been an annual occasion for me.  I'd have so enjoyed mingling again with MLA's, the Mayor and all the paparazzi that are drawn to this community dress up event. One west coast wit called it the prime celebrity event for gowns and tails 'with emphasis on tails', he chuckled.
Mark caught me up on the activities of Lighthouse of Hope, now meeting at St. Margarets  as well as having hospital services.  Mark and my friendship began in our church affiliation and love of Christ.  Mark was closely involved with Pastor Dylan's inspirational mission when we met and he came to work with me. Since he returned to Alberta where his family is, he's continued his Christian ministry.  He's also studying for social work and had just had lunch with our mutual phd friend, Barbara, both of us encouraging his natural healing talents.  He's continued connected with the Haven, hoping to complete their counselling training as well.
A talented writer, he was researching male sexual abuse , especially in the church and family, as a book project   I encouraged him to contact Ben Nuttall Smith whose new book "Secrets Kept, Secrets Told"  was about this very issue.  He remembered Ben from scheduling my attendances at  the Canadian Author's Association.
Still single, he said, "I don't have time." Yet, he and friends had made  time to spend half the night of Halloween a couple of years back helping me move my apartment to storage and my expeditionary gear onto the sailboat.  How many times have people told Mark he must make time for himself rather than burning the candle at both ends helping others.
I told him about Ballet BC's bringing the Alberta Ballet here to do Love Lies Bleeding, the extravaganza production based on Elton John's life and music.
Talking with Mark I remembered the CBC interview of Alberta's new premier Alison Redford who had mocked an Ontario newspaper heralding her election as evidence of Alberta finally joining civilization.  Premier Alison Redford went onto say that Ontario had a long way to go to catch up with the Alberta whose citizens had long been at the cutting edge of culture, society and change.  As an Albertan, Mark certainly was his own man.  I couldn't help but think that given his diversity of interest but ever guiding Christian influence he represented the new life that Redford spoke of comparing the vitality of the west with the oftimes stifling stodginess of the east.
Shaking hands we parted, he to a plane flying east, and me back to my eastside Vancouver clinic.

Dinner at Athenes

As usual the lamb was delicious.  We discussed the seminal work of Ferenzi, the new atypicals contribution to mood therapy, the effect of premature ejaculation on women, and the success of his family. He'd just attended a performance of the National Ballet. His friend Karen Kain had introduced him to Emily Molnar.  "I really am enjoying what she is doing for Ballet BC," I said.  We moved on to talk Of Mice and Men, the play he'd enjoyed performed at the Stanley.
We talked of motorcycles some. and the True Grit remake. "I've always loved westerns," he said.  Not surprising given his love of horses.  I told him about my cowboy uncle.  Together we laughed at the New Yorker cover of Steven Jobs. We both heard his remarkable speech 6 years before when he'd thought he had the cancer beaten.
Discussing lapses of memory I told him.,  "I couldn't remember my past lives at all." I suspected he didn't remember when he'd been ruller of the universe either.
As I was leaving I told him that people would think all we'd talked about was women and sports.  And in a way, I guess, we did.

Ballet BC - Elton John

Tonight's ballet was a one in a million.  Emilene Molnar, artistic director of Ballet BC, welcomed Alberta Ballet to Vancouver. "Love Lies Bleeding"choreography and libretto by Jean Claude Maitre , featuring music of Sir Elton John and Bernie Taupin was a resounding success. Costume Design by Martine Bertrand was way over the top, just the way Elton would have liked it. Set design by Guaillame Lord was equally spectacular.  With all the glitz, verve and downright sexy show biz, the incredible form and style of the impressive dancers still shone through. "Rocket Man" was my favourite but then I've loved always loved the song. The  choreography and starlit dance  added a whole new dimension to my appreciation of the genius of Elton John and Taupin.  I'm sure the pas de dieux of two men was the most elegant I've seen in modern ballet.  I was almost in tears at the performance of "Someone saved my life tonight" It's a show not to miss. Packed audience tonight but another night to go with a few seats left.

http://www.balletbc.com/loveliesbleeding.html

Ballet BC 25th Anniversary Celebration

Ballet BC 25th Anniversary Celebration with Ballet BC and The Turning Point Ensemble with Conductor Owen Underhill is playing April 14 to 16 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Tonight was a rare treat. Artistic Director Emily Molnar opened the evening with thanks to the founders Jean Orr, David Y. H. Lui, Sheila Baggs, and present executive producer, Jay Rankin, the sponsors, contributors and audience.
4 original Canadian productions.. Les chercheurs de dieu choreographed by Serge Bennathan opened powerfully with a hint of whimsical.  The Turning Point Ensemble on stage participating with dancers silouetted in a night of magnificent lighting and costume.  I was moved, captivated, enthralled.  Dance and sound joined in heavenly wonder with moments of sheer profundity. Donald Sales and Makaila Wallace with all the dancers touched my very soul.
In Motion with choreographer Wen Wei Wang with music by Owen Underhill, Geometry of Harmoney filled the stage with big body movement of dancers together but little hand movements fluttering in the light.  Contemporary music and contemporary dance living and breathing as one. I love the dance of Leon Feizo Gas.
Moth, choreographed by Donald Sales spoke to loss with candelight and grief. Costumes in black and red.  Dancers Livona Ellis, Shannon Ferguson, Maggie Forgeron, Delphine Leroux, Peter Smida and Makaila Wallace.
Finally, Touch, choreographed by Gioconda Barbuto, music Anthony Genge, The Human Condition.  Alexis Fletcher, Gilbert Small, Rachel Prince were outstanding as were all the dancers.  15 dancers at least in the company, participating together, en mass, alone and as pas de deuxs..
The applause was enormous.  Yet somehow no standing ovation, not that the night did not deserve one but because we  all seemed mesmerized.. It was a magical evening of truly professional performance that left us feeling moved andthoughtful.  Throughout the year we've ushered from the theatre laughing at times, talking loudly about the brilliance of Ballet BC, delighted by the performances and grateful to be among the beautiful people at this greatest of gala events. Tonight, with the season ending, there was sadness, such a perfect season of incredible breadth and charm  had hardly been imaginable after the trials of the previous year.
Time to buy seasons tickets for next year. Without seasons tickets I would miss so many wonderful shows because frankly on Friday night or Saturday in the winter rain and cold It would be so much easier to stay home and watch tv.  With seasons tickets I'm moved to go, the decison made.   Vancouver is a richer more cultured and complete experience thanks to Ballet BC.  I lose myself in amazement at the sculptured sensations of movement and elegance..

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Ballet BC

March 18 -19, 2011, Ballet BC presents the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Judith Jamison Artistic Director.  Emily Molnar, Artistic Director of Ballet BC opened tonight's unforgettable evening  welcoming  the Alvin Ailley African American troupe as part of Ballet BC's 25 Anniversary Season.  Emily Molnar graciously put  in a plug for this season's  last performance of Ballet BC next month with Canada's chamber orchestra, Turning Point Ensemble.
Then the curtain rose to the spectacular opening number, "Memoria" , dedicated to joy,  with Alvin Ailley's unique modern dance.  Such long limbed women and powerfully muscled men.  "Cry" choreographed by Alvin Ailley, celebrated black women everywhere.  The Hunt choreographed by Robert Battle was stylized  primal male tribal dance that had the audience leaping to their feet with resounding applause.   Tall people with high lifts and long leaps.  "Revelations," from 1960,  Gospel music and a history of black women and men in dance in the American south was a story in magnificent movement  Costumes, lighting, dance, everything was truly splendid.  It was an exhilerating experience.
Two or three decades back, I first saw Alvin Ailley American Dance Theater perform in Winnipeg. I never forgot that glorious night and often spoke of it.  Seeing tonights performance I understood why it so moved me that first time. It still does today.