Ballet BC, Program 3

Ballet BC, Program 3 was by far the best ballet of the season. All three pieces were spectacular.
 "Beginning After” , Choreographed by Cayetano Soto, with music of Handel  was physically inconceivable.  The dancers seemed otherworldly in their movements. The parts and the whole in harmony with the music. Soto’s dance is Daliesque in motion. I love Cayetano Soto’s choreography. It’s the most original and inspirational I’ve seen in recent times.  It’s authenticity and unique interpretation of the human spirit through dance is so uplifting.
“when you left’ choreographed by Emily Molnar was so utterly different from all that has gone before.  The music of Peteris Vasks: Plainscape was performed by the Phoenix Chamber Choir under the direction of Grame Langager. When we stood to cheer and applaud at the end of this remarkable piece we saw all the smiling happy faces of this gifted choir in the orchestra pit .  This piece amazed me for it’s modernity and abstract birdlike flocking flow so reminiscent of classical with it’s  elegance of form.  But where Soto brings to mind Salvador Dali, this Molnar piece was reminiscent of Klimt.
I loved Bill.  Bill was the choreography of Sharon Eyal and Gai Bhear, first performed in 2010 by the Batsheva Dance Company .Music by Ori Lichtik. I’d seen Bill once before and loved it.  Reminiscent of Paul Gauguin I thought it the most amazing tribal post apocalypse interpretation. The drums and white bodies  and that Monty Python funny walk  was all so chorus like in the song of creation.  I found myself outside trying but failing to repeat that inconceivably simple looking impossible walk  such a  complex rhythmic repetition around which the whole community of dance and song revolved. Outside others were doing the same. I don’t recall seeing this before, though of course,  some of it had to do with this being Spring.  There were just so many of the audience dancing and imitating different bits they’d loved from the show in front of the old Queen E. It was wonderful.
The Ballet BC dancers are all the best.I’ve loved Alexis Fletcher for ever, even bidding  this night on a silent auction black and white photograph of her captured  in leaping flight  Livona Ellis and Rachel Meyer and Rachel Prince, , Christoph Von Riedemann and Peter Smida all stood out for me tonight.  But I love them all and a different one just shines a little brighter in different performances, all so professional.  Professional remains a designation of meritocracy. In contrast to the values of mediocrity, the professional is not uniform but unique in that the skills consistently rise above an impossible level which an amateur might only attain on rare occasion.   Even the apprentices tonight were memorable with Justin Calvadores and  Parker Finley’s dance being noteworthy to me.  I find myself watching an individual then looking to see who they were.  I noticed these delightful new folk whereas Nicole Ward , Kirsten Wicklund, Gilbert Small, and Patrick Kilbane are names I’ve come to know and faces I’ve come to recognise.  But they’re all superb.  If this were hockey we'd speak of Brandon Alley and Andrew Bartee as the Sabines or Emily Chess and Kiera Hill as ‘all stars’.  Zander Constant and Shanna Wolfe have joined the big leagues
But its dance and the audience didn’t dress like Walmart. Intermission was a feast for the eyes in terms of haute coiffure.  The shoes, the shoes, the shoes! the ladies exclaimed.  I loved the men in gold lame jackets and the lithe and sensuous ladies in long  spring gowns. So many of the young had perfect dancer bodies whereas some of us who danced compared out girth and reminisced nostalgically about times when we moved liked cats and leaped liked lions.  it was a great night.  Laura and I shared it with our friends Lorne and Justine.  After all the standing ovations we ourselves couldn’t stop singing the praises of the dancers and choreographers..  Ballet BC is just so vital.

BC Ballet Program 1

BC Ballet’s Program 1 show cased the works of our resident choreographer Cayetano Soto.  I love the ballet and especially love the beautiful people who attend the ballet. This was no different with as usually the best dressed folk of Vancouver stood about chatting in the foyer lounge before the show began.
The works tonight were impressive and enjoyable with interesting choices of music and constumes.  Obviously Cayetano Soto is an accomplished choreographer I thought as the evening progressed, the dancers as usual, simply incredible.
But that last work. I’ve attended ballets for 50 years and I’ve seen nothing like it.  Utterly delightful, incredibly original.  It reminded me of the first time I saw the works of Martha Graham and  Alvin Ailey. Here was the very best of modern and contemporary dance.  But I also couldn’t help but think of the work of Paddy Stone’s, such popular work, so engaging with the audience.  Sometimes modern dance like modern art can be self absorbed but then along comes someone like Cayetano Soto who truly delights in pleasing his audience.  To say there was standing applause is an understatement. The audience roared.  Later I said to Laura, that one performance alone was worth the season’s tickets.  It was the most unusual performance I’ve seen in decades.  What would one call that, “John Travolta channels Mr. Bean on a Mediterranean set by Monty Python?”
Like every one else leaving we were beaming. The ballet had definitely uplifted us. We had been touched by genius and knew it.  Thank you BC Ballet and especially thank you Cayetano Soto.
 

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.