To celebrate the company’s 30th anniversary, Ballet BC is returning to The Banff Centre on Saturday, (Nov. 21) to perform three new works from three of the world’s leading contemporary choreographers – Solo Echo by Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite, Awe by Belgian-born Stijn Celis and Twenty Eight Thousand Waves by Cayetano Soto.
The three choreographers are pushing the boundaries of contemporary ballet and will share their unique and personal artistic visions.
Pite’s recent work includes Electric Company Theatre’s Betroffenheit, which previewed at The Banff Centre before premiering at the Toronto 2015 Pan Am and Parapan Am Games. Recently, Soto, a Barcelona-born artist, was named Ballet BC’s resident choreographer. His work is in the repertoire of major companies around the world.
“I am especially proud of the forward momentum the company has achieved over the past six years,” said Ballet BC artistic director Emily Molnar, “and this season will be no exception. This coming year we have much to celebrate as our passionate and talented company of dancers has earned accolades both at home and on the international stage.”
Ballet BC has commissioned more than 30 new works since 2009 and to celebrate the milestone and anniversary, the company has collaborated and partnered with Vancouver’s finest artists and arts organizations.
“This includes vocal ensemble Chor Leoni in a world premiere by Stijn Celis, a Canadian premiere by Crystal Pite and a dynamic cross-disciplinary commission with the Contemporary Art Gallery, among others,” Molnar said. “The first piece you’re going to see on the program is called Twenty Eight Thousand Waves by our new resident choreographer Cayetano Soto and it’s a work he actually made for us in 2014. Ballet BC is a contemporary ballet company, but it’s also a creation-based company, which means most of the work we do are new pieces.
“For a large size mixed repertoire, a company might do maybe two new pieces a year, and we sometimes do nine,” Molnar said. “We put a lot of attention into the creating of an idea; for us, the act of making the work is as important as performing it and we work with collaborators from all over the world.”
The Banff Centre event is “very much representative of what we do, which is we have a very international conversation; but, of course, we are ambassadors of Canadian talent. “
Molnar added Soto does all his own lighting and costume design, as well as the choreography to obtain a fully realized artistic idea.
Awe recently had its world premiere with Ballet BC. “We worked with Chor Leoni, a 50-member, male vocal ensemble and probably one of the leading male vocal ensembles in North America,” Molnar said. “We worked with them live in Vancouver, but the recording you’ll hear in Banff includes all of them, and there are three different composers, it’s a cappella and there’s a strength and a softness to their voices.”
The last piece is presented by Canadian choreographer Pite, who is a former member of Ballet BC and William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt, and now has her own company, Kidd Pivot. Pite is the recipient of The Banff Centre’s Clifford E. Lee Award (1995), the Bonnie Bird North American Choreography Award (2004), and the Isadora Award (2005).
“As part of our 30th anniversary I wanted to celebrate people who have come through the company and become incredibly successful and Crystal made this piece called Solo Echo. It was made for a very famous company in Holland called Nederlands Dans Theatre,” Molnar said.
“She made it in 2012, and we’re the first dance company outside of that company to ever perform it.” It includes the works of Brahms (Allegro Non Troppo opus 38, E minor and Adagio Affettuoso opus 99, F major), and is in part based upon a poem by Mark Strand, called Lines of Winter.
