Ballet BC triple bill is a captivating Center debut

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE the boldness of Canadians. For an example, just look at Ballet BC. Daring and innovative, its distinctive style and collaborative approach have made the company a hotbed for the creation and performance of new works. The company makes its Center debut June 3 for one night only.

Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Ballet BC is an internationally acclaimed contemporary ballet company that is a leader and resource in the creation, production, and education of contemporary dance. Nearly 40 years after it was founded, the company embraces the wide diversity of technique and style in contemporary ballet, honoring its roots and components, while also creatively pushing the limits of dance.

The Center’s engagement will feature three pieces. Garden uses Camille Saint-Saëns’ Quintet in A minor, Op. 14. The work has a prominent piano line and the classical music is a strong counterpoint to the contemporary dance. Dancers engage in duets, quartets, and larger ensembles as they interact with the music.

The second piece is another work that features a large group of dancers but is very different. Bedroom Folk “… contemplates movement through a darker lens,” says criticaldance.org. “Intense and erratic physicality, heightened by the pulsing sounds of Israeli DJ Ori Lichtik, reduces motion to automation and dehumanization.”

“Setting its … black-clad dancers against a glowing orange-red background, it has never looked more like a strange and hallucinogenic nighclub rite,” says creatastir.ca. “The group jerks, squats and shuffles to the relentless beats.” Bedroom Folk has created something opposite to the fluid movements of Garden. The dancers may look, at times, like gawky teens, but it is completely mesmerizing as the dancers assemble and pull apart, attack one another or rescue a dancer who in turn creates more conflict. It could be the end of the world, danced exquisitely.

In Statement, choreographer Crystal Pite uses words, rather than music, to guide the dancers. The result is hypnotic. Imagine an office boardroom with a large table and four people discussing how to handle a company-caused catastrophic disaster. Instead of music, voices verbalize the situation while the dancers stalk each other around the table, “dancing” this bureaucratic story in extraordinary ways. “The text is pieced together with an elaboration of everyday communication gestures and moves,” says criticaldance.org. “Tilted heads, hunched backs and pleading arms…” The dancers seem to fill the stage as the story unfolds and participants blame each other, but who will survive to return to their desks, and who will be packing their boxes?

As this program clearly demonstrates, Ballet BC embraces the wide diversity of technique and style in contemporary ballet, honoring its roots while also creatively pushing the limits of dance. Ballet BC excites choreographers, dancers and audiences alike.

SEGERSTROM HALL

June 3 | Tickets start at $29

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