Blending blues and ballet

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This article was published 29/03/2019 (2662 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“B” stands for ballet, band, buzz, blue jeans and beer. All of the above were starring players as the Royal Winnipeg Ballet opened its three-performance run of Ballet & the Band Thursday, marking its inaugural production at the Club Regent Event Centre.

The 135-minute program (with two intermissions) featured a trio of contemporary works including two world premières choreographed by RWB School Professional Division alumni, Jera Wolfe and Larouche (also a former company dancer, who uses only his surname professionally), with the latter harnessing the raw talent of Winnipeg roots band the Bros. Landreth. The troupe also treated the near capacity, multi-generational crowd to Mark Godden’s Miroirs, last performed during the RWB’s retrospective show Our Story in November 2018.

Larouche’s Next of Kin examines the intergenerational impact of addiction, with the contemporary, 35-minute ballet depicting the generically titled, 20-something Brother (second soloist Liam Caines) “battling addiction since his teens,” his Husband (second soloist Ryan Vetter) and Sister (soloist Alanna McAdie). The Winnipeg-based choreographer seamlessly integrates the onstage band with the full company, including having individual dancers subtly moving microphone stands for the two real-life brothers from St. Boniface: guitarist Joey Landreth and bassist Dave Landreth, who appeared like kids in a candy shop.

It bears mentioning that these guys are the real deal as rising Canadian stars. They garnered a Juno Award for their 2013 debut album Let it Lie, and their sophomore release, ’87, is slated for this fall. Their molten, sublimely blended vocals nearly upstaged the dancers several times, with the siblings joined by drummer Daniel Roy and keyboardist Liam Duncan.

Ballet is arguably at its best when it delves into the tangles of human relationships. Larouche creates an effective dynamic between Caines and Vetter, particularly compelling during their series of always fascinating male pas de deux that took advantage of the two men’s physical prowess and natural athleticism, including some tricky lifts grounded in trust.

Kudos also to McAdie as Brother’s hearing-impaired Sister, who sensitively communicates via American Sign Language to Brother (with Joey’s partner, Anna Salgado positioned downstage also signing the song lyrics to the audience), reflecting the musical brothers’ strong allegiance to the deaf community, while respectfully embedding this other reality into the work without making it a prime focus (as with the same-sex marriage between characters). Another nod goes to Vetter for his own lyrical solo that bleeds into a duet with Caines.

An ensemble of Female Ancestors and Male Ancestors function ostensibly as a Greek chorus, although their role in the narrative is never really clear. And truthfully, the ballet’s content warning regarding the perils of addictions and self-harm was befuddling, with the work often appearing overtly tame and, in fact, underdeveloped; its own storyline obfuscated with this single viewing that nonetheless elicited loud cheers and a standing ovation from the rapt crowd.

Still, it’s refreshing to see these clearly committed dancers give their all and portray more realistic, grittier characters than storied princesses and swans — as delightful as those characters are — lending a wholly contemporary feel and proving again that this centuries-old art form can still pack a topical punch.

Similarly, Wolfe’s Bare is another ballet of great potential, set to Luke Howard’s Open Heart Story that examines the masks people wear in society. It begins with a cluster of dancers huddled on the floor garbed in costume designer Alena Zharska’s dark pants and beige tops (and fashionable in ballet circles these days, soft socks) that heightens their vulnerability by creating the illusion of greater skin-to skin contact, dramatically lit by Marc Gagnon.

An abundance of unison movement became more visually intriguing when dancers broke into smaller ensembles that added polyphonic texture, as well as more hills and valleys in terms of emotional tone. However, Wolfe — noted as being of Métis heritage and a choreographer, performer and associate artist with Toronto’s Red Sky Performance — also creates several moments of brilliant beauty. Seeing principal dancer Sophia Lee, whose stealthy, panther-like stretching of her limbs enthralled during each of her solos, flipped upside down and tossed like a tumbleweed over the ensemble’s heads elicited open gasps from the viewers, with the entire 20-minute work resonating as a haunting voyage into the inner self.

Finally, Godden’s Miroirs, commissioned by the company in 1995, unfolds as five highly imagistic movements infused with the RWB’s first resident choreographer’s darkly dramatic esthetic and architectural sensibility.

Highlights included Lee and corps de ballet member Tyler Carver’s pas de deux as troubled birds in Oiseaux Tristes, and the wonderfully kinetic Noctuelles, or Une Barque sur L’Ocean. McAdie, soloist Josh Reynolds and corps de ballet member Stephan Azulay reprised their trio from last season, La Vallee des Cloches, including the wonderful trompe d’oeil in which McAdie wildly swings between Reynolds’ and Azulay’s taut arms like a joyous, pealing bell.

Let this go on record: When (or seemingly if) soloist Yosuke Mino, who joined the company in 2002, ever hangs up his ballet slippers for good, may he perform his Alborada del Gracioso solo as his final swan song. This dynamo bounded about the stage like a strappy 20 year old, including explosive leaps as a even more fleshed-out jester, clutching a large white feather quill pen and furled up scroll that evokes forbidden fruit of knowledge. His thrilling performance was a testament to the youthful spirit of this company now poised to celebrate its 80th anniversary season.

Holly.harris@shaw.ca