Dizzying, dazzling dance

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This article was published 25/03/2022 (1650 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s a puzzler why it’s taken nearly 30 years to see the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s latest incarnation of its once annual popular Fast Forward showcase of cutting-edge, contemporary choreography, last offered live during the 1990s, with a digital version presented last spring.

Presumably, COVID-19 related lockdowns and the lack of touring opportunities since March 2020 have allowed these dancers the kind of hothouse experience required to create new works inspired by each other “off the clock.”

The three-performance run being held at the RWB Founders’ Studio until Sunday features five eclectic works, including four company world-premières; the Free Press was invited to a sneak peek Thursday night.

The program also includes a moving performance of Verbovaya Doshechka by RWB principal conductor Julian Pellicano on accordion, joined by his violinist wife Momoko Matsumura. All proceeds from the show are being donated to the Ukrainian Humanitarian Appeal, established by the Canada-Ukraine Foundation and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, in light of the current crisis in Ukraine.

The 90-minute program blasts off with the world première of Guillaume Côté’s Phi, the RWB choreographic debut of this acclaimed National Ballet of Canada principal dancer/choreographic associate. The dazzling, hyperkinetic combustion of movement exploring the “beauty of fractals” is heightened further by Antoine Bedard’s driving, percussive score.

Not since the company threw sparks during Twyla Tharp’s white-hot In the Upper Room in 2011 have we seen these dancers really move like this, as if releasing all the pent-up energy of being sidelined from live performance. In fact, this show marks the first time the RWB has performed publicly in this intimate venue since November 2017 with Our Story.

Performing en pointe and in skin-tight bodysuits, the company fearlessly executes Côté’s intricate, angular movement vocabulary, including flashes of breakdancing — choreographed entirely via Zoom from the artist’s Toronto studio — with poker-straight limbs, in this dizzying kaleidoscope of mercurially shifting patterns.

The RWB, like most arts organizations these days, is expanding its programming to highlight greater cultural diversity. From RWB School alumnus and a member of Tla’amin First Nation in B.C. Cameron Fraser-Monroe, also currently working with Moncton’s Atlantic Ballet comes his work ʔaǰɛmət, formerly titled Pine Needle in the River. The ballet was inspired by the Indigenous story Why the Raven’s Feathers Are Black and set to Jeremy Dutcher’s Pomok naka Poktoinskwes.

The dancers, wearing pedestrian skirts, trousers and ankle socks, with the women’s buns now released into long single braids, bring the evocative tale to life with movements influenced by Indigenous grass and hoop dance. Principal dancer Alanna McAdie artfully embodies her character as “poho” or “Raven,” with the more episodic ballet creating many moments of textural beauty that deserve a second viewing.

RWB School resident choreographer Gabriela Rehak’s Adieu pays heartfelt tribute to her friend and former dance partner, the late, great Canadian artist Dan Wild, who died tragically in 2020. Set to Vladimir Martyno’s The Beatitudes, her ensemble piece is infused with tender longing, underscored by its eight dancers reaching their arms out to each other — also handily maintaining physical distancing requirements during this work created in the COVID-19 era.

However, the piece is ultimately about human relationship, and the general lack of physical connection also unwittingly creates emotional distancing. Only during its final moments, and especially when soloist Elizabeth Lamont waves farewell to RWB apprentice Logan Savard as he rolls away into the darkness, does the piece reverberate with the gut-wrenching loss felt by so many in today’s challenging world.

Stephan Azulay’s Bolero, admittedly an easy sell, thanks to Ravel’s propulsive score of the same name, is an ambitious work that displays the flourishing of an intriguing choreographic voice. The full company, appearing in natty tuxedo trousers, vests and socks, performs the second soloist’s cleverly synchronized movement with straight-backed wooden chairs to striking effect. A return to these highly effective set/prop pieces, after they are ultimately abandoned upstage, would have been welcome.

Naturally, pacing is critical in this slow-burn ballet, and the choreographer wisely weaves together larger ensemble sections with smaller groupings to create dramatic tension and forward thrust. A highlight is principal dancer Yue Shi’s compelling solo, in which he twists like a top, or an all-too-brief later male pas de trois including lifts that left this viewer wanting more.

Last but not least, a pair of excerpts from the late Brian Macdonald’s comedic Pas D’Action becomes a curious, ironic interloper for its strong — albeit still satirical — classical ethos in the otherwise fiercely contemporary show. Nevertheless, soloist Yosuke Mino, second soloist Peter Lancksweerdt, and corps de ballet members Liam Saito and Parker Long bring the requisite bravura and levity to the stage despite a few ragtag moments, as a nod to the RWB’s illustrious past.

The production runs through Sunday at 2 p.m. For tickets (physical distancing maintained with masks required) or further information, visit rwb.org.

Holly.harris@shaw.ca