25th anniversary of Ballet BC: Strong evening of modern Dance at Ballet BC
Ballet BC and Turning Point Ensemble earn five stars for their imaginative and courageous decision to bring two new music compositions and four new ballets to the stage to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Ballet BC. The new works filled the large stage at the Queen Elizabeth with authority and a sureness of skill that was commendable.
The strongest pieces were the first two—In Motion choreographed by Wen Wei Wang with music inspired by an evocative composition of Owen Underhill and Les chercheurs de dieu choreographed by Serge Bennathan with music by Michael Oesterle. Both these pieces showcased the strong ensemble work of the dance company with an emphasis often on the male dancers. There was a lovely sculptural quality to much of the movement in both pieces and the often asymmetrical movement in Wang’s dance made certain elements seem like or remind one of underwater sea anemones. The orchestra was placed at the back of the stage very effectively with two solo instruments (flute and violin) highlighted with the dancers.
Bennathan’s work was very muscular with a strong earthbound quality. The dancers seemed constantly to be striving for something beyond themselves (hence the title of the piece I guess) and they reminded one often of a group of insects rushing from one static moment to another.
The third and fourth dances—Moth with choreography by Donald Sales and music by David Lang and Touch with choreography by Gioconda Barbuto and music by Anthony Genge—were less compelling although they were also shorter in length and Moth had to contend with a lighting design that became visually irritating. The music by Genge allowed for more imaginative and exciting dance movement than was exhibited in the final piece and ultimately one lost interest. To be fair, it was the last of four dances that had a remarkable aesthetic similarity.
James Proudfoot’s lighting designs for the entire evening were works of art in themselves. I was not fond of the lightbulb effect for Moth but all the designs were highly creative and the lighting became a very strong partner throughout. The lighting, and the wonderful live music component, made the evening a richer experience than it might have been if the evening’s choreography had remained unadorned. All the four dances had a similarity of tone to them and choreography that was welded to the floor rather than the air. Ultimately this gave the evening a rather earnest and relentless effect.