BALLET STUDENTS PROVIDE MEMORABLE SHOW WITH PAQUITA
The School of Alberta Ballet put on an impressive series of dances, including the larger set pieces from Petipa’s Paquita and a memorable Professional Division Grand Defile at the Jubilee, reminding us why ballet is so important to Calgary’s enormous and committed dance community.
There was plenty of good dance and good news all around Saturday as The School of Alberta Ballet’s artistic principal Ashley McNeil announced a new funding initiative supported by the federal government. Equally important was the success of this year’s graduates from the Senior Division, two of whom, Braden Falusi and Victoria Robinson, will be joining the Alberta Ballet trainee program in the fall. Six more dancers have secured positions elsewhere, a strong ratio for the school in placing its graduates in good companies abroad.
Equally important to the performance was some fine choreography by Murray Kilgour and the artistic staff of The School of Alberta Ballet who gave us another traditional Grand Defile worth every moment of our time. I have attended every Grand Defile since its inception in 2014, but this year’s edition demonstrated the clearest and most direct line of uninterrupted professionalism I have seen running from Purple to Professional at the Graduate Level. With music by Verdi, Delibes and Rossini, eight groups danced to some imaginative and visually engaging set pieces. Orange Level impressed with their studies in control and contained motion while Blue and Turquoise danced strikingly well, making elaborate use of conventional ideas but in an array of sequences both delightful and visually appealing. Red level was excellent in their conspicuous use of space and balanced approaches to movement ideas that allowed everyone to demonstrate some interpretive prowess, balanced off with broad gesture and lyric motion.
But it was Edmund Stripe’s Dialogue 2 (Other Voices) that made the quietest, most authentic impact of the night. Set to Arvo Part’s famously elegiac Fratres for violin and strings, it was clear from the outset that the cast took this work to heart in its coolness and stark blend of post-impressionistic abstraction. The earnest duet by Robinson and Falusi was moving, meditative, enthralling and kinesthetically inviting. Using the pure, red Rothko-esque lighting backdrop with Danish modern window slits five metres above the stage, an evocative series of abstractions brought about an audience connection that is extremely hard to pull off in this kind of dance. Kudos especially goes to Akane Kogure (who heads to San Diego Ballet) and the entire cast for bringing it all together well in the Third Movement.
Paquita succeeded tremendously well as the second half highlight we all were looking forward to. The story of a young girl abducted by Gypsies who later finds out she is of noble birth is known for its splendid ensemble and pas de deux set pieces, but perhaps best known for its singular and lovely pas de trois. The latter was danced well by Robinson and Nazarii Koval (accepted at Kharkiv National Ballet, Ukraine), but especially Yui Kaito (leaving soon for Kentucky Ballet Theatre), who was mesmerizing, not only in ensemble work but in her gracious and feather-light solos. Koval has the body and demeanour of a potentially prominent classical male dancer and he will develop well in the coming years. Kogure returned this time with Kazuyoshi Nishi (who will dance for Japan National Ballet) in the vibrant pas de deux. The Alberta Ballet trainees and professional graduates/Grade 12 students took on an ambitious series of panels and put everything into this to make an excellent evening, thanks also in large part to great coaching from Kilgour, Janet Tait and Wendy Wright.